Enuff Z’Nuff
Xtra Cherries (Cleopatra Records)
Release date: July 18, 2025
by Scott Deckman
Chip Z’nuff brings to mind the song title “Man out of Time” by Elvis Costello. If he and his band Enuff Z’Nuff didn’t break at the end of hair metal and instead debuted right after Nirvana, would he and partner Donnie Vie have shifted lanes, changed up a few chords, melodies, dressed down, and became even bigger? Oh, the questions. Neither glam nor alt-rock (or spiritual uncle, power pop) completely fit the band’s strengths (we’re all solipsistic, after all), but the duo were talented enough to have made it work, even if donning flannel and Docs would have likely ate at them (of course, the band would never be given the chance to go “alt”; like all glam bands, they were cursed after the first strums of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” were heard on MTV). Whichever genre you place them in, on Xtra Cherries, Enuff Z’Nuff have made a better-than-average late-career melodic rock record.
Singer/guitarist Vie left the band some time ago and these days it’s Z’nuff’s vehicle, and people who dug their debut will notice the voice change. Opener “Heartbeat” is an earnest piano ballad with synthesized accompaniment, though one gets old uncle vibes from the vocal at times. “Sanibel Island (It’s Outta Control)” shows off Z’nuff’s power pop jones. He’s singing about girls swimming in alcohol, and if the geezer is still this lucky at his age, more power to him. It’s reminiscent of a Fountains of Wayne outtake. “Heavy Metal” is the single, and it’s a melodic rock jam with some odd atmospherics, muscular guitars, big drums courtesy of Cheap Trick’s Daxx Nielsen, and processed vocals. The song shows adept studio usage.
“Magnificent” is a rocker featuring Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens who’s, presumably, ripping the ’80s-ready solo. The song, which has quite a few parts, features a driving main riff throughout, an airy middle eight, and is bathed in pop sheen, though the song loses a point or two due to some triteness. You can also raise an eyebrow at the slight Queen lift on next song “Back to the Wall,” though the tune’s convincing melancholia more than makes up for it.
As noted, not everything about this release is good: seven of the 11 songs flirt with or blow way past the 5:00 mark, so the task of giving them all an extended assessment will seem Herculean for most listeners in the TikTok age. Some of the songs are pretty forgettable, and there is a reliance on cliché. “Star Star” is especially embarrassing. A few may wonder how these songs would fare with Vie behind the mic. Well, he didn’t sing on this record, but he did play piano on affecting closer “Shine.”
Z’nuff has enough pedigree to not only steal the son of a power-pop great and use him to drum on the record, but he also wields enough currency to snag that son’s Cheap Trick bandmate, Robin Zander, to contribute as well. In fact, there are quite a few guest stars on the album, including Neal Schon and Gunnar Nelson. That he got so many names to contribute to Xtra Cherries proves that, while not quite rock royalty, Chip Z’nuff is certainly aristocracy among a certain hard-rock cognoscenti.
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