Search - Dirty Looks :: Turn of the Screw

And they do it again

Michael Javorka | Minersville, PA United States | 11/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you've read my review for COOL FROM THE WIRE, you'll know that I consider this album even better than that, their debut album, which was itself quite great. But this one really catches the band at their peak. And like the first album, no over-processing or cheesy synths are to be heard cluttering up the album.



It appears that Atlantic decided to spend some money for an album cover this time around, although it still is a bit bizarre. Back when it was released on LP, you could turn the LP over and it had the words "WHO'S SCREWING YOU" across the top of it. But getting people to just pick it up was the challenge and apparently, not many did. But if only they did...



They'd have been treated to some of the most pure and straight-forward hard rock of the day, which was becoming more and more rare in the era of "image is everything." The attitude continues to exude right where it left off on "WIRE" in the opening song which has anthemic gang vocals stating/asking "Turn of the screw / Tell me who is screwing you?" Each consecutive song continues the tradition of getting the most out of three or four chords by combining it with catchy yet sometimes unintelligible or non-sensical lyrics. HOT FLASH JELLY ROLL is a perfect example of this where you want to sing along even though you've no idea what it means, much like the wordplay in some of the debut album's songs. The song C'MON FRENCHIE has an almost punk feel to it, although would never be mistaken for taking itself too seriously. This band is all about good times. After the not-so-stellar ALWAYS A LOSER (the only real blemish on this gem of an album), the AC/DC influence returns with a vengeance in the song L.A. ANNA. This was the first song of the second side of the LP, which was a good choice in the days of vinyl - a great way to open the second half of the album. I would practically guarantee if you played this to a Bon Scott-era AC/DC fan, he'd think it WAS AC/DC, except for the too-melodic-for-AC/DC vocal style of the chorus. I don't say this as a bad thing. It's taking a great idea and milking it for all it's worth and they have it down to a science.



The remaining four songs continue to deliver with SLAMMIN' TO THE BIG BEAT providing a jolly sounding vocal melody (He's going uptown, downtown, looking for the right town) with get up and move music. LOVE SCREAMS, like NOBODY RIDES FOR FREE and TAKE WHAT YOU GET, is just straight-ahead rock'n'roll with once again a catchy anthemic chorus. The one ballad on this album, GO AWAY isn't some sappy contrived love song. It's a simple, bluesy, in-the-dumps ditty which asks "why don't you go away? will you ever leave?" instead of pleading to stay, a nice switch from the insipid HEAVEN ISN'T TOO FAR AWAY being played by Warrant around this same time.



Closing out the album with the final shot of attitude is HAVE SOME BALLS which, yes, does again indeed summon the spirit of Bon Scott.



While readers of this review may wonder why I'm heaping such praise upon a band that seems to be a clone of AC/DC (I'd prefer to say they are just the next logical progression of that band), my reasoning is that they were doing, for the most part, what no other band was at the time. They did just as Frank Zappa had stated - "Shut up and play yer guitar." No BS that they couldn't reproduce live (I saw them twice in Allentown, PA on this album's tour), nothing too complicated so that non-musicians couldn't appreciate what they were doing yet that other musicians could respect, and writing incredibly catchy songs that the listener would want to hear again and again. In fact, everytime I listen to this album, I wonder why Atlantic Records, who at the time was making practically no money on any recent AC/DC albums excluding WHO MADE WHO, provided zero support for such an incredibly accessible and potentially hit-filled album. Oh what could have been...



In case I haven't been clear, don't miss this album!"

No, no, THIS is the one to get

Nom DePlume | On top of the world!!! | 03/18/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Don't believe Cool From the Wire is better than this one. The production on this album is so much crisper and cleaner than on Cool From the Wire (henceforth refered to as CFTW) and the songs are much stronger!! The band rocks much harder here than on CFTW, the guitar solos in particular ripping on this release compared to the previous. Dirty Looks kinda got slagged for their AC/DC aspirations, and yeah the singer sounds like a cross between Bon Scott and Marc Storace (of Krokus), but the band had something original in it's songwriting and instrumentation. Turn of the Screw is a predictable song (the blatent attempt at airplay, of course) but after that the songs start rocking furiously!! Nobody Rides For Free, C'mon Frenchie (with it's nod to Frank Zappa in the lyrics) Take What You Get and Hot Flash Jelly Roll are great songs to listen to flying down the highway at 100 miles an hour on a beautiful sunny day. If you are a fan of great guitar solos none of these will disappoint and the riffs are phoenominal!!! The rest of the songs don't disappoint either, but it's hard to beat those first few. At the time this was released few hair bands dared to rock this hard. They obviously rocked too hard for Atlantic records, who dropped them after this album. If you like this check out their further releases like One Bad Leg, and the 2 Rumbledog releases (basically Dirty Looks plus a few guest stars from bands like Ratt)."