Style: hard rock
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 2000
Home: n/a
Members: David Coverdale ~ vocals/guitar
Doug Bossi ~ guitar/b. vocals
Earl Slick ~ guitar
Marco Mendoza ~ bass/acoustic guitar/b. vocals
Denny Carmassi ~ drums
Mike Finnigan ~ keyboards
Additional: Derek Hilland ~ keyboards
John X. Volaitis ~ keyboards/percussion/b. vocals
Dylan Vaughan ~ guitar
Bjorn Thorsud ~ tambourine
James Sitterly ~ strings
Linda Rowberry ~ vocals
Guests: Reeves Gabrels ~ guitar solo
Tony Franklin ~ bass
Jimmy Z ~ harmonica
While many of us turn to Whitesnake for the 80's hard rock band with more love ballads than any band should be successfully known for, it really is all about former Deep Purple frontman turned bit of sex icon DC. Whitesnake might have had some top notch players in its ranks, but it essentially all comes down to the vocals. It's the vocals & memorable lyrics that forms the glue that keeps the Whitesnake machine ticking through line-up changes & musical trends & ups & downs. On his first solo album in a couple decades, actually his third solo album but the others pre-date his time in Deep Purple, DC reminds us of the fact that the secret of Whitesnake is his voice, its particular nuances, the mood he sets as a composer & the lyrics. This is a vocalist's album, more so than any Whitesnake album before or after. The guitars are still there as always, the riffs still heavy & bluesy, the crescendos still cascading as always, but the spotlight here is on the vocals with more ballads than normal or at least the album feels much slower & low-key & less in your face than anything DC had or has put out under the Whitesnake name. That might really be the only difference here, the slower more low-key feeling of the album on the whole. What's interesting about DC's approach here is that it doesn't sound like the bluesy 70's Whitesnake nor the overly polished MTV hit sensation Whitesnake, but an older more mature DC whose performing as much as for himself as for any chart success, if he even has any expectations of chart success at this point in his career. Yet, at the same time it draws more on the blues of the early days than DC has in years, while keeping in all the guitar flourishes that helped make Whitesnake distinctively popular. This album arrived following the dissolution of Whitesnake & the subsequent successful but short-term Coverdale/Page outing & a couple attempts to take a break from the music business. The reunited Whitesnake's Restless Heart was meant to be a solo album, with it's tour dubbed as the band's swan song. Thus, this solo album proper is DC coming out of seclusion yet again & trying to find himself & doing it on his terms not on Whitesnake terms, if such a thing is possible considering its his band & he's the only constant member. Thus it straddles all the facets of his career, yet at the same time doesn't & is its own creature. It's almost the perfect transitional album. It really does sound like a solo album & not just a Whitesnake album under a different name. Though, it doesn't push DC like Coverdale/Page did, yet doesn't try to duplicate what he's done before. It's a modest album where he just sings & has more fun than he might have had in years ... even with a new short haircut with his naturally dark hair returning for the first time in decades versus the long blond he became famous for, while his dress goes from slick 80's jackets to living room jeans. This is DC unplugged & relaxed & might be one of the most forgotten & under-rated albums of DC's career. It doesn't exactly provide a bridge between things as just shows a different rarely seen softer side of DC, a very humble & unpretentious side & very unglamorous. It won't hit you like earlier Whitesnake albums but there's some good later era love ballads here that should be given a second chance & are quite memorable. It does get a little melodramatic though, but just as much as his earlier albums got a little hair metal.
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