543. Y&T / In Rock We Trust. 1984. 2.5/5

By the time 1984 had rolled around, Y&T had been around the music scene for over a decade, making a consistent presence on the hard rock scene through the 1970’s in the US, though somewhat hampered by the lack of push from their record company over their first two albums. The signing with A&M Records gave the band the creative push they required, and their solid albums such as “Earthshaker”, “Black Tiger” and “Mean Streak” had seen their stock on the rise. “Mean Streak” in particular, on the back of the video for the title track, had been a deal breaker. You can listen to the episode dedicated to that album in Season 5 of this podcast. Up until this point, on the back of touring with bands such as AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Dio, Iron Maiden, Marillion, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osbourne, Twisted Sister, and ZZ Top, Y&T’s popularity was on the rise throughout Europe and the UK, far more so in their native US. “Mean Streak” at least had seen their profile finally rise in their home country, despite what they felt was a less than spectacular effort by their record company to promote the album or the band. Indeed, given the style of music the band played it is hard to believe that their record company refused to give them the push they surely deserved in the United States at this time.
Less than a year later, and the band had already headed back into the studio to write and record the follow up, no doubt hoping to strike while the iron was hot. And in the age where bands consistently rolled out an album every 12-18 months, because in those days selling albums was still a reasonable way of earning money, you can see why it happened. In the case of this album, as we discuss its pros and cons beyond the next break, it is worth considering that perhaps sometimes it would be a better option to take the time to really come up with great follow up tracks to make a superior album, rather than having another album out simply for the sake of having new material out there for the fans to lap up.

In many ways, at the time of its release and even looking back on it from this position so far in the future, this album was always at a disadvantage, given that it immediately follows the excellent and well received “Mean Streak”. The solid outing and enjoyment of the singles and music videos that accompanied them, and which received a lot of airplay on MTV and other music video programs around the world, did make it feel as though "In Rock We Trust” was always on a hiding to nothing.
None of that forgives what feels at times like an unimaginative writing process for the album. The opening track “Rock & Roll’s Gonna Save the World” should have been a barnstormer. Yes, it is a simple-based riff and catchy lyric singalong song, but get some real drive and energy and passion into the song, and it would have lifted it and the album immensely. Perhaps they needed to leave the "Rock & Roll's Gonna Save The World"-type songs to KISS, because they could always find a way to make these kinds of songs work. Instead, it is a slightly bland opening.
Unfortunately, it sets up the whole tone for the album, from which it never really recovers. Formulaic rock should really be beneath a band with so much talent in its ranks, and who at various times of their journey have produced some fantastic songs. Instead, at different times during parts of the album I feel like I'm listening to Hall & Oates ("Break Out Tonight"), KISS (the afore-mentioned "Rock & Roll's Gonna Save The World") and even Huey Lewis & The News ("(Your Love Is) Drivin' Me Crazy"). Good bands who write great songs, but these should be Y&T songs and have a trademark sound of their band rather than other bands of a similar ilk. And I will point out that these aren’t bad songs as such, but just... uninspired, compared to what they have produced in the past. It does sound like they have got the song generator out and gone with a join-the-dots write a song textbook. “Life, Life, Life” plods along like the opener, just begging to be injected with some real power to become a song closer to what this band can perform. “Masters and Slaves” ups the tempo enough to make it a more enjoyable song, or at least one you can bob your head along to. Meniketti’s guitar solo in the middle of the song does provide the highlight. “I’ll Keep on Believin’ (Do You Know)” then switches to the other side of the Yesterday & Today story, the romantic story telling with the sweeter vocal line and inoffensive soft rock melodies that try to reach the hearts of that part of their fan base. The mix of styles throughout is no doubt enjoyable for some.
Some face is saved by the time you reach Side 2 of the album. "Lipstick and Leather" has the attitude that does provide the best Y&T songs with solid vocals and a sharp drum beat and bass line to keep the song progressing. This is followed by the much better Y&T feel of "Don't Stop Runnin'". Great riff, terrific rhythm throughout, Meniketti soaring on lead vocals and great support from the rest of the band on backing vocals, a better tempo and overall just a far better track.
“She’s a Liar” is just about the best song on the album, because it finally sounds like a true Y&T song with energy in the music and the vocals in a similar way to “Don’t Stop Runnin”. The album closes out with “This Time”, a rock ballad that not only traverses the depths of this style of song, but once again concludes the album in a less than satisfying way. It isn’t particularly surprising given the nature of the way the album has progressed from opening to close, but it still could have been saved slightly with a great hard rock track to take the album out. But, for those of you who are frequent listeners to this podcast, you’ve heard all of this before.

&T is a band that I decided to investigate after one music video, the aforementioned “Mean Streak” from the band’s previous album to this. That video had appeared on a two-night heavy metal special of the Channel 10 Australia show Music Video, which was hosted by Basia Bonkowski on Friday and Saturday nights throughout the 1980’s. My friends and I stayed up both nights and taped as much as we could onto VHS tapes that we then wore out watching. The video for that song put me on a path to chase down the band and their albums, a task that came to pass that included picking up this album second hand at Illawarra Books and Records.
It is interesting that this album became the band’s highest charting album in the US, which to me was more through the general build of the three very good albums before it. It feels as though that peaked here with “In Rock We Trust”, and that people bought the album because of the albums that preceded it. Because to me, this album does not rate above those.
The positives here is that Dave Meniketti’s vocals are terrific on this album. I have always enjoyed his voice and the way he sings his songs, and that is no different here. And the core group all sound good as well. But the songs... well, they just don’t cut it overall. To me this isn’t a bad album as such, it’s just an average album. And more than that, in places it is just dull. This album, and the band overall, is trapped in an era where hard rock had transitioned to becoming glam metal for the attention and grandiose spectacle that was necessary to gain an audience, and where the new wave of heavy metal was moving at full throttle towards thrash metal, and this doesn’t touch either of those elements. Are there good songs? Yeeeeeessss. Are there more unremarkable songs? Yes. It’s interesting that they skewed more towards the glam rock side with their 1987 album “Contagious”, which perhaps was the right step but a little too late.
When I do reach for a Y&T album to listen to, I can’t say that it is this one very often. Or perhaps at all. That falls to the previous albums or the aforementioned “Contagious”. And having listened to this again over the last two weeks, nothing much has changed in my opinion of it. This was in the middle of the classic era of this band, one that I still enjoy, but I still always have that nagging feeling that they were far more than they ever really showed. This album is endemic of my feelings in every regard.