Rio - Sex Crimes - 1986 gdmonline.info

‘Sex Crimes’ was Rio’s second album released not long after their acclaimed debut ‘Borderland’, some great heavy handed songs on this platter, and I must say, I enjoyed it more than their debut.

Written by: gdmonline

ARTIST: Rio
ALBUM: Sex Crimes
LABEL: Music For Nations
SERIAL: MFN 65
YEAR: 1986
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: England

LINEUP: Jon Neill – vocals, guitars * Steve Rodford – bass * Beasley Drake – drums * James Stevens – emulator

TRACK LISTING: 01 Pay For Love * 02 Under Pressure * 03 Atlantic Radio * 04 Highschool Rock * 05 Guilty * 06 When The Walls Come Down * 07 Danger Zone * 08 Sex Crimes * 09 Dirty Movies * 10 Bad Blood

Table of Contents

Background

Always loved the cover of this one (thanks for the memories Nikki Diamond). ‘Sex Crimes’ was Rio’s second album released not long after their acclaimed debut ‘Borderland’. Some great heavy handed songs on this platter, and I must say, I enjoyed it more than their debut, which is saying something as I liked that one too.

They move their sound away from the lighter than light Journey copycat style, to kick ass rollicking hard rock, a la Shy ‘Excess All Areas’. It has a heavy bottom end to it all, booming drums, and strutting bass.

The Songs

Some of these songs would sound great on CD now if given the opportunity. Opening up with ‘Pay For Love’ and ‘Under Pressure’, you can tell these guys have set their mixing dials up to ‘stun’. No wimp-out material here. ‘Atlantic Radio’ is a commercial sounding effort, as is the melodic surge of ‘Danger Zone’, which is primetime North American AOR. You gotta hear it!

However, my favourite pair include the killer hard rock of ‘Guilty’ and the bombastic title track ‘Sex Crimes’. This song is still very much played today, as it was back in 1986. The kick ass style continues on the hard driving ‘Highschool Rock’ and the double beat of ‘Bad Blood’, a pure 80’s Dokken sweat fest if ever there was one.

In Summary

Unfortunately for Rio, they couldn’t generate enough interest or enough cash to warrant a trip to their namesaked location. A shame really, as this was a good band, probably wouldn’t have gone down that well in Brazil.. but hey.. whats in a name?

The guys later went on to do some work with British singer Tina Egan, who had also worked with Bad Company and appeared with London band If Only during the early 1990’s.