John Parr - S/T

Released in 1984

Although rocker John Parr scored a couple significant hits such as Naughty Naughty on his self-titled debut album and Man in Motion, the theme for St. Elmo's Fire, he was always a heavily underrated talent and deserved far, far more credit than he received.

John Parr perfectly represented the decade, dishing out edgy hard rock splashed with plenty of synthesizers and polish. The end result was a delightfully melodic form of AOR that featured powerful guitars, gritty vocals and keyboard juiciness, perfect for fans of both hard and pop-rock.

Some of the album highlights are:

• Naughty Naughty – This was Parr's largest hit of the album and really best represents his work: strong yet accessible. The lyrics also represent the 80's attitude at its best.
• Magical – While not at the same level of musical perfection as Naughty Naughty, Magical is a fantastic rocker that did manage to snatch some success on the charts.
• Love Grammar – A great power ballad that also received commercial success and radio airplay during the mid-80's.

This is one of those rare albums that don't require a degree of fast forwarding through filler tracks since John Parr was extremely consistent throughout. If you enjoy his style of melodic rock, you'll love the whole album – it's as simple as that. Unfortunately it's becoming increasingly difficult to find this 80's gem, so I highly recommend locating even a used copy from Amazon or eBay since this is one of the essential 80's rock albums.

Rating: 10 stars

Track List Magical Naughty Naughty Love Grammar Treat Me Like an Animal She's Gonna Love You to Death Revenge Heartbreaker Somebody Stole My Thunder Don't Leave Your Mark on Me

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