Danger Danger

Thereturnofthegreatgildersleeves (Low Dice)
by Michael McCarthy

Danger Danger‘s self-titled debut and their sophomore effort, Screw It!, were your typical late ’80s/early ’90s MTV-style heavy metal. Vocalist Ted Poley caught the eye of teenage girls who lusted over the likes of Jani Lane and Jon Bon Jovi while their infectious melodies and witty sense of humor also appealed to the guys. When it came time to release their third album, Cockroach, things fell apart. What happened? Well, like any great rock and roll saga, that depends on who you ask, and it’s a subject most are tired of. The point is simply that they parted ways. While Poley continued doing Danger Danger-style melodic rock with his band, Bone Machine, Danger Danger’s next album, featuring Paul Laine, who’d released a little-heard Winger-esque solo album, was much darker. Deeper, too. Entitled Dawn, the disc took a little while for fans to get used to, if they got used to it at all, but there are those (such as myself) who came to truly love it. Most fans didn’t, and the follow-up, Four The Hard Way, was more akin to their first two discs with Laine back in Winger mode. Unfortunately, they continue with this ultimately retro style on Thereturnofthegreatgildersleeves (the title is an homage to a club members Bruno Ravel and Steve West used to frequent). There is one brilliant track, “Six Million Dollar Man” and a couple of decent tracks, “Dead, Drunk & Wasted” and “Dead Dog.” But then there are a lot of boring, mediocre attempts in between.
(PO Box 437 Great Neck, NY 11022)