Full disclosure: I love a good guitar hook. And while there are lots of them in the power pop I grew up on, there were, for a time, lots of them to be found in the hair metal of my youth. Ratt understood better than most bands just how magical a killer riff could be. Nearly every one of their better singles is centered around an awesome hook. And while I wouldn't advise you to lose yourself in the hair metal genre for too long, I can tell you, as a casual fan and someone who grew up with this, that Ratt were far, far better than nearly any other group of the era.
Collected on a new box-set from Cherry Red Records, Ratt's best material is now in one place. Ratt: The Atlantic Years 1984-1990 presents in a simple and direct fashion the group's entire output for Atlantic Records. Nearly every one of these albums is full of songs with monstrous hooks, and I guarantee you that lots of this is going to bring a smile to your face if you're a fan of a certain age.
The classic line-up -- Stephen Pearcy (vocals), Robbin Crosby (guitar), Warren DeMartini (guitar), Juan Croucier (bass), and Bobby Blotzer (drums) -- came together and signed to Atlantic to release 1984's debut, Out of the Cellar. The record gave Ratt their biggest hit by far with the infectious "Round and Round". If the song established the group, so did "Wanted Man" and "Back for More", two other highlights here. Still, for those of us who were teenagers then, the sound of this band didn't hit its creative peak until 1985's Invasion of Your Privacy.
This second album opens strong with "You're in Love", a single with one of the group's best riffs behind it. I'd even go so far as to say that this is one of the best riffs ever recorded in the whole hair metal era. That cut is equaled by the more forceful "Lay It Down", a Ratt gem that shows the strength of the band's rhythm section to, literally, "lay it down" as the song goes. Elsewhere, "Got Me On the Line" opens with the bang and maintains a brisk pace, as does the thudding "You Should Know by Now". In hindsight, a fan can be more charitable to this band because, given the massive amount of junk the genre birthed in the mid-Eighties, the sheer quality of the Ratt output is impressive. They're not re-inventing the wheel here, but the cuts are all uniformly catchy and full of clean, hard riffs.
There's more variety on 1986's Dancing Undercover, even though it's also produced by Beau Hill. The sound is still clean, and lean-and-mean, but the hooks here take other forms. "Body Talk" is a bit peppy and hyper, while "Dance" has a nice vibe that reveals a new confidence in the group. Elsewhere, "Slip of the Lip" pounds and sounds a tiny bit like Aerosmith, a clear inspiration for this outfit. If the overall sound on Dancing Undercover (1986) is slightly poppier than on earlier records, at least the band had not resorted to a power ballad yet. This is rhythmic, muscular pop metal and things remain fairly brisk here on this third Ratt album.
When Ratt returned with a new album in 1988, things had changed. Hair metal was still huge, make no mistake, but there was more variety in the market, with other bands flooding the airwaves with power ballads to get ahead. Working in a record store in that era, I can tell you that there were tons of one hit wonders who sold thousands of cassettes simply because there was one power ballad tacked onto the record. Thankfully, Ratt used Reach for the Sky to diversify their sound without sounding desperate about it. "I Want a Woman", dubious video aside, is hugely fun, wildly catchy, and one of the best things they ever recorded as far as I'm concerned. The hook is monstrous, and there's a real joy here when the bridge takes the song to its climax. Elsewhere, "Way Cool Jr." is blues-y fun, a vamp that stands as an outlier compared to lots of what this band released prior to this, while "No Surprise" and "Chain Reaction" are fairly routine but fun. Ratt finally offered up a power ballad with this album's "I Want to Love You Tonight", and it's not essential, frankly.
1990's Detonator is the last record with the classic line-up, and the first in this string of releases to see the band work with outside writers (Desmond Child) and a new producer. As a result, it's easily the weakest among the five studio albums collected here on Ratt: The Atlantic Years 1984-1990, but it has its charms. "Lovin' You's a Dirty Job" is a beast. The song has the sort of heft that suggests that band was ready to shed their hair metal past and move more into what we'd call hard rock, while "Shame Shame Shame" is pretty robust too. Still, Detonator is too long by far, and the usual economy of the Ratt material is spilled all over the place here. Songs go on for too long, and riffs are hard to come by in some spots. There are a few nuggets here, but like I said, it's a step down from the first four Ratt releases.
Ratt: The Atlantic Years 1984-1990 is a wonderful package for anyone who wants to relive this era, or who forgot how reliable the Ratt attack was. For fans of the band, it's a neat, nicely-produced package that collects all the Atlantic stuff with a few bonus cuts sprinkled throughout. I can't say I was surprised by anything here, having grown up a Ratt fan as a teenager, but I guess it was reassuring to hear how successful this band was at cranking out riff after riff in the mid-Eighties. And how much fun they made this entire sub-genre. Play this loud and you'll see what I mean.
Ratt: The Atlantic Years 1984-1990 is out now via Cherry Red.
More details on Ratt via the official website.
[Photos: Cherry Red]