Having begun her career in the band “The Runaways” when she was 16 years old, Lita Ford has fought not only to be a female rock vocalist and guitarist in a male dominated profession, but also for relevance in an ever changing industry. Having released two solo albums that touched the edges of the charts in the US, her breakthrough came with the album titled “Lita” in 1988, guided by her new management team headed by Sharon Osbourne. The album was perfect for the time, hair and glam metal based with Lita as the front woman, with a little help in the writing department from Motely Crue’s Nikki Sixx and the pairing of Ozzy Osbourne with her for the power ballad duet “Close My Eyes Forever” which made the top ten in the US.
With exposure assured, Lita’s next two albums, “Stiletto” in 1990 and “Dangerous Curves” in 1991 failed to find their mark. Several reasons could be put forward for this – the changing musical landscape, also the already saturated market the hair/glam metal genre found itself in at the time – it felt that it was simply that Lita and her music were unable to find its niche and therefore its mainstream audience.
It was during this time that Lita had a short-term relationship with W.A.S.P. guitarist Chris Holmes, to whom she was married for a very short time. Following this divorce she met former Nitro lead vocalist Jim Gillette, whom she married after they had known each other for only two weeks. Her record company had dropped her after the lacklustre performance of her previous two albums, and she eventually found a contract with ZYX Music, a German record label that specialised in disco, early house music, and 1990s techno music. With her frequent writing partner Michael Dan Ehmig in tow, Lita went about the process of writing for a new album in the second half of 1994 before heading to the studio with Larry 'Bones' Dennison on bass and Rodger Carter on drums. With Lita performing all lead vocals and all guitars for the album, they came up with the album “Black”, released on 14 February of 1995, Valentine’s Day for some, but in this case into an environment that seemed as hostile and bleak as the name of the album itself.
Right from the start of the album, you notice that this isn’t the usual fare from Lita. Her albums have always been upbeat, more hair and pop metal than anything else, vocalising on fun and partying and yes boys. From the outset, that has been pretty much eradicated from the arsenal.
“Black” immediately sounds a lot like P.J. Harvey in both sound and vocally, the grungier guitar toning down Lita’s usual upbeat fun attitude in the songs and drawing on the darker tones that come through in the grunge era. And in this instance, I don’t mind because I quite like P.J. Harvey as an artist. But initially it was a difficult thing to get past, the change in the sound of this album to just about everything else she had ever done. There’s a lot going on in the lyrics too, with lines such as “Is it the shame that burns your soul? Is it the fear you can't control? Is it the night that won't let go?” and “Is it the shame that drives you back? Is it the train that jumps the track, just as you're slipping through the cracks?” Lita isn’t mucking around here, dragging some very dark tones into cold light, and the mood of the track suggests either she is following the musical tones of the time, or she has some heavy shit going on in her life.
“Fall” follows up in the same dark slow tempo as the opening track, bass heavy and almost moaning vocals from Lita, and again the lyrics suggest a tale of dark and hard times – ‘everybody’s got to fall’, ‘show me a reason for anything I see’. So far, drowning in bad sentiments. And then comes “Loverman”, a song that musically at least shows a bit more upbeatedness though still in a blues acoustic based style that keeps the mood on the south side of positiveness. Lita is positively badgering the named Loverman with questions as to would she stay with him even if she was to be in the worst of places, no doubt physically but mentally. The blues solo through to the end of the track suggests the worst if he was allowed to answer. While the opening track had a more unique feel to it, the two follow ups overstay their welcome time wise and musically.
“Killin’ Time” tries to bring that mid-90’s grunge guitar into the power ballad along with keys in snatches through the song. Lita as an artist has lived off these kinds of songs, but they were of the 80’s hair metal style. This 90’s grunge-ified attempt on the same subject matter falls very flat. Following this comes “Hammerhead”, a song name that should make you sit up and expect something on a much harder and heavier scale. Lyrically it tries to mirror Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man”, as portrayed by lines such as “Now he's lost within his madness, And more and more each day, The metal man turns his hand, To the price the world must pay”. But the song isn’t metal, it is the same deathly slow tempo grunge-alt style that every band was doing in the day, and most a lot better than this. Whoever listened to this stuff and gave it the green light needs a savage kick to the head. There is some potential in these songs, but it is left unrealised.
“Boilin’ Point” is the first song on the album that sounds like a Lita Ford song. The pace of the track, the power and energy in the vocals and guitar, is the template of her best songs, and that is all encompassed in this track. There’s no doubt that the change in the definition of her music to this point of the album is directly correlating to the time it was written and recorded, but as a fan I feel more of this would have been more beneficial than the direction of the first half of the album. And just as a spoiler alert here, it is the only song on the album that actually has the typical and best-known Lita Ford sound about it. So be prepared for what follows.
“Where Will I Find My Heart Tonight” is another dark themed power ballad with the blues grunge sound that proliferates this album. There is almost a country twang to it as well, so Lita is beginning to play all sides of the street on the album. There’s no problem with expressing deep seated feelings on an album – hell, Taylor Swift has raked in billions doing it – but the tone is killing this album as an enjoyable commodity. Then we have “War of the Angels”. It seems to have a twofold meaning – the obvious is the desperation of a young woman who eventually resorts to a firearm to try and solve her problems, but also metaphorically it seems to be describing Lita’s own fight against hope and despair in her own life. Almost the theme of the entire album in fact. The song “Joe” follows and harks on the same themes of whimsical memories of the past and the thoughts that wish that things had turned out differently. Musically the tones have a very bluesy scale with the grungy style of the day of bands like Garbage and Hole, but without the energy those bands possess. These songs through the middle of the album are not unpleasant, but they do take some time to get used to if you are a fan of Lita’s earlier work.
A new trio of songs appear to close out the album, with a whole different style about them. “White Lightnin’” is pure blues with slide guitar and harmonica, and Lita back belting out lyrics in a more typical fashion. The blues signature here though is significant and dominant. The instrumental “Smokin’ Toads” is an extension of the previous song, another pure blues track again with the atypical blues riff of the guitar. There is little doubt by now that this is the direction Lita wanted to follow, as this is purely credited to her. Then to complete the trilogy set, the album closer “Spider Monkeys” stays in the exact same moment, such that you can picture yourself in one of those underground blues nightclubs with a smoke haze and bourbon being drunk by the vat full, the blues guitar and keyboard riffing off against each other, and the crooner of the vocals being the young lady with her name on the cover of the album. It also extends out forever in a freeform style that the blues lovers to do, stretching out to almost seven minutes in length which really does outstay its welcome.
I guess my question to Lita after listening to this the first few times wo9uld have been... “What the hell were you thinking!!” Because the album, though ties together, has at least four different styles of songs throughout, which seem to be combined into sections or suites. There are the almost country twangs and ballady notes of "Loverman" and "Killin' Kind", the bluesy "Smoking Toads" and "Spider Monkeys", the grunge of "Hammerhead" and the desolation and desperation of “Where Will I Find My Heart Tonight” and “War of the Angels”. It is only on "Boilin' Point" that Lita fires up with anything like her old hard rocking self, but even this song is punctuated with a harmonica solo that tries to turn it into a different style right before your ears. There is no continuity with the songs on this album. Generally when you buy an album, you know the kind of style the music will be and can be comfortable with that. Here, Lita is obviously trying to do something different, to extend herself, but by melding sounds into her songs that are most unlike what she has produced in the past, it makes this an unusual album to get your head around. I have wondered in the past if this is what other fans think as well?
The best way I can explain it to a person who doesn’t know Lita Ford’s work well is to say that this album “Black” compared to her most famous hair metal and popular album “Lita” is like comparing Iron Maiden’s “The X Factor” of this same era to their most famous album of the late 80’s era “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”, when it comes to the tone and darkness of the music. It is a massive change in album’s structure and strengths, as there was on those two Maiden albums - but there is no change of lead singer here for Lita Ford for the fans to lay the blame on.
I did not hear this album until the early 2000’s, for several reasons, mainly because I had been less attracted to Lita’s pervious two albums before this one, and I felt my money (once I had that opportunity) would be better spent somewhere else. And my initial reaction is probably very close to everyone else at the time – I just didn’t handle the big change in style. I listened a few times and then moved on. Very probably, the only time I have listened to the album since has been over the past few weeks. It was an album that when I saw its anniversary was upon us, I seriously thought about just bypassing and going on to the next one. But that’s not how this podcast operates, and so back into the rotation it went. And my initial reaction again were much the same. But once I got serious enough to be sitting down to really review the album, I began to see my prejudices. Okay, this is basically a blues grunge rock album, no two ways about it. So treat it at such and see if you can find what you like about it. Okay, probably still not a lot, but it isn’t a terrible album. What disappoints me most about it is that Lita was obviously not in a great space when she wrote and recorded it, and that comes across in spades. And to me that’s what holds this album back more than the overall push to blues grunge music. Lyrically it speaks volumes of her headspace, and while for some people that can create amazing albums that doesn’t happen here. I’ve listened to this 15 times in this cycle, and at the end I haven’t minded having it on. How I really notice how far back in the queue it is, is by what I listen to next. And almost without exception, the next thing has been better, because my mood isn’t dragged into the depths of despair by listening to it.
As you may have imagined, when ranking Lita’s eight solo studio albums, this one comes in at 8, but perhaps not by as far as it might sound.
This was Lita’s last album for 14 years, though that came from marrying (again) and raising two boys. Better was to come after that break, though it would take more unhappy family stories to bring back the rock chick that we all knew and loved.
