By the time they recorded
Tomorrow Belongs To Me,
the Sensational Alex Harvey Band had perfected a totally unique trademark sound, an audacious and often surreal witches' brew of heavy metal thunder, glam artsiness, prog complexity, and all sorts of left-field cabaret and big-band elements. This album does not break any new ground for this oddball synthesis, but it is a solid and high-powered outing that will please anyone who enjoyed
Framed or The Impossible Dream. Highlights include "Snake Bite," which sets a saucy tone with a sleazy hard-rock riff then adds all sorts of funky keyboard shadings for further spice and "The Tale Of The Giant Stoneeater" a slice of surreal mythology whose backing track sounds like the hard rock version of a Godzilla movie soundtrack. Unfortunately, other tracks find
the Sensational Alex Harvey Band slipping into complacency: "Soul In Chains" wraps a tired, cabaret-inflected tune around a surprisingly cliched lyric about romance gone bad and "Ribs And Balls" is a short throwaway that wastes a worthwhile riff. Despite these occasional lapses, the majority of
Tomorrow Belongs To Me holds up well and offers plenty of solid tunes: "Give My Compliments To The Chef" is a complex, atmospheric mood piece with surreal lyrics about social breakdown that became a concert favorite and the group's surprisingly straight-forward take on the title track has a twisted yet heartfelt sense of grandeur. In short,
Tomorrow Belongs To Me won't win
the Sensational Alex Harvey Band any new fans but makes a worthwhile (if unextraordinary) addition to any fan's
Harvey collection. ~ Donald A. Guarisco