The first song on
side A is the title track, Tough on
the Streets. A groove song. Great chorus, drums and keyboards lock in
tight. The female backing vocals are good too. A mellow lead solo by Eloy.
Excellent video. Again, I must say that Glen really sound much better live,
which says a lot for the engineering/mixing.
The next track is Blackmail. A popular song at shows.
To me, somehow it doesn’t sit right. An attempt in the beginning to sound
heavy and then losing steam immediately. The riff sounds decent. A
full-throated vocals here would have definitely made a difference. The rest
of the band too must have heard the recordings many times before they okayed
it. So they too are to blame, for the vocals sounding as if he is singing2
much within himself and not opening his throat out.
Lonely Insertions is the next track. A lovely love ballad. Had
a nice video with Eloy acting the lead. A superb solo towards the end rounds
it off beautifully.
The next number is Wasted Virtues. The recording quality in this album is much
better, a polished effort. But some how loses out on the raw energy factor in
Ground Zero. Can’t we have both?! And they have not learned from their
mistake in the last album of having made Glen sound bad. Not a song to be
remembered. The female backing vocals grate at times. The only saving grace is the guitar lead.
Up next is Sweet Angel. An uptempo beginning to
the song, but somewhere midway it loses the pace. Throughout this album one
gets the feeling that the keys dominate. Jackson is an excellent tinkler no
doubt, but should he sound in the forefront on all tracks in a rock scheme of
things? This is a pity coz there’s some excellent guitar work all over and
the keyboard dominance somehow makes you have to search for the guitars. In
Eloy Issacs the band has one of the best axe-men India has ever seen.
Side B starts off with Feel the Steel. A mid tempo song,
decent. Did they really need the female seconds here, I wonder? Again, guitar
shines through.
The next track is Breaking Point. I somehow manage to
get offended by the excessive keys at the intro. But one must admit that the
keyboard playing is top notch. A complex guitar solo towards the end saves
the song and gives it a pass mark.
Catherine…. wails Glen next. A quality ballad. The
guitar gently weeps in the middle. The keys intrude in some parts and stick
out. A melodious lead solo just before the end of the song. Sadly, the solos
have been kept short in all songs.
Next in line is Alien Signals. Weak lyrics. What’s it
all about? No great shakes. Eminently forgettable.
Shots of Ecstasy is the last song. Now this is a rocker. Good
riff and chords, great drumming, a blazing solo in the middle. Anthem class
actually. But the band left India soon after and hence couldn’t really get
the crowd rocking to this one at shows.
I would rate this
below Ground Zero but not too much below. Unlike many other bands who sound
excellent recorded but fail to live up to that live, 13 AD sounded even
better live. They used to replace some of the keyboard bits with guitars when
playing live and as I mentioned many times before, Glen’s vocals really came
to its own, live.
13 AD was up there
on top along with Indus Creed, who had three album credits. Shiva, sadly had
only a covers album which was never available anywhere. They were the top
three who really ruled the roost in the mid 80’s-90’s. Creed was never as
popular as the other two for live shows because they rarely played covers,
while these two had a cover dominated set always.
Please remember that
these two album reviews are being made more than a decade after their release
by someone who has first heard them in his 20’s, then met the band became
fast friends. |
