Diamond Sun

REVIEW: Glass Tiger – Diamond Sun (1988)

GLASS TIGER – Diamond Sun (1988 Capitol Records)

Produced by mainstay Jim Vallance and recorded at Le Studio with Paul Northfield, Glass Tiger’s Diamond Sun is generally considered the best of their studio albums. What you may not know is that the Canadian pop band’s second album also really rocks.  Diamond Sun was their last album featuring the co-writing skills of drummer Michael Hanson, and his absence would be felt in the future.  For 1988, Glass Tiger were running on a high, and hit after hit.

The band had the courage to open the album with a soft one, the title track.  This was the second of five singles, and a powerful ballad it is.  The keyboard chimes work in tandem with drums, samples and singer Alan Frew’s impassioned vocals.  The lyrics circle around the still-topical subject of colonialism.  “When they came to this land, we gave our friendship, gave them our hands.”  The music has the appropriate feel, but listen carefully and enjoy the lyrical bass work of Wayne Parker, who has often gone unnoticed in this band.  Check that false ending!

“Far Away From Here”, the second song, is single worthy in itself but remains a nice deeper cut.  This time the guitar work of Al Connelly rises at the start, setting up an awesome mid-tempo rocker.  The chorus is among one of Glass Tiger’s best, accented by catchy acoustic guitar bits hanging lower in the mix.  Connelly’s riff is very much akin to 80s Rush, but encased within a simpler, more direct kind of song.  Alan Frew’s voice has a smooth, deep kind of power.

Personal favourite “I’m Still Searching” is a fast electro-acoustic rocker.  This song lit our VCR on fire back in 1988 when it was released as the first single/video.  Nobody expected such an upbeat rocker from the Newmarket quintet!  It’s an immediate singalong with a campfire quality, despite the electric shimmer of guitar, and organ by Sam Reid.  Once again Al Connelly has come up with some cool, catchy guitar parts.

“A Lifetime of Moments” is a lesser known ballad, well-rounded with keyboards and guitars as the main features.  The lyrics are about a lost love and rebounding, and Frew sells it.  This song is unique because of the sax solo, something simply not utilised enough in ballads or rockers!

The best of the deep cuts is the awesome side one closer, “It’s Love U Feel”, which is right out of the 80s Rush playbook.  From the echoing guitar jingle to the bouncing basswork, this song easily could have been a hit for Rush on Power Windows.  A duet with Lisa Dalbello on the chorus, this song kicks hard.  How this isn’t one of the Tiger’s biggest hits is unknown.  Perhaps it was just too advanced for an 80s pop video audience.  This sounds more like the kind of thing that would have been big on rock radio.  It is one of Glass Tiger’s greatest songs, featuring some stinging, smoking guitar work.  It could be Keith Scott from Bryan Adams’ band, as he is credited with additional guitar on the album, along with Michael Hanson.

Side two opens with two more singles.  “My Song” was a big hit with a Celtic feel, performed with the legendary Chieftains themselves.  They were recorded separately in Ireland, with Sam Neil producing their session.  Tin whistle dominates, with bodhrán, fiddles and other instruments lower in the mix.  For anyone with a taste for Celtic pop rock (think Marillion “80 Days”), this will hit the spot.  A huge hit in Canada because of its unforgettable, timeless chorus.  They tried to repeat this trick with Rod Stewart on the next album, with less success.

The most powerful song on the album is, paradoxically, the softest.  The piano ballad “(Watching) Worlds Crumble” absolutely explodes on the chorus, while the verses feature Alan Frew singing in a soft falsetto.  The music video, recorded live on stage, was the first not to feature Michael Hanson.  He left the band mid-tour to be replaced by Randall Coryell from Tom Cochrane’s band.  It was one of those sad instances of the new guy never becoming “official”.  Glass Tiger remained, on paper at least, a four-piece after the departure of Hanson.  “(Watching) Worlds Crumble” is one of the few without his writing.  It was written by Frew, Reid and Vallance, and features another really nicely written Connelly guitar solo.  The drums are absolutely epic too.

Back to a rocker, “Send Your Love” has an upbeat stuttery guitar part and a slamming chorus.  Another winning deep cut.  The warm ballad “Suffer in Silence” and another sax solo take us out to the closer, “This Island Earth”.   Diamond Sun ends in epic fashion, with this slow burning number and a social message.  Again, Rush comes to mind, with a slight progressive sound and keyboards.  In the end it’s Alan Frew who sells it.

Diamond Sun sold 200,000 copies in Canada, an astronomical amount for this country.  It is an album with broad appeal, spanning a variety of styles but all somehow sounding like Glass Tiger.  It’s a cohesive album with no weak tracks, and only highlights to be found.

5/5 stars

#1089: The Introvert Goes Out! (To Encore!)

“One does not simply walk into Encore. The back door is guarded by more than just books.  There is music there that does not sleep, and the big speakers are ever playing. It is a rich treasure trove, riddled with finds, and vinyl and accessories; the very air you breathe is bathed in music!”

RECORD STORE TALES #1089: The Introvert Goes Out! (To Encore!)

I have so much music in the house, still sealed, unplayed, that you could argue I never need to go to a record store again.

Some of that sealed music came from Encore, during the pandemic, by mail order.  I have two unopened John Norum Rock Candy remasters.

The reality of it is, I’m in an introvert who prefers staying home and ordering online, so I have to be in the right mood to go out, even record shopping.  However, one of my mental health goals this winter is to get out more, and Encore Records is an obvious easy choice.  Thanksgiving Sunday was cold, wet and winter-like, so we bundled up and drove to a deserted downtown Kitchener.  Encore’s rear parking lot was empty.

Jen found the stairs challenging, but front or back, Encore has stairs.  The challenge was met and we were greeted by old friend Al King, still slinging vinyl in downtown Kitchener, over three decades after I bought my early scores from him at Sam the Record Man.

There were plenty of new releases to decide upon, but I immediately chose the new Darkness Permission To Land…Again 20th anniversary box set.  20 years?  Can it be?  It has been 20 years since those bastards at the Record Store killed my soul.  The Darkness was one of the few bands that got me through that era of my life.  We talked about this with Al a bit.  There was a bit of a one-sided rivalry with Encore and the Record Store at which I used to work, back in the early 2000s.  One of our employees (that I trained on buying) left us and went to them.  My understanding is that a phone call was made, a tale that they still tell today….

Anyway, the Darkness 4 CD / 1 DVD box set has all the bonus tracks, demos, B-sides, single edits, and three live gigs (on two live CDs).  Very thorough.  It also has all the music videos, and even the 2004 remake “Get Your Hands Off My Woman…Again” which really falls into the One Way Ticket era better.

Even when I worked at the Store, there was always more at Encore that I wanted to buy.  They just got better stuff.  Prove me wrong.  I began to browse…

Even though this was a quick impromptu visit to pick up a new release or two, I ended up spending $200.

On the new release rack:  King Kobra – We Are Warriors!  Check out this lineup:  Carmine Appice and Johnny Rod, original members of the band, on drums and bass.  Paul Shortino of Quiet Riot and Rough Cutt on lead vocals, and still sounding strong!  Carlos Cavazo of Quiet Riot and Ratt on guitar!  Rowan Robertson of Dio on guitar!  That’s a lineup with some pedigree folks.  The album sounds good.  It rocks hard and it’s heavy.  The best song is the “bonus track” called “Side By Side”.  Just classic all around.

Also on the Encore front rack was the new Coney Hatch, Postcards From Germany.  Amazon fails again:  I cancelled my “pre-order” (now weeks late) right in front of Al and bought a copy from him instead.  It will be cool to hear their first new studio tracks since the Four album all those years back.  Not to mention there are songs on this live album that were not played at the El Mocambo for that prior live release.

One does not simply walk into Encore. The back door is guarded by more than just books.  There is music there that does not sleep, and the big speakers are ever playing. It is a rich treasure trove, riddled with finds, and vinyl and accessories; the very air you breathe is bathed in music!  Al was playing some Gentle Giant that really ticked my fancy.  That is a band I will need to investigate further down the road.  I found the musicianship challenging and strangely appealing.

I didn’t buy anything on vinyl, though Encore had a good chunk of the Kiss studio albums that I still need to add to my vinyl collection.  Vinyl is so expensive these days.  $36 for albums I used to buy for $10.  Especially considering I’m not going to play the record very often, and I already have the music many times over.  However, when I want them, Animalize, Asylum, Rock and Roll Over and the self-titled debut are all awaiting me.  There were also quite a few in the Arkells vinyl section that called my name.

The used CDs offered many temptations.  I could have filled up on Saga.  Frank Zappa beckoned me over, but I started in the A section and made my first questionable buy.  Why, after 25 years, am I finally buying Aerosmith’s Geffen-centric live album A Little South of Sanity?  Because I can’t justify spending $150 on the Japanese Greatest Hits with three exclusive live discs, and not patch up these glaring holes in my live Aerosmith collection.  I’ve played A Little South of Sanity a number of times at the Store when it was new, and I know I don’t like it.  Too many backing tapes.  You can hear two or three Tylers singing together at once.  Jen hears it too.  I’ll probably play this once for review, and never again.  Collecting!!

In the “G” section, I decided to finally start my Glass Tiger collection.  I wanted Diamond Sun on vinyl initially, but when CDs are right there for eight bucks, you can’t say no.  Diamond Sun is a wonderful album, I discovered, with a couple serious deep cuts such as the epic “It’s Love U Feel”.  Impressive musicianship, and a tad on the progressive side at times, even though this is ultimately a pop rock band.  I also picked up the compilation CD Then Now Next.  This includes a variety of single versions, unreleased songs and new stuff including a Beatles cover!

Over in Journey, I found the remastered version of Steve Perry’s 1994 solo album For the Love of Strange Medicine.  All these years, I’ve never played this album.  I’m sure it’ll be mellow, even though he has members of Winger and Hardline in his band.  In the liner notes, Perry is very bitter about his treatment by record label executives.  The remaster has five bonus tracks (some of which were on Greatest Hits + 5 Unreleased), two of which are exclusives.

I also snagged a CD that I thought I needed, that I didn’t, that I will gift to a friend.

The winter season is often commenced by Thanksgiving.  I would consider this a good start.  We plan to see more of Encore this season.  I look forward to it, in fact, which is not something I usually say about going out in the winter time.

Moderation, though.  Moderation.  Need to absorb all this new music, which will take time!  Until next time…