Cheesy Choons (Guilty Pleasures Rides Again)

Member Name: cmh4135

Product:	Guilty Pleasures Rides Again
Date:	21/08/09 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gives credence to the cheese

Disadvantages: Likely to appeal to a limited audience

This album is the second in the "Guilty Pleasures" series, a collection of albums designed to bring together those tracks that often languish at the back of the cupboard but which, deep down, you know should really be on display and played at every opportunity. It's a series which, rather than being sexually naughty (as the cover suggests), just makes you feel a little in need for a confessional - it gives you credence and allows you to admit to liking a bit of cheese - secretly, you're not alone.

As a collective album I think it works very well, drawing together many of the tracks that would otherwise be scattered across 30 or so albums and, as a result, go unplayed. This is not an album which deserves a track by track analysis - for one that would be seriously uncool, but, more importantly it's an album that works as a whole, transporting you back to your youth (if you're of a certain age (currently in your 30s-40s)).

This is one of those albums where, chances are, you'll know the tracks but probably not the majority of the artists, most having long passed into obscurity. Of course, there are some duff tracks. Chas n Dave's "Ain't No Pleasing You" just has no place on a cheese album of "choons" and Dolly Parton's "9-5" seems rather at odds with the rest of the album. It's a bit "Magic" radio in its sound but with a few more off-beat tracks.

If, however, you long to be "Blinded by the Light" (Manfred Mann) when the "Moonlight Feels Right" (Starbuck) or if you want to "Let your Love Flow" (Bellamy Brothers) with your "Jeans On" (Dundas) before falling into the "Arms of Mary" (Sutherland Brothers), then this might just be your scene. "Dance With Me", I'm an "Uptown Down Tempo Woman" with "Bette Davis Eyes" who's not "Cold as Ice" but who would rather "Ride Like the Wind" to "Kiss You All Over" before I "Escape" leaving you a "Lonely Boy" shouting "Baby Come Back". Get my drift? It's cheese... pure and simple.

In truth, if you were born later than about 1979 or before 1965 this album won't really make much sense to you. If you were born in those formative years but had musical tastes which fell outside of the mass market of the time then similarly it might be as bad for you now as it was then! What we have in this album is true to the times - it's senseless, in part defies musical taste, it represents the era where rock died (thankfully not for good) to make way for soft schmaltzy choons.

If there's a big criticism of this album it's that various artists (ELO and David Essex for example) appeared on the first album (albeit with different tracks). With the mass of artists around at the time it's a shame that some new artists were not revived.

Recommended (for some!)

Summary: For you 30-40 somethings who like a bit of cheese!