Geordie (1978) Wonder Song - LOST 70s GEMS

From old Glam Rockers, Geordie, 1978's No Good Woman album was the last put out during the 'height' of their fame, Brian Johnston had already been replaced by Vic Malcolm who keeps people from really noticing any change of personnel as their fan base weren't growing to the same level as say Johnston's later group, ACDC. Ironically the flippant rock n roll of this album sounds the closest to Acca Dacca though it isn't my cup of tea mainly due to a lack of good material, a muddy mix and lacking their distinctive crunching Glam Rock.

One track that does sound like the original Geordie is You've Got It with it's stone age, crunching, monolithic power chords; even if the sweet feminine backing vocals sound like a bad Photoshop copy and paste with no real marriage of the two elements. It is also quite bad that Malcolm sounds so clearly bored and not invested on the track and the gospel singers sound so eager passionate that there is such a cringe worthy contrast. The multi-tracked synth lines of Give It All You Got are noteworthy, though the fat, heavily warped Moog of bizarro New Wave track Show Business doesn't work. Dollars- Deutsche marks has a nice mellow, singalong chorus and a strong ACDC groove, but nothing else. Sweet Little Rock n Roller has a punchy disco keyboard bass line mixed in with more awkward sax driven, rock n roll . Worse is Victoria a saccharine ballad that sounds terribly out of place on anything other than The Spy Who Loved Me soundtrack, it's yacht rock synth whooshes remind me of Clouds by David Gates, the only person who should attempt let alone can pull off a track like that.

Wonder Song starts with a cool loping synth effect before devolving into more of their hair raising, meat and potatoes rock full of organs, soaring synth drones and demonic guitars. The analog synth solo and organ work along with the tight drumming, including a gong and the widescreen Raga harmonies make this an interesting almost Prog, almost Metal. The draconian monk styled harmonies and the old timey jazz verses keep this song from feeling boring; but the whole album doesn't quite bear the crisp, streamlined production of their turbo charged 1974 debut when they sound like a progenitor of bands such as Survivor, Target, Night Ranger, Cobra and other early 80s pop/hard rock bands.