Indeed, such was the success, that the touring phase to promote that album was eventually cut short from what it could have been, and the band was rushed back into the studio in order to write and record a follow up album, one no doubt that their management hoped would build on the initial success the band had created. And having seen the bands around them of their genre and what they were producing, the band would have known that they needed to lift the ante when it came to their sophomore album. Bon Jovi, Poison, Motley Crue and others of their ilk had albums out that were high in the charts, or soon would be. At this point in time, no one knew what was just around the corner in the music industry, and that this period was the hot spot for the glam and hair metal genre, with heavy promotion of these bands all over MTV and other music video platforms. If a band could put out the right album, it could well be that they could set themselves up for whatever the future would hold. It was in this environment that L.A. Guns came up with “Cocked & Loaded”.
“Cocked & Loaded” is a step up from their debut album. It definitely is jump started by Steven Riley on drums. Riley had joined the band after the recording of the first album, and his enthusiasm on the kit is appreciable here. And that is transferred through to the majority of the tracks on the album as well. This immediately feels like a more energetic album than the first, with more momentum through the songs, less stalls and less attempts to make this something that it is not. Along with Riley’s great drum work, Kelly Nickels has a great bass sound on this album, and the guitaring from the twin engines of Mick Cripps and Tracii Guns is excellent. Powerhousing over the top is lead vocalist Phil Lewis, who sounds like a real front man on this album, not someone feeling their way like he did on the band’s first album.
Still, come into the album knowing what to expect. The titles of the songs make it a dead giveaway if you aren’t sure. These are songs that are in the best traditions of the glam metal set, born of the L.A strip and citing the kind of references that proliferated the lyrics of the time. But the songs themselves are catchy and entertaining to those that enjoy this sub-genre of the music. The opening trio of “Letting Go”, “Slap in the Face” and “Rip and Tear” open the album in pleasing style, all in your face with great vocals and stinging guitars. “Sleazy Come Easy Go” is less enticing, the staccato beat of the music and channelled chorus vocals is a bit low brow and not of the same standard as the opening songs. This is immediately rectified by the best song on the album, “Never Enough”, the culmination of the band’s hard work to produce an anthemic track that appeals on all levels, again through a great combination of the vocals and Tracii’s guitar licks.
The middle of the album doesn’t quite maintain this energy, with songs that change from the successful style of the opening, and probably overstay their welcome by being both too long and less engaging. “Malaria” is five and a half minutes of drum machine like rhythm and chanting of the song title in a long drawn out fashion that incites boredom rather than status quo. This is followed by the one real song on the album that disappoints. And – yep, you guessed it – it's the ballad. And you can’t miss it, because the title of the track is “The Ballad of Jayne”. And yes, it was released as a single, and yes it became the highest charting single by the band, number 33 on the US charts. And the video was all over MTV. But you know, is that the purpose it serves? And is that worth it for the record company and band management? Take that song off the album (and when I recorded this album to cassette back in the day I did) and this album is INFINTIELY better. OK, they perform it well, and some out there may like it. Good luck to you if you do. Tag onto this “Magdalaine” which brings similar tones lyrically with a more upbeat theme, but at a touch over six minutes drags on far too long.
“Give a Little” hits back a little harder, especially with the dual guitar lead in the middle of the song. And the Willie Dixon blues riff of “I’m Addicted” does showcase Tracii Guns fine guitarwork, but I’d have been more interested if they had written an instrumental that was in this vein rather than covering this song. This energy is injected further into “17 Crash” and “Showdown (Riot on Sunset)” both of which equal the songs of the first half of the album. And while “Wheels of Fire” and “I Wanna Be Your Man” make the run into the end of the album enjoyable enough, they aren’t quite of the same strength of those that have come before them.
Unlike most of my memories of albums, I cannot say with any certainty when I first heard this album. I have memories of one of the songs being on a compilation CD put out by Hot Metal magazine, but I’m not positive as to when I first heard or got this album. While it would make sense that I had a recorded cassette version of this album at some time around its release, I know I didn’t have my own copy of the album until much later. I think, much like the band’s debut album, I always enjoyed the first half of this album more than the second half. I do remember thinking at the time that if they took the best of both albums then they would have had a spectacular release.
I have had this album up against some stiff competition over the past couple of weeks in regards to listening, both for upcoming episodes of this podcast and just listening to albums in general. And I still enjoy it. But I think I notice the dead spots more now than I did when I first had the album. Or perhaps I chose to ignore them at that time. Or perhaps I have just forgotten them over the songs that I do enjoy a lot. Whatever that answer may be, those dead spots appear more noticeable to me today than they did in the past. And while if I was to be picky I would probably allow it to drag down my whole enjoyment of the album, I don’t look to do that here. The easiest way to express my feelings about the album is that the majority of the songs are terrific, and the two or three that don’t exactly scoot my boots are not bad, just less interesting to me.
The success of this album, and particularly the single, directed the follow up album into much tougher waters, trying to retain the same lyric base and some of that glam metal sparkle, but trying too hard to replicate the success of the ballad, and all of this with the growing onset of the storm that changed the fate of so many glam metal bands in the 1990’s. For this peak period of existence however, “Cocked & Loaded” is a fun way to spend 45 minutes or so.
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