Since September 2010, this blog has recorded the journey of this music junkie as I attempt to listen to all the music in my CD collection. CDs revisited in their entirety from start to finish - no skipping tracks, no shuffle. Compact Discs only - no vinyl, no tapes, no files.

Saturday, July 17, 2021

Balance (1981)


UK Import

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2010 Rock Candy "Remastered & Reloaded" Collector's Edition:


I don't know much about the band other than what's on the wiki and before buying this CD, I was only familiar with the single Breaking Away. Compare to Toto/Airplay/Doobies/Spider's brand of AOR/MOR pop rock of the time: similar sound and production. And there's hooks, just not enough to move a lot of copies, apparently. Still, it's an enjoyable listen overall. Certainly better than the Toto release from the same year.

Press of the time:
  • Billboard: "clean, commercial pop sound"
  • CashBox: "wonderfully commercial and listenable"
  • Record World: "they strike a perfect balance between pop and rock"


Album chart peaks:
  • US Billboard Top 200: #133
  • Billboard Rock: #43
  • CashBox: #132

Tracks: The band's only Top 40 single, Breaking Away, peaked at #22 on the pop chart on September 26, 1981 and I'm of the opinion it should have charted higher because it's a catchy little pop number. It's obviously the cream of the crop here, but of the remaining 9 tracks on the album, I count 6½ good cuts, including the ballad Falling In Love which peaked at #58 in January '82. I usually skip Fly Through The Night and American Dream, both of which sound like filler tracks from a Rocky soundtrack album. Track 7, Haunting, has a catchy verse riff but a contrived chorus, so that's the ½ cut I'm referring to above. I was bored so I made this graph of how the album plays, from beginning to end:



Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None.

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