Album review: DONNIE IRIS AND THE CRUISERS – Remasters

Rock Candy Records [release date 30.07.21]

Back On The Streets (1980)
King Cool (1981)
High And Mighty (1982)
Fortune 410 (1983)

Donnie Iris’s first 4 albums have at last been nailed down by Rock Candy Records. The pursuit has been relentless, but here they now are, fully remastered, each kitted out with at least one bonus track.
And these reissues show us just why 60% of CD sales are back catalogue.

Iris had served a lengthy apprenticeship with Jaggerz and Wild Cherry through the sixties and seventies, notching up the occasional one hit wonder. He met up with kindred spirit, producer/ keyboard player/ songwriter, Mark Avsec, in the late seventies. The duo formed Donnie Iris And The Cruisers.

Squeezing out a sound somewhere between The Cars and Foreigner, the outstanding tracks on the debut album, Back On The Streets (1980) are unquestionably ‘Ah Leah’ and ‘I Can’t Hear You’. These were originally on the LP’s second side, but Rock Candy have repositioned them, quite rightly, as the CD’s first two tracks.
Avsec’s riffs had the elemental punch and simplicity of Elliott Easton circa Shake It Up. And though Iris may have lacked Lou Gramm’s soulful delivery, his cool, mannered vocals added a pop flavoured coating to this and other songs on the album.
The remastering adds clarity and detail, giving the layered vocals depth and polish, bringing up exotic touches, like the calliope styled keyboards to the front of the mix.
The bittersweet title track is framed, very compellingly, as a mini operetta, with
a more lively vocal from Iris.
They spend the rest of the album criss crossing the points at which New Wave, Pop and AOR meet up to compare notes. ****

King Cool came a year later. This title was immediately adopted by fans as their nickname for Iris. It follows him to this day.
The album is a box of delights. Avsec and Iris were truly now totally in sync, confidently displaying their powerpop skills on ‘Sweet Merrillee” and ‘Last To Know’, both sounding like the Wondermints meeting the Police in Brian Wilson’s backyard.
The gleaming, pure pop immediacy of ‘The Promise’ and the supercool, leaning back, ‘My Girl’… a Billboard Top Forty hit, are obvious picks, but the standard doesn’t drop.
King Cool, the album, is peak Donnie Iris. ****1/2

The band’s rock steady, carefully crafted powerpop maintained a massive presence with 1982′s High And Mighty. But it was a relative commercial failure, and this despite favourable contemporary reviews. Discerning critics got it, recognising the irresistible familiarity of the hooky ‘I Wanna Tell Her’ and the ambition of post modern permutations, ‘Parallel Time’ and ‘Tough World’.
Once again, the remastering brings out subtleties lost in the vinyl grooves of the original pressings. Some of these harmonies … 10cc eat your heart out. ***1/2

By 1983′s Fortune 410, the band was still intact. Iris, Avsec, Marty Lee, Albritton McLean and Kevin (Kiss/Shadowking) Valentine were a self evidently tight, collusive combination. ‘Human Evolution’ and ‘Stagedoor Johnny’ are rich in content, each exploring lyrical themes not usually found in “pop” songs.
Though McLean and Lee especially made significant contributions, it’s the closing track ‘Do You Compute’, written by Iris and Avsec, that stands out head and shoulders above the rest. The song’s fusion of hard rock and layered melodies, buoyed by Avsec’s imaginative arrangement, hit the US charts a glancing blow. We are left to ponder just why it wasn’t a huge hit all over the world. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)