The Lou Gramm Band – CD review

retroDan — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:54:56 +0000

Lou Gramm is a true rock and roll survivor. The man had grappled with a brain tumor for goodness sakes! Unfortunately after going through all of that, Gramm isn’t the same as he once was. He has gained a bit a weight, lost the recognizable quality in his voice and is now a born-again Christian. In fact, Gramm’s most recent album, The Lou Gramm Band is what you would classify as a “Christian Rock” album. Big props to Gramm for having the balls to go the less commercial route. I mean, can you imagine the meetings he must of had with his business managers pleading with him to release something that could be more marketable to the “Foreigner/classic rock” crowd? In any case, what’s done is done and I’m sure Gramm meant well. But in my opinion, this is not the “comeback” record we’ve all been waiting for. Don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with Christian music and I personally listen to a number of different Christian artists like Lincoln Brewster, Israel Houghton and Michael Gungor. The problem here mainly stems from the material. It’s simply not strong enough. Aside from the track, “Baptized by Fire” (which is pretty good), the majority of the songs are filled with generic chord progressions and cliched lyrics. To compound the problem, Gramm makes some cringe-worthy choices on several of the tracks. Take for instance “Single Vision”. It’s a solid rocker with a nice enough hook but he totally ruins it by including a hokie spoken-word interlude pleading to some unknown entity to not take “the Lord from the classrooms”. WTF. Other cheesy moments include “That’s the Way God Planned It” (which sounds like something you’d hear on a local cable access broadcast of a southern baptist worship service), “So Great” (sounds a bit like old-school worship leader Graham Kendrick from the 80′s) and “You Saved Me” (almost a Meat Loaf parody but in a bad way).

So for now, if I’m in need of a Lou Gramm fix, I’ll simply pull out his 1989 classic Long Hard Look.

retroGrade: D+

title: The Lou Gramm Band
label: Spectra Records
released: 2009

TrackList:
Made To Be Broken
Redeemer
Willing To Forgive
That’s The Way God Planned It
Baptized By Fire
(I Wanna) Testify
So Great
Single Vision
Rattle Yer Bones
You Saved Me

The Lou Gramm Band:
Lou Gramm – Vocals
Richard Gramm – Guitar and Bass
Ben Gramm – Drums
Don Mancuso – Guitar and Bass
Andy Knoll – Keyboards

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The Lou Gramm Band – CD review