MelodicRock.com - Interactive Melodic CD Reviews

Track Listing

· On The Rise
· Take Me Down Nasty (1)
· To Be Your Everything
· Lay Down Your Arms (3)
· Is It Over
· Let's Talk About Love
· Long Hair Woman
· Forever
· Live In The Night
· Unruly Child
· Undefeated
· Down The Road
· Still Believe
· The Man Inside
· Live Without Love
· True Love (2)

(*) Best Tracks

Discography & (Rank)

· Unruly Child (1)
· Waiting For The Sun (3)
· Marcie Free - Tormented (4)
· The Basement Demos (2)

Buy it if you liked:

Unruly Child - Unruly Child
Unruly Child - Waiting For The Sun
Mark Free - Tormented

UNRULY CHILD

The Basement Demos

Frontiers Records FRCD 134

· Produced By: Guy Allison & Bruce Gowdy
· Running Time: 72.50 · Genre:
· Release Date: December 2 · Released: EU
· WebLink: Unruly Child · LabelLink: Frontiers

93%

I love Unruly Child - always have. Their Beau Hill produced debut album is a classic example of high-tech, slick melodic hard rock, with lots of AOR hooks.
Behind the band is a very talented line-up and out front - one of the greatest melodic rock vocalists of all time. There's Lou Gramm, Steve Perry, Joseph Williams and then there's the great Mark Free.
Unruly Child's debut was one of the last album's Mark Free recorded before his career change.
There were however, sessions that were leading towards a follow up album.
Some of those songs were released in 1996 by Long Island Records, as Marcie Free's Tormented album.
A couple of unreleased tunes were also featured on the Unruly Child album Waiting For The Sun - which featured new vocalist Kelly Hansen. One tune will even appear on the new album UCIII - featuring the band's third vocalist in as many albums.
The Basement Demos is an archive release bringing may of these songs together in one place and adding a few new lost gems.
As far as compilations of unreleased tunes, you don't find them as good as this very often.
At 16 tracks and a bonus DVD, the value also couldn't be better!
On board are seven original demos that would go on to become the debut album, a few tracks from those sessions that didn't make the debut, plus songs from the sessions intended for the heavier Twelve Pound Sledge project.
What impresses me the most - as the sound quality. While these are most definitely demos, I have heard finished product that wouldn't come close to these tracks.
Yes, these are certainly stripped down, rawer and heavier versions of the very polished final versions, but they sound great, and as I said earlier, have given the songs a new lease of life. Especially for those like me that know the originals inside out.
It's great to hear Mark Free sing anything and the inclusion of a few tracks I had not heard before make this a very welcomed release.
Because Unruly Child was a very polished release, it's great to hear Free singing balls to the wall and with a heavier edge. He can truly sing any style, any song...
Adding to the value - a bonus DVD of behind the scene's studio footage and bootleg live footage is included. While it's not a full length DVD release, the footage contained within is very tastefully presented and is an interesting watch.

The Bottom Line

Utterly essential for any fan of Unruly Child, Mark Free and classic early 90's American melodic hard rock.
The songs are first rate, the versions vary enough to make them almost unique - certainly fresh - and the new lost gems are nothing short of fabulous.
This release is a testament to the chemistry this band had and to the time in history these songs slotted into.
Although UC live on in fine style, they'll never be quite as good as the original!

Line Up

· Mark Free: Vocals
· Bruce Gowdy: Guitar
· Guy Allison: Keyboards
· Jay Schellen: Drums
· Larry Antonio: Bass

Additional Ratings

Songwriting

95%

Attitude

90%

Production

80%

Sundries

100%

17/02/06: Dorothea - electrika@ono.com
Rating: 95
Who the hell sings any better than Marcie Free?

28/09/05: Restless One - petermay@adam.com
Rating: 92
Unruly Child's self titled debut album is a classic. One of my favourites along with Signal. Mark Free is a truly gifted singer,one of the best in Aor/Melodic rock. The Basement Demos is a great release,to hear the tracks at their rawest and heaviest and Mark Free's voice again.Great sound for demo's,and how good is " Rock Me Down Nasty " Brilliant!. (True Love) alone is worth buying the disc for!! Great melodic Rock Band .

11/06/03: Dan Macdonald - dan_mac62@hotmail.com
Rating: 85
I seen this in a distributors close-outs & thought I'd give it a chance($8.98)with a bonus DVD to boot,not going to go into a track by track essay but suffice to say it was the best 9 bucks I'd spent in a while,the songs are full of hooks(I still can't believe these are demos,the sound quality is better than a lot
of finished product coming out these days).I would highly recommend this to any fan of melodic rock or classic rock in general.A very pleasant surprise !
Dan

06/04/03: DjA - stiknside@hotmail.com
Rating: 95
I loved the 1st album these guys did. I bought the 1st album only because I knew who Jay Schellen was , from Hurricane. What a delight that 1st cd was. I did not enjoy Waiting For the Sun nearly as much, even though it featured ex Hurrican singer, Kelly Hanson on it. This is more like the 1st, as it has most of the tracks as the 1st cd, but they sound even better at times as demos. The guitars and drums aren't buried in the mix and it sounds better for it. A must for melodicrock fans!!
Dave

27/03/03: John Elway - megjimp@ida.net
Rating: 90
This is a really cool record, and a nice package for fans of one of the most underrated rock bands (At least by the general public) of all time. This is a combination of many of the demos from the classic first record and unreleased tracks recorded by the band afterwards. While the unreleased tunes are a mixed bag, it's great to hear Mark's voice, pre-surgery, again singing some great tunes. As a bonus, there is a great dvd included that shows the band in soundcheck and in the studio. One of the best "unreleased" packages ever released by a great rock band.

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