, I don’t think melodic rock is where The Burns Sisters are truly comfortable at, but they did an almighty great job of it on this superb album.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: The Burns Sisters
ALBUM: Endangered Species
LABEL: CBS
SERIAL: CK 45100
YEAR: 1989
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Jeannie Burns – vocals * Annie Burns – vocals * Terry Burns – vocals * Sheila Burns – vocals * Marie Burns – vocals * Bob Marlette – guitars, keyboards, bass, drum programming * Denny Fongheiser – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Love Me Like A Man * 02 We Wait For Freedom * 03 The King Is Going To Fall * 04 Remember Me * 05 Hold On * 06 My Boyfriend’s Back * 07 Greenlight * 08 Place To Rock * 09 Answers * 10 Last Eagle (For The People Of Big Mountain)
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
More sisters in here than you can shake a Convent Choir at. One similarity though, they all sing like angels. The other redeeming feature of this outfit is that AOR demi god (gosh there are a lot of religious references in here already!) Bob Marlette is the kingpin behind all the precedings, and he turns this project into an AOR delight.
These girls hail from upstate New York, sorta around about where The Catskills are. From Irish descent and stock, I don’t think melodic rock is where The Burns Sisters are truly comfortable at, but they did an almighty great job of it. Perhaps also the CBS Exec’s saw a potential crossover act during the late 80’s, enough to give them a punt to see how it panned out.
The girls released their self titled debut album a few years earlier (1986) posturing in a Bangles/Debbie Gibson direction. And though it didn’t set the world on fire, it gave us enough of a hint as to their prowess.
Moving from a pop based effort to one that smacks of harder melodic rock is where the Burns Sisters progressed to between then, and this album ‘Endangered Species’.
The Songs
You can tell as soon as this album kicks off with ‘Love Me Like A Man’ that these girls mean business and they up the ante in no uncertain fashion. With five of them, the choruses are unbelievably rich (no room for Eventide harmonizers or other such effects with these girls around).
With the Bob Marlette induced arrangements and production, he carries on from where he left off with Neal Schon‘s’Late Nite’ and Bobby Ingram’s China Sky albums the year previous. Great stuff, and one of the major reasons why this album sits in my collection.
There are some inspiring moments on here: the wondrous ‘The King Is Gonna Fall’ just makes you wanna go out there and start a revolution, as does the lyrical provocation of ‘We Wait For Freedom’, both AOR power anthems.Not forgetting the moody but powerful ‘Answers’ where keyboards hover all over the place,.
Then again there’s hints of their pop background with the likes of ‘Greenlight’ (an Eddie Schwartz/David Tyson co-write), ‘Remember Me’ and a very CCM sounding ‘Hold On’. A great album all up, and one worth locking away in the AOR collection.
In Summary
During the 90’s, the Burns Sisters moved solely into a folk music direction and have a released a few albums that are completely different to what they started out as. Check out their website listed above to see what they’re up to now.
Burns Sisters on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
