Many of us have this Trooper album in our collection already and those who don’t need to step it up and secure a copy as soon as possible, from here pick up 1979’s ‘Flying Colors’ working your way back to ‘Knock ’em Dead Kid’ and ’76s ‘Two For The Show’ for Trooper’s best work.
Written by: Eric
ARTIST: Trooper
ALBUM: Thick As Thieves
LABEL: Legend/MCA
SERIAL: MCA-2377
YEAR: 1978
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada
LINEUP: Ra McGuire – lead vocals, harp * Frank Ludwig – keyboards, vocals * Brian Smith – guitars, vocals * Doni Underhill – bass, vocals * Tommy Stewart – drums, percussion, vocals
TRACK LISTING: 01 Live From The Moon * 02 No Fun Being Alone * 03 Round Round We Go * 04 Drivin’ Crazy * 05 Roll With It * 06 Say Goodnight * 07 Moment That It Takes * 08 One Good Reason * 09 Gambler * 10 Raise A Little Hell
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
You can’t argue with Trooper’s success on their home turf, but in the States, Canada’s pop heroes had a tougher time winning over rock fans. Tours with BTO, Styx, Spirit and in support of this record – Triumph, didn’t send record buyers to stores in droves, but eventually the single and classic rock anthem ‘Raise A Little Hell’ drew enough attention from radio programmers to at least give the band ‘one hit wonder’ status south of the border.
While America never fully ‘got it’, Trooper can claim with pride to be one of the most successful bands in Canada and didn’t need the Yanks to fill their pockets. ‘Thick As Thieves’ Trooper’s fourth album is arguably the band at the peak of their powers. Platinum two times over with three hit singles to hang on the mantle as well as a major SRO arena tour supported by Zon and One Horse Blue, Trooper had become an unstoppable force.
The Songs
Opening pomp stormer ‘Live From The Moon’ sets the albums tone and the fun part about Trooper is the music is always upbeat, never down and depressing. This is Car music, made for good times and great memories.
With that said, the star of the show in my ever so humble opinion is Frank Ludwig who sings on two of the albums hits, the self penned and absolutely brilliant ‘Round, Round We Go’ and the lovely ‘The Moment That It Takes’ which is nothing short of stunning. Trooper would eventually lose Ludwig to producer Randy Bachman’s Ironhorse project and the music clearly suffered for it on their 80’s material.
The remaining tunes are all classic Trooper, nothing you hadn’t heard on previous albums and its all good with ‘Say Goodnight’, the funky ‘One Good Reason’ and the Sweet-ish ‘Gambler’ showcasing the band at their very best. Of course the records closer ‘Raise A Little Hell’ is the best of the lot, but we already know that don’t we?
In Summary
Many of us have this album in our collection already and those who don’t need to step it up and secure a copy as soon as possible. From here pick up 1979’s ‘Flying Colors’ working your way back to ‘Knock ’em Dead Kid’ and ’76s ‘Two For The Show’ for Trooper’s best work.
Trooper on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
