853. Warrant / Cherry Pie. 1990. 3/5

Despite my following of hair metal bands such as L.A. Guns, Ratt and Motley Crue to mention a few, as well as fleeting interest through my late teens with Poison and Cinderella, I never really cottoned on to Warrant in their prime. My main musical interest was in a heavier direction, so that unless I had friends who were pushing bands onto me I didn't immediately chase down every new band that came our way. So it wasn't until I read an article a few years later, proclaiming that Warrant had a bad rap in the metal community and that people should dig deeper than the surface of their singles, that I decided to follow up on them. The obvious first step was Cherry Pie.

"Cherry Pie" was the famously 'written to be a hit song in fifteen minutes' by Jani Lane, after the album was completed but the record company wanted an 'anthem' added to the mix. I'm not sure how you would feel about this song - happy that you were able to write a hit song in fifteen minutes, or pissed off because of the time you spent on the other tracks of the album that then became far less well known than the one you did in a coffee shop on a break. The music video, and subsequent massive rotation on video programs, certainly helped to raise its profile and popularity and no doubt raised album sales. For me though it turned me off buying the album until many years later, given I guessed that the single would reflect the album. The song that was supposed to carry the title of the album was "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which follows on from this as a rocking number to complement the opening salvo. This is a hard rock song that could have led Warrant into harder section of the rock community had it been the focus point of the album. To complete that circle however is "I Saw Red", which is an atypical sugar coated piano/synth based ballad, complemented by the soaring vocals and standard soft rock guitar solo to top it off. Like many albums of this genre, this is where the kicker is, the place where you divide fans loyalties immediately. For me as usual, the opening to the album is shot down in flames by the change of parity in the songs, destroys the momentum and makes a meal of the good feelings the opening tracks had produced. but this is just me, and I've been down this track before.
"Bed of Roses" is a standard hair-pop metal rock song. In fact, vocally it even begins to sound like Jon Bon Jovi singing, which is a bit scary because this really could be a Bon Jovi song... no, not the one of the same name. Better is to come in "Sure Feels Good to Me" which has a more enjoyable, up-tempo style that shows off the faster heavier side of the band nicely, which guitar riffs and licks to match. "Love in Stereo" is of a similar vein, utilising a bit of boogie-woogie keyboard in an old rock-n-roll fashion with memories of Jerry Lee Lewis.
The segue trilogy comes up next, interpreting itself as almost the same song in three parts, in three different moods. "Blind Faith" reverts back to the stock standard acoustic guitar based ballad that plagued the airwaves around this time. There must be plenty of fans out there who love this style of formula driven ballad drivel, and on the few occasions in history when it has been done with an original bent then I guess you can enjoy it, but when it just comes across the same as every other song like that then you can only shake your head. "Song and Dance Man" segues straight out of this, and finds itself moving out of this bland ballad state to a place in soft metal purgatory, neither ballad nor rock. Finally the third piece of the trilogy is "You're the Only Hell Your Mother Ever Raised", which is a standard soft metal rock piece, moving a bit harder and faster, along with that rock soloing to help drag the song into a harder territory.
"Mr Rainmaker" is one of my favourite songs on the album, introduced with a great riff and harmony throughout, and Jani's vocals being the driving force while the imported outside help guitar solo section proves its worth here. "Train Train" dials it back to the average, while the "Ode to Tipper Gore" which is just a bunch of swearing pieced together from a live gig is an amusing ditty, but overall perhaps not the ending to the album I would have been looking for.

Cherry Pie is an album I can put on and listen to in most casual situations. My lack of interest in ballads does mean that almost half of this album is an annoyance rather than a joy, but there a couple of diamonds within the framework, such as "Uncle Tom's Cabin", "Love in Stereo" and "Mr Rainmaker". No doubt those with more of a fetish for the soft metal ballad will have a field day with this album. For me it will always be a comfortable reminder of the early 1990's, with just enough harder stuff to make it at least somewhat enjoyable.

Rating:  Where they say it got no bottom say it take you down to Hell.  3/5