Search - Tommy James :: Night in Big City

Great New Pop Music From The Legendary '60s Star

09/16/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Long after his hit-making days, Tommy James has been releasing fun, melodic, and downright exciting pop-rock music. Most of his releases spent about two weeks in the record bins and then vanished. After the extremely enjoyable HI-FI from 1990, I thought that perhaps Mr. James had gone out on a a high note, and then the simply extraordinary 2-CD DEALS AND DEMOS 1974 - 1992 came out and revealed an incredible wealth of successful experiments and near-perfect pop records over the years that almost nobody had ever heard.Cut to 1995 and out of the blue comes A NIGHT IN BIG CITY. Sub-titled "An Audio-Movie," I didn't know what to expect, especially with a few older song titles on the CD. But one look at the "moving picture" cover that showed New York City with the lights going on and off depending upon how you held the CD and I knew I had to buy it just in appreciation for the amount of work that obviously was put into this release. As an aside, I never noticed the Twin Towers were on the cover until now...I'm still not sure what the "audio-movie" is really about, nor do I care. But with cartoons on the inside of the thick liner book and dialogue and sound effects that DON'T overlap the music tracks, I knew I was in for an interesting listen. After hearing the dialogue a dozen times I still didn't have much of a clue what the "plot" of the audio-movie was, but as soon as "Red Headed Woman (In A Black Limousine)" came on, I forgot all about the lunacy that is associated with the "movie" part of the CD. Rocking as hard as anything James has done, this great pop-rock track gets things off to a powerful start. Song like "Give It All," "Who Do You Love," the technological "Megamation Man," the romantic "In Slow Emotion," and others made me very thankful I had picked this disc up. "Blue Bird" is Tommy successfully doing music hall, "Madd Blue" is indescribably different, and re-makes of "Tighter Tighter" and "I Think We're Alone Now" do not take you out of the mood, as they've been updated to match the feel of the new tracks. "I Think We're Alone Now" has been melodically altered, but not too much, and it's simply extraordinary as a power-pop production. And of course there's the simply gorgeous "Angels And Strangers," one of James' most spectacular songs, as good as his most famous hits. This version is also different from the one on DEALS AND DEMOS, being more rocking. What's funny is that after a few listens, you don't even mind the wacky dialogue and effects -- they somehow become a part of the whole production. So I guess the "Audio-Movie" works, although I have no idea why. If you don't want to go into the "movie" part, just listen to every other track and you'll hear nothing but James' music, beautifully sung, performed, produced, and written. Most pop-rockers from the '60s have faded into obscurity or turned into Las Vegas-type entertainers. Tommy James is the rare exception -- somebody who's putting out music as exhilarating as what he did when he was sitting on top of the charts many decades ago. I guarantee that A NIGHT IN BIG CITY will be unlike any other album in your collection, and that you'll be playing quite a few of the songs on it over and over and over again. So, Tommy -- what's next, and when can I buy it?"