TUFF – What Comes Around Goes Around (1991 Atlantic)

This is going to be a little different for my style of review.  I’m not going in deep, researching the players, the singles, the writers and the releases.  This time I’m just listening to the songs and spitting out my words.  You’ll see why.

I do like that Tuff has one member who looks like a Ramone (or Nikki Sixx), one guy who looks like he’s in Britny Fox, and a miniature Bret Michaels in the band.

Will someone please tell us what a “Ruck A Pit Bridge”?  The song is pretty good.  It’s generic and could be Warrant, but they wrote a decent song with decent playing here.  The singer lacks any kind of identity.  You could plug any singer into this…until the funk section, which horribly dates the song to 1991.  Literally every band was trying this rap/rock/funk hybrid.

I groaned at the title “The All New Generation”.  Really?  And cowbell too.  It’s their version of “Rocket” by Def Leppard lyrically, name-dropping names and even little bits of songs (“Girls Girls Girls”).  They even quote the “Oh my God!” line from Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher”.  This is really bad.  Musically it’s fine, but the shout-rock chorus is probably overdone.  Best thing about this band seems to be the guitar player.  I guess someone needed a song about 80s hair metal bands, Van Halen and Aerosmith, but I didn’t.  It didn’t help the rock situation at the time, just made it sound more like a joke, especially since they’re also toasting Bon Jovi, Skid Row and GN’R in an era when  they were not yet legends.

Time for a ballad!  Break out the acoustic guitars!  “I Hate Kissing You Good-Bye” is the Mr. Skid Big Extreme ballad of the album.  If you combined those bands, put them in a blender, you’d get “Kissing You Good-Bye”.  It actually sounds a little bit like Sven Gali from the Great White North, but with more maple syrup on top.  The singer has a decent rasp but that’s about all he has going for him.  And when he name-drops “American Pie”, I barfed a little.

“Lonely Lucy” has one of those riffs we’ve heard a million times.  It sounds like cookie-cutter music.  Nothing here of any quality.  Echoey, vacuous cock-twirling.

Side one closer “Ain’t Worth A Dime” reminds me that this album is way overpriced online.  Seriously though, I enjoyed the drums.  The drum part is cool.  The song itself is no good and a big part of that is that the singer is so bland.  At least the guitarist shreds.

On side two, we finally get a good song!  “So Many Seasons” is similar to “Edge of Broken Heart” by Bon Jovi, a mid-tempo rock ballad.  It loses what makes it special as soon as the singer opens his mouth, but at least Tuff wrote a good song here.  It’s a little too similar to Bon Jovi, but we’ll let it slide because hey, we should be a little kind here.  Good song.  Good choruses.  A keeper!  Would love to hear another band cover it!

“Forever Yours” had a good riff to it.  Sounds a bit Skid Row, a little familiar, but then the kiddie-chorus comes in, and it’s so corny.  Tuff fans will accuse me of listening with my Rush T-shirt, but there’s something just too sickly sweet about this chorus, especially the overdubbed keys and backing vocals.

Time for another acoustic ballad, and “Wake Me Up” sounds like faux-country, with contrived piano overdubs for extra that panache.  They mentioned Aerosmith earlier.  Well, this is their attempt to write an Aero-ballad, but without the skillz of Tyler, Perry, or their assorted song doctors.  There’s also hints of Skid Row, Ozzy, and others who hit the charts with ballads.  OK song, but absolutely nothing unique or special about it.  Sweet sweet love, loneliness, promises, and being unable to change yesterday.  Heard it all before.

“Spit Like This” is OK.  Lots of guitar pyrotechnics, but not enough song.  It tries to incorporate light/hard dynamics, but it’s uncompelling.

“Good Guys Wear Black” is an ample closer, with the singer acting all tough.  A few years later, Bon Jovi would write a song called “Good Guys Don’t Always Wear White”, but it would be a stretch to say Jon ripped off Tuff.  This is a completely different song.  Very Skid Row, with Motley Crue “shout” vocals.

OK album.  Just OK.  Too many “HUAH’s!” in the vocals.

2/5 stars

Fun fact:  Bassist Todd Chase is the brother of Badlands’ Greg Chaisson.  He left after this debut.

 

 

 

A1 Ruck A Pit Bridge 3:44
A2 The All New Generation 3:38
A3 I Hate Kissing You Good-Bye 4:19
A4 Lonely Lucy 3:04
A5 Ain’t Worth A Dime 3:07
B1 So Many Seasons 4:12
B2 Forever Yours 3:04
B3 Wake Me Up 4:17
B4 Spit Like This 3:37
B5 Good Guys Wear Black 4:17