1264. McAuley Schenker Group / Save Yourself. 1989. 3.5/5

The fact that Michael Schenker, whose ego rides as high as most of those legendary guitarists of the 1970’s and 1980’s, found himself so comfortable with the partnership that he was beginning to forge with vocalist and songwriter Robin McAuley when they first began working together in 1986, that he insisted that they change the name of the band from the MICHAEL Schenker Group to the MCAULEY Schenker Group, retaining the initials and therefore logo of the band in the process, shows just how confident he was that the pairing was going to work. Their initial album under this banner, 1987’s “Perfect Timing”, had done better than expected in sales, but also showed exactly the direction this new formation of the band was heading. Not only did they produce a more commercial direction, one with an obvious bent for cracking the US radio market, and also skewing their music towards the hair metal genre rather than the hard rock heavy metal based sound that Schenker had come from with his earlier albums in the 1980’s, but this also had another guitarist in the band, Mitch Perry, who also played lead solos in two songs, and almost had one of the great guitarists of the age playing mostly rhythm guitar in his wake! It was all a little strange, despite the fact that I enjoy the album immensely and still do to this day.
Put all of this together, and going into their second album it felt as though little had changed. The band was still looking for that major breakthrough. The album had made the US top 100, and the single “Gimme Your Love” had reached as high as #40 on the singles charts, which meant more of the same from MSG in order to make a real breakthrough. That meant a mix of songs again, along with the true commercial singles tracks which they hoped would provide them with the success they were striving for. What that meant for the fans of Schenker’s early work however was open to question.

The album opens up with the title track “Save Yourself”, and immediately lets you know exactly what direction the music on this sophomore album is aiming for. Because this does end up being the hardest of the hard rock songs available on this album. It has a great sound to it, great riffing from Schenker himself and vocals from McAuley, but there is already that commercial feel about the track. “Bad Boys” follows in a similar direction, up beat musically and catchy lyrically, looking to retain the faithful with atypical hard rock tracks and nice riffing from Schenker himself.
“Anytime” is the full-blown radio attention seeking missile directly written in order to find a way to crack the commercial market. It’s a rock ballad, in the mould of Kiss and Whitesnake looking to gain as much radio airplay as possible, and no it isn’t horrible, but it is certainly skip worthy. Michael Schenker had flirted with this direction since he joined with Robin in their partnership, and this was what they were hoping for, a hard rock-based album with enough moments for Schenker to show he could still shred when he wanted to, but with an agenda to find that marketplace breakthrough with a song like this. Individual tastes will dictate how much you enjoy it. Add this alongside “This is My Heart”, the third single released from the album, is a more hard rock version of a similar style, but Robin’s vocals hold the soft rock ballad style even while Schenker tries to riff hard during the middle of the track. There’s a little each way when it comes to this song, trying to please both sides of the argument.
“Get Down to Bizness” comes after “Anytime” and returns the album to a pace that is far more enjoyable to Schenker’s main fan base, The songs themselves may not be as superbly energetic as on the earlier albums, but they still have a catchiness about them. “Shadow of the Night” offers a chanting, somewhat anthemic feel to the track, with a chorus and lyrics designed to be sung loud and proud, in that midtempo range that was beginning to creep into music at the time. The chorused vocals help to encourage that singalong theme of the song as well. The same is true of songs like “What We Need” and “I Am Your Radio”, energised with the chorus and multiple support singers for Robin who call for a gang vocal like call to arms.
The instrumental short take of “There Has to Be Another Way” allows Schenker to showcase his skills, but at a little under two minutes in length, it almost feels like it is something tacked on at the last minute, rather than one of his great instrumental songs from the past such as “Into the Arena” and “Captain Nemo”. Those are terrific tracks that stand on their own. This does not. Following “This is My Heart” we have “Destiny” which is a little bit like a join the dots colour by numbers hard rock track, based around Robin’s vocals than anything musically that stands out and makes itself noticed. The album closer is “Take Me Back” which is pretty much a similar situation, finishing off an album that does what it always proclaimed it wanted to do.

Those who have been with this podcast from the beginning will know of my love of Michael Schenker as a guitarist in the many different bands he has been in over his career. The Michael Schenker Group was a band that helped me get through my doomed university days in the late 1980’s, and I have always enjoyed those albums and UFO’s albums.
I bought this album on its release, on vinyl back in those days, a copy that was sadly eventually lost in the new house flood of 2001. But it got some plays for some time before that occurred. As I’ve mentioned, I loved “Perfect Timing” on its release, and so I went into this album hoping for something similar, or even better, perhaps a bit heavier with more influence from Schenker himself. And what I got... was not that. I got an album that, as has already been well covered, was looking for a commercial success, and as such was written and performed that way. So, while I enjoyed it when I first got the album, over time it began to wane in excitement for me. It began to feel very samey, like the songs were more or less running into each other without much to discern each from the other. And so eventually the vinyl went back onto the shelves, and there it sat, only finding itself moved over the next decade on the eight or so times I moved house during that time, until its eventual demise in the flooding of that final house. In the two decades since, I have attained a digital copy of the album and on the very rare occasion it has come out for a listen. And now for the last three weeks it has been in my rotation, and there is no doubt that I have listened to it more over that time than I have in the previous 30 years. And what I have discovered is that nothing much has changed. I have enjoyed the album overall, though I did eventually get to the point where there were three songs that I had to skip to continue to listen. And thus, it is to a certain person’s taste. Those that find this boring or unlistenable, I do understand. Like I said, for me the album is fine, but there is a very big chance that it will be a long time before I choose to listen to it again now that this podcast episode is finished. There are a lot of better options out there to try.