Summary

The author reviews three albums: Morgan Wade's "Reckless (Deluxe Edition)," Skid Row's "Slave To The Grind," and Cheap Trick's "One On One."

Abstract

In this article, the author shares their thoughts on three albums from different genres. They start with Morgan Wade's "Reckless (Deluxe Edition)," expressing their love for the album and highlighting some favorite tracks, such as "Wilder Days," "Matches And Metaphors," "Take Me Away," and "Suspicious Minds." The author rates the album 4 out of 5 stars.

Next, the author discusses Skid Row's "Slave To The Grind," sharing their appreciation for the band's second album, which they find even better than their debut. The author highlights "Slave To The Grind" and "Psycho Love" as their favorites and gives the album a 4-star rating.

Finally, the author reviews Cheap Trick's "One On One" album, which they've wanted to listen to since its release in 1982 but couldn't afford at the time. The author has mixed feelings about the album, enjoying some songs like "She's Tight," "If You Want My Love," "One On One," and "Time Is Runnin'," while finding others less impressive. The author rates the album 3 out of 5 stars.

Bullet points

The author reviews three albums: Morgan Wade's "Reckless (Deluxe Edition)," Skid Row's "Slave To The Grind," and Cheap Trick's "One On One."
Morgan Wade's "Reckless (Deluxe Edition)" receives a 4-star rating, with favorite tracks including "Wilder Days," "Matches And Metaphors," "Take Me Away," and "Suspicious Minds."
Skid Row's "Slave To The Grind" is praised, with the author finding it better than the band's debut album. "Slave To The Grind" and "Psycho Love" are highlighted, and the album receives a 4-star rating.
Cheap Trick's "One On One" album gets a 3-star rating, with the author having mixed feelings about the album's songs. Favorite tracks include "She's Tight," "If You Want My Love," "One On One," and "Time Is Runnin'."

Jamming to Morgan Wade, Skid Row, and Cheap Trick

Album Reviews 6,7, & 8 of 100: ‘Reckless,’ ‘Slave To The Grind,’ and ‘One On One’

Stylistically, the three albums I’m reviewing here today are very, very different from each other. However, “different” in no way means “better than” or “not as good as.” To varying degrees, I enjoyed all of these albums quite a bit.

1. Reckless (Deluxe Edition) — Morgan Wade

Those of you who regularly read music-related articles on Medium may be familiar with the work of a writer who goes by the username Critical Country. His name is Ethan and, as his name clearly implies, he loves country music!

We’re friends and he recently recommended Morgan Wade’s song “Wilder Days” to me because he thought I might enjoy it. I don’t listen to a lot of country music, but I trust Ethan, so I gave it a listen.

Not only did I like it, but I liked it a lot. This motivated me to listen to the rest of the album it came from — Reckless. I chose the fairly new Deluxe Edition of the album which contains six bonus tracks that were not on the original release.

Reckless turned out to be a great musical surprise for me. There are no songs on it that I dislike. In addition to “Wilder Days,” there are several songs on the album that I love. Here are a few of them — including a great remake of a classic song from Elvis Presley:

Matches And Metaphors

Take Me Away

Suspicious Minds

Here’s the album on Spotify:

I love this album. Out of a possible 5 stars, I give it….4 stars!

Image created by Penelope Mayfield on Canva.com

2. Slave To The Grind — Skid Row

Image source: Atlantic Records via Amazon.com

Like a lot of rock fans, I was impressed by Skid Row when they released their eponymous debut album in 1989. I saw them open for Aerosmith on their tour for the album and they were fantastic. Shortly afterward, I bought their album (on a cassette tape) and I loved it.

I soon lent the tape to my then-girlfriend. However, we broke up a week or so later and I never saw my Skid Row tape again. I told myself I’d replace it, but I never did. I briefly thought about getting their second album, Slave To The Grind, when it came out, but I never got around to it.

I sort of forgot about Skid Row after that and I didn’t pay attention to anything they released after their first album. Maybe I was subconsciously trying to forget the evil ex-girlfriend who stole my tape. Who knows?

Skid Row came up in a conversation I was having with someone last week and it inspired me to finally listen to the Slave To The Grind album.

I’m very glad I did because I love, love, love this album! In fact, I think it’s even better than their first album. Singer Sebastian Bach sounds amazing on it. The rest of the band sounds awesome too. It’s a great rock album!

Here are a couple of my favorites from it:

Slave To The Grind

Psycho Love

Here’s the album on Spotify:

As I said above, I love it. Out of a possible 5 stars, I give it…4 stars!

3. One On One — Cheap Trick

Image source: Epic Records via Amazon.com

One On One was Cheap Trick’s sixth studio album and it was released in 1982. Even though I considered myself to be a pretty big fan of the band then, I didn’t buy the album. However, it wasn’t because I didn’t want to. The reality of the situation was that I was only 16 years old at the time and I was broke and couldn’t afford it. Instead, I had to settle for hearing the singles from One On One on radio stations and MTV.

That was kind of a mixed blessing at the time. “If You Want My Love” was the first single from the album. It was only a mild hit for them, but it did get substantial airplay on radio and MTV. However, back then, the song disappointed me quite a bit. I thought it was an okay ballad, but I wanted to hear Cheap Trick do some rock and roll songs!

My wish came true when they released the music video for the song “She’s Tight.” This was the Cheap Trick that I wanted to hear! I immediately loved the song. In fact, I recently wrote about it in an article about songs I loved when I was 16 years old.

She’s Tight

Not too long ago, my fellow music lover Kevin Alexander listened to and reviewed Cheap Trick’s In Color album from 1977. His great article about it inspired me to finally listen to the band’s One On One album in its entirety.

After hearing it several times, I’ve got mixed feelings about it. While I certainly don’t think it’s a bad album, I also don’t think it’s a fantastic one. There are some very, very good songs on it — including “If You Want My Love,” which I’ve grown to appreciate a lot since it was originally released. Singer Robin Zander’s voice sounds fantastic on it.

If You Want My Love

Here are two more of my favorites from the album:

One On One

Time Is Runnin’

The rest of the songs on the album are fine and I don’t mind listening to them, but I can’t say that I love any of them. Some of them, like “Looking Out For Number One,” have great music in them, but the lyrics don’t knock me out. Conversely, some of the other songs on the albums have great lyrics, but not-so-fantastic music in them.

Here it is on Spotify:

I think One On One is a good album that contains some great songs, but it’s a little uneven. Out of a possible 5 stars, I give it…3 stars!

These reviews are part of the 100 New Albums in 2022 Challenge I’m participating in. Here is the original post about it by Nia Simone McLeod. Others participating in it are Rob Janicke, M. Berg, Mary DeVries, Nicole Brown, Steve Devine, and the already mentioned (but worth repeating) Kevin Alexander. Click on their names to be transported to their wonderful words.

Consider joining us in this challenge. It’s fun!

I’m off now to try to track down my ex-girlfriend and finally get my Skid Row tape back from her. Wish me luck!

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