Album review: VIXEN Rev It Up (remaster)

Rock Candy Records [release date 18.05.23]

Minnesota band Vixen made their major label breakthrough in 1987, after moving to Los Angeles. Two albums were recorded by the original Vixen lineup, Jan Keuhnemund, Janet Gardner, Share Ross and Roxy Petrucci. The second, Rev It Up (1990), has now been remastered and reissued by champions of the AOR/Melodic Rock era, Rock Candy Records.

Unsurprisingly, the huge success of Bon Jovi unknowingly provided a template for all up and coming rock bands on the US westcoast. And so bringing in writers with a proven track record in the genre, like Diane Warren (It Wouldn’t Be Love), Jack Conrad (How Much Love) and Steve Plunkett (Streets In Paradise) seemed the route to sure fire success.

But it was ‘Love Is A Killer’, an eminently durable power ballad, that helped propel the album into the US Billboard Top Twenty. It came from the pen of Harry Paress, who’d written standout material for Quiet Riot, Bobby Kimball, Fiona, Bangalore Choir and others.

The album failed to surpass or even equal the sales of the debut, and so an impatient, dissatisfied label let them go.

The jump from 1990 to today is not so huge in production quality terms as many of the other reissues on the label. Still, the upgraded clarity and punch on this remaster is impressive. ***

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)