Track Listing:

1. The Right To Rock
2. Back To The City
3. Let's Spend The Night Together
4. Easier Said Than Done
5. So Many Girls So Little Time
6. Electric Love
7. Speed Demon
8. Get Down
9. You're The Victim (I'm The Crime)

Lineup:

Ron Keel - Vocals and Guitar
Bryan Jay - Lead Guitar and Vocals
Marc Ferrari - Lead Guitar and Vocals
Kenny Chaisson - Bass and Vocals
Dwain Miller - Drums and Vocals

Introduction:

You all remember Keel.  The band who reminded us that we all have the right to rock!  Well let's take it back to the pre-Keel years.  Our good friend Ron Keel started out singing in the heavy metal band Steeler, which included a then-unknown Yngwie Malmsteen on guitar.  As soon as Steeler kicked the bucket, Ron Keel started a new band called Keel.  Keel released an album in 1984 called Lay Down The Law.  Soon after, Keel got signed to A&M Records and recorded their most famous album, The Right To Rock in 1985.  The aforementioned album is the album I'm about to give my take on.  So not only do you have the right to rock, but you have the right to read my review!

1. The Right To Rock is the semi-hit single many of you know and love.  It's a mid-tempo rocker sending a very valid message.  What message is that?  To tell the naysayer to go fuck themselves and raise your fuckin' fist and rock out!  Perfect 10, boys!
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Score:    10/10

2. Back To The City is a slightly faster rocker which opens with a drum beat, then a falsetto screm from Ron, then a solo, then goes to the verses.  The type of song I'd play driving down the road or at a party!
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Score:    10/10

3. Let's Spend The Night Together is a cover of the well-known Rolling Stones song. It kind of takes on a Danger Danger-ish 80s tone.  Good, but not the song I would have picked to cover.
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Score:    7/10

4. Easier Said Than Done is a mid-tempo rocker very akin to the 80s hard rock that many of you known and love.  It doesn't quite do what the first two songs did for me, but I am digging it quite a bit.  Very singable chorus.  Well done once again.
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Score:    8/10

5. So Many Girls So Little Time starts out kinda similar to the way "Girls Girls Girls" by Motley Crue starts out.  It follows the same theme in a lot of ways.  But one thing you need to take into consideration.  Motley Crue released Theather of Pain the year this album came out.  Girls Girls Girls didn't come out until two years later.  You don't suppose they took a few pages out of Keel's book do you?
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Score:    9/10

6. Electric Love actually take some pages out of "Action! Not Words" by Def Leppard.  It's a mid-tempo rocker very much in the same vein as the Def Leppard song.  I could actually picture Joe Elliott doing a pretty damn good rendition of this song.  Still, Keel does it pretty well.
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Score:    8/10

7. Speed Demon, as its name implies, is where Keel hits the gas.  It's a song about speeding down the highway like a fuckin' speed demon!  Totally the kind of song I want to blast driving down the road!  Oh yeah, here's a little bit of trivia about this song.  It was featured in the 2002 Will Smith movie Men In Black II.  This song is playing in the scene at the post officer where the alien is throwing all the mail into its respective slots and he's blasting this song out of his boom box.  Of all things, I would never expect a movie where a well known rapper is the main character to feature a heavy metal song.  The song didn't make the actual soundtrack though.  Probably a good thing considering it would have been very out of place.  Putting Keel and Will Smith on the same soundtrack is like mixing oil and water.
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Score:    10/10

8. Get Down doesn't really grab me the way anything does.  It's like a slow mid-tempo rocker that doesn't really do much.  Not bad, but not amazing either.
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Score:    6.5/10

9. You're The Victim (I'm The Crime) is the speed metal song off the album!  Closer to the style of bands like Agent Steel and Exciter than bands like Motley Crue or Def Leppard.  It just goes to show how diverse this album really is.  A lot of bands finish their albums with ballads.  Not Keel.  Keel finishes the album with the fastest song on the album.
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Score:    9/10

Comments:

Keel has really made a great album here.  The band has recently gotten back together so let's hope for the best!  I've never heard anything bad from Keel, but it's been 22 years since their last full length album so you never know...

Recommended For Fans Of:

Judas Priest
Early Def Leppard
Steeler