White Hot and Cool,3 Out of 5 Stars
This was Angel's fifth album and their commercial high water mark, peaking at 55 on Billboard. It is just a bit slicker than On Earth As It Is In Heaven (my personal favorite Angel album), but shows that Angel wanted desperately to be a huge rock band along the lines of Kiss. They even dusted off a Rascals' cover as a Top 40 contender, "Ain't Gonna Eat My Heart Out Anymore." The strategy worked as far as sales were concerned, but it was Angel's last grab at the brass ring.
If you have a shelf full of 70's rock that leans heavy on the Styx, Queen or Kansas albums, "White Hot" will make you happy. The under-rated Punky Meadows lets fly with some great guitar and keyboardist Gregg Giuffria's great old school playing on "You Could Lose Me" or the opener, "Don't Leave Me Lonely." And before the term "Power Ballad" became a standard term for every MTV Hair Metal band, the great "Winter Song" and "Flying On Broken Wings" could have been hits had they shown up a decade later.
PS: For pure holiday glamrock cheese, Angel re-cut "Winter Song" as "Christmas Song" on Angel Antholgy.
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