My Amazon Reviews: The A's "The A's/A Woman's Got The Power"

A's for Effort, 4 Out of 5 Stars

Wow. One of my longtime wishlist bands finally, finally gets a CD. The A's recorded two albums for Arista in the early 80's before they imploded in a mess of mismanagement and personal disputes. But that hardly matters when you hear the many uber-cool new-wave raves that lay upon this 2-fer-one CD. In fact, the only thing missing would have been the band's swan-song "Four Dances" EP.

However, all is forgiven just due to the fact that I can pop this puppy into my CD player and feel the electricity from the debut's lead track "After Last Night." Pure 80's skinny-tie new wave, nervous jittery vocals and snotty attitude, yet danceable as heck. The rest of the album followed suit, with wicked hooks and a delicious sense of humor, as witnessed by the extrapolation of "Grounded/Twist and Shout." Singer Richard Bush sounded like an every-punk with adolescent wisdom paired with musical smarts, backed up by Rocco Notte on keyboards and Rick DiFonzo on guitar, with a solid beat supplied by Terry Bortman on bass and Michael Snyder on drums. Unless you were Eastern PA (or maybe the Jersey Shore), it's likely you didn't hear any of these.

Arista Records smelled success and smoothed the band out a bit for the second album, "A Woman's Got The Power." It was easily as energetic as the debut while more sophisticated, and was partially produced by Nick Garvey of The Motors while Rick Chertoff did the rest. (Chertoff eventually became the producer of such stars as Cyndi Lauper.) The title track even managed a good bit of airplay, enough so to be on a few 80's compilation albums. Arista honcho Clive Davis even spoon-fed The A's a "hit" that the band allegedly hated ("When The Rebel Comes Home"). You could hear the band stretch out on "Heart Of America" - ya gotta dig that banjo! - that made me think of The Plimsouls.This was great stuff, but the world wasn't digging it.

Doesn't mean you can't catch up. The A's were one of the first New Wave bands to break out of Philadelphia, along with others that tried but failed (The Cats, Quincy, The Reds) and those that made it (The Hooters, the late Robert Hazard). We have waited long enough, so get this now.