People who grew up enjoying and falling in love to
Air Supply in the early '80s probably now acknowledge that most of those sugary, infectious hits were on the sappy side -- but in their time, they were hard to resist. They were catchy, fluffy, and unpretentious. It's painful enough when great rock bands hang together a few decades down the road and always fail to measure up to their heyday. But when a band whose output was by no means classic tries to measure up, the results can be disastrous, as this album proves. Only one tune here -- the sweeping, orchestrally enhanced "You Are the Reason" -- comes close to capturing the sugary charm of those old days, when
Russell Hitchcock's vocal soared like it was the most soulful thing in the world. Otherwise, there are songs entirely based on annoying fake string dramatics ("Who Am I"), inane lyrics, and computer-generated songs (all in one on "Body Glove," which features the winning line "The world is just potato chips/joined together at the female hips"), and monotone meanderings like "Don't Throw Our Love Away" and the title track. The songs are mundane, but the saddest thing is that for fans of the group, the main attraction of
Hitchcock's voice is completely suppressed. The photos of the duo show them with graying hair now, and it's sad to report that they've not aged well musically over time. ~ Jonathan Widran