![]() By listening to this album you can see the influence Hanoi Rocks had on the artists that followed them. Oriental Beat shows where punk would have gone in the '80s if new wave and synthesizers never came along. A slick '80s hit-making producer like Mutt Lange ( Def Leppard) or Bob Rock ( Mötley Crüe, the Cult) could have made this band huge in the States. The drums sound like they were recorded in another building separate from the rest of the band. Despite a respectable amount of potential on most of the album, poor production limits the effectiveness of many tracks. "Motorvatin'" and "Devil Woman" would easily have found a home on MTV circa 1987, and feminine-looking, lipstick-wearing, glammed-out lead singer Michael Monroe's image would have been plastered all over music television right next to Bret Michaels, Vince Neil, and Jon Bon Jovi. Guitarist and chief songwriter Andy McCoy does his best Johnny Thunders on "Teenangels Outsiders." Other tracks on the album show the band displaying a sound that would be emulated by many future pop-metal bands. Baby" and "Oriental Beat" find the band closely resembling English punk rockers the Damned. The band shows its punk and glam influences not only with its look on the cover of the album but also with the music performed on the album as well. Oriental Beat is full of big singalong choruses and catchy riffs that would have made the band heavy players either five years earlier or later. Oriental Beat is an album that finds itself slightly out of step with the music scene of the period - it was too late for the prime punk period of the late '70s and it was too early for the pop-metal explosion of the mid-to-late '80s. Oriental Beat finds Hanoi Rocks bringing the glam sound and look of the New York Dolls into the '80s. Id give it 10 stars if I could.Hanoi Rocks may have been the best hard rock band Finland had to offer the world in 1982, but their sound and look was heavily influenced by the punk scenes of the late '70s in downtown New York and England. If you are a fan of rock, punk, metal, or any kind of music, I don't see how you wouldnt love this album. Anyway, this is a perfect place to start if you want to get into Hanoi Rocks. 'Fallen Star' is a great ballad to close out the album, you can really feel the emotion in monroe's voice. Thats almost every song, the songs I didnt mention are also very good, but these songs are unreal. The highlights of the album include 'Motorvatin', 'Teenangels outsiders', 'Visitor', 'Dont follow me', 'Devil Woman', 'lightning bar blues', 'Oriental beat', and 'fallen star'. You can tell that Slash and Izzy must have listened to these guys a lot as you can hear shades of 'Appetite for Destruction' in the guitar playing. But believe me, they are 10 times better than any 70s punk bands or 80s hairbands, except for maybe GnR, who they influenced a great deal. Soundwise, these guys are a direct cross between the 70s punk scene, and the 80s hairbands. Monroe is a great saxophone player, as he belts out awesome solos throughout. These guys just have great style, and the music just flows so smoothly, every song is incredibly catchy, and the lyrics are so much fun. This album is now one of my favorite CDs of all time, and I own almost 500. It was only like $4.99 used so I figured what the hey, and I bought it, not really expecting that much. Being a fan of the 80s hair bands I was drawn to the cover because it showed the band looking all tattooed and scruffy, with their big hair. It started about 2 years ago when I was looking for something to buy at a used CD store, and the cover caught my eye. "This album was my first introduction to Hanoi Rocks, and I had never heard of the band before, as I was only about 5 when Razzle was killed and they disbanded.
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