Style: hard rock
Label: Spitfire Records
Year: 1991
Home: Carribean Islands
Members: Lita Ford ~ vocals/guitar
Joe Taylor ~ guitar
Matt Bissonette ~ bass
David Ezrin ~ keyboards
Myron Grombacher ~ drums
Joe Lynn Turner, Jeff Scott Soto, Debby Holiday, Michael Caruso, AnneMarie Hunter ~ b. vocals
Additional: Chili Dog, Small Fry ~ barking
Guest: Howard Leese ~ guitar
Dangerous Curves opens with Lita Ford saying over some grinding guitars "can you turn it up a little louder please?" which sets the scene as this is the hardest rocking album of her 80/90's output by far. Heavy on by-the-mold anthemic hard rock with big guitars & punchy lyrics. No "Close Your Eyes Forever" ballads here. Even Heart founding member Howard Leese stops by to lay some guitar licks on the single "Shot Of Poison". It's interesting hearing Ford in such a heavy context as she always looked the part but her albums were a bit on the light weight side. But the trade up is that earlier featured more memorable songs as while the guitars are heavy here the lyrics aren't anything that particularly grab the ear. As Ford hasn't staked out a place as a Clapton or Vai or Satriani she needs good lyrics as much as good solos. It reminds one of how she's thought of as a rocker not a guitarist, though it's as the Richie Blackmore-inspired lead guitarist of the Runaways that she became famous. The problem with Ford's career has always been the songwriting. Big ballads & sleazy rockers don't provide a wide enough window to get more than a few workable albums out of. Other music critics have pointed out that she was never really given enough solid material to push her where she could go. I agree & draw a similarity with Elvis's movie career. He had a few shining moments but too much time was spent going in the opposite direction wasting his talents. There are a few standout tracks including "Hellbound Train", "Black Widow" plus the standout ballad "Bad Love" which is one of her best ballads ever. Ford might be able to rock but it's the ballads she always did the best. "Tambourine Dream" ends the album on one of the most interesting songs Ford ever did as it uses acoustic guitars & tambourines under the heavy guitars.
Black would follow 4 years later but by then Ford's career was over for the moment until her 2010 comeback.
Dangerous Curves also features, for trivia buffs "Little Too Early" which is one of the few compositional credits by guitarist Al Pitrelli of Megadeth/Trans-Siberian Orchestra, co-written with Joe Lynn Turner of Rainbow, that he doesn't play on. It's one of two songs on the album not co-written by Ford.
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