Robert Tepper was the guy who released two decent records for CBS and Scotti Bros during the mid late 80’s. ‘No Easy Way Out’ from 1986, the title-track which has been covered more times than most by other artists, plus the 1988 ‘Modern Madness’ album. Those two albums are held in high regard by many AORsters.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Robert Tepper
ALBUM: No Rest For The Wounded Heart
LABEL: MTM Music
SERIAL: 199611
YEAR: 1996
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Robert Tepper – vocals * Michael Thompson, Larry Reinhardt, Josh Sklar – guitar * Lee Dorman, Tim Landers, Chris Roy – bass * Derrick Hilland – keyboards * Kenny Richards, Kenny Suarez – drums * Scott Page – sax
TRACK LISTING: 01 No Rest For The Wounded Heart * 02 Another Place, Another Time * 03 Christina * 04 Always Knockin’ On The Wrong Door * 05 Once In My Life * 06 Love Or Hate * 07 Which Way Are We Running * 08 Faded Memory * 09 Ships *10 We Will Raise * 11 Only You Can Mend A Broken Heart
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Robert Tepper was the guy who released two decent records for CBS and Scotti Bros during the mid late 80’s. ‘No Easy Way Out’ from 1986, the title-track which has been covered more times than most by other artists, plus the 1988 ‘Modern Madness’ album. Those two albums are held in high regard by many AORsters, and when it’s all said and done, both have considerable fans.
Robert dropped off the radar after ‘Modern Madness’, and it was reputed that he spent two years between 1990-1992 as the lead singer of 60’s-70’s war-horses Iron Butterfly. It doesn’t exactly sound like a match made in heaven, but there you go. Thankfully he did return to the AOR fold for 1996’s ‘No Rest For The Wounded Heart’ for the German label MTM Music, who were signing up every American melodic rock act during this timeframe, it would seem.
The Songs
The songs here are quite good, and as I understand, these were written years before. Ace guitarist Michael Thompson appears here, so too Tepper’s Iron Butterfly team mates Lee Dorman, and the late Larry Reinhardt. The title track ‘No Rest For The Wounded Heart’ was bandied about in 1996 on various sampler CD’s, which is where I first came to hear it, prior to buying the album.
‘Another Place Another Time’ has all the hallmarks of that other great AOR singer-songwriter in Jeff Paris, especially on those trademark singalong choruses. Robert lifts a gear for the exceptional ‘Cristina’, those guitar lines from Michael Thompson are the icing on the cake, plus the sax solo is good too.
Moving on from the ballad ‘Always Knockin’ On The Wrong Door’ and ‘Once In My Life’ takes a leaf out of the Stan Bush songbook, played in a very similar style. The stylish ‘Love Or Hate’ has that same depth of emotion similar to Harlan Cage which will appeal to many here.
‘Which Way Are We Running’ and ‘Faded Memory’ both rock it up, while ‘Ships’ drops into (a sort of) power ballad territory. ‘We Will Raise’ is the album’s anthem moment, the album concluding with the piano ballad ‘Only You Can Mend A Broken Heart’.
In Summary
As a point of reference, there is an unauthorised-unreleased album floating around the Net from 1995 called ‘Lost Tracks’, which contains several tracks on this album. I wonder if Robert was persuaded by this to get an official album out and at least make some money from it.
Also, I do have it in my records that this album was released (or intended to be released) on Stan Bush‘s label LA Records during 1996, titled ‘Another Place, Another Time’, but I’ve never seen that version in my travels on the Interwebs. Robert disappeared off the map for several years, but he did return in 2012 with a new album called ‘New Life Story’.
Though this was far from the style that he played during the 1980’s, instead being more singer-songwriter oriented in an acoustic direction. However by 2019, he was back in the AOR fold once more, signed to AOR Heaven, releasing a new album ‘Better Than The Rest’ which you can read by clicking on his tag below.
Robert Tepper on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
