Just quite what Legs Diamond were doing in 1993 remains a mystery. ‘The Wish’ is from an era where melodic hard rock was put out to pasture.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Legs Diamond
ALBUM: The Wish
LABEL: Music For Nations
SERIAL: CDMFN 154
YEAR: 1993
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Rick Sanford – lead vocals * Mike Prince – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jeff Marcus – lead guitar, backing vocals * Adam Kury – bass, backing vocals * Dusty Watson – drums, backing vocals
TRACK LISTING: 01 Paradise Lost * 02 Red Light * 03 Be The One * 04 Street Justice * 05 Wish Song * 06 Every Man * 07 In My Dreams * 08 Whats Da Matter With You * 09 Hey Kid * 10 Nuthin’ * 11 Mister Destiny * 12 One Sin A Lifetime * 13 Forever
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
‘The Wish’ is from an era where melodic hard rock was put out to pasture. Consider also Legs Diamond are among a handful of bands on this site which belong in the ‘esteemed’ category, alongside the likes of Roadmaster, Angel, Dakota and a bunch of others. Just quite what Legs Diamond were doing in 1993 remains a mystery. It appears these boys just carried on doing what they were good at doing, oblivious of what was going on the music industry at the time. Did anybody pass them a newspaper or a rock magazine
Same goes for the team at Music For Nations. It’s like they were living in a parallel universe. I wonder if they were introduced to Dr Walter Bishop (of the TV show ‘Fringe’)? Whatever the case, ‘The Wish’ appeared as the third episode of the 90’s output for Legs Diamond. A healthy strike rate for 1993, but the album has been unfairly tagged as a bit of a write-off by all and sundry.
It probably ranks as a weaker effort in their overall discography (considering the LD’s penchant for quality releases), but certainly not write-off material. Where the weakness occurs is probably in the songwriting stakes. The songs might be one or two degrees off boiling point, but what band hasn’t struck cooler climes during the course of their career? What isn’t up for question is their production, which is good as any LD release I’ve heard before and after.
The Songs
The opening pair of ‘Paradise Lost’ and ‘Red Lght’ are reasonable offerings, though I wasn’t too keen on the chorus on the former, sounding like an identikit of ‘Finding Out The Hard Way’. What’s with the wierd introduction on ‘Be The One’? Thankfully it settles down to a rock based tune more in keeping with LD’s heritage. Mike Prince must’ve been caught noodling on the synth!
‘Street Justice’ is an L.A hair metal intrusion with some cool riffs from Jeff Marcus. Not bad. ‘Wish Song’ with its melodic guitar melody intro sets the scene throughout, a mellow tune mostly. ‘Every Man’ is a moody piece, strutting along at half-pace, ‘In My Dreams’ also operates at half-speed, though the synth is more apparent in this one.
‘What’s Da Matter With U’ is the strangest piece here, an instrumental that crosses all sorts of boundaries.. Racer X, Mr Big. Jeff Marcus takes all the kudos here, in true Paul Gilbert fashion. ‘Hey Kid’ apart from the infant audio intro, is a pretty cool track, Rick Sanford roughs up the vocal to give it the sandpaper effect. ‘Nuthin’ features some monster riffs from Marcus, and I’m liking what I’m hearing on this one,.
‘Mister Destiny’ is equally guitar-oriented, sounding similar to Californian outfit 9.0 who released a one-of album in 1990. ‘One Sin A Lifetime’ (say it fast.. lol) is a clever play on words, but the songs labours for the most part, but LD brings it all back to the middle with the rather melodic closer ‘Forever’, another instrumental, which soars with some high flying and tasty guitar solos from Marcus.
In Summary
The album didin’t really get that much global attention, contained mostly to UK and Europe due to the MFN distribution channels. Not really sure about the human hybrid insect album cover. It looks really sci-fi but not really appropriate.
The band didn’t reappear until 1999’s ‘Uncut Diamonds’ which was a compilation, but their true reappearance was in 2005 with their comeback studio CD release ‘Diamonds Are Forever’. So, if you’ve been reading some of the online commentary from elsewhere on the Net, don’t let the negative press get to you. This is pretty good for the majority, but a Deep Purple cloned recording it is not.
Video
Entire Album (Select Tracks)
