Backstreet Symphony - Thunder

Week 7 - Not Spoken About Enough Album

An English Man

English hard rock band Thunder released their debut album Backstreet Symphony in 1990. The album was primarily written by lead guitarist Luke Morley.

The album lasts 56 minutes long and includes a cover of The Spender David Group hit ‘Gimme Some Lovin'’.

The album cover is a well-thought concept, depicting a sophisticated and well-dressed man conducting an orchestra. However, this orchestra takes place in an alleyway and is made up of a drunk man passed out on the floor and a lady dressed for a slightly different occasion than a classical performance.

The album is recognisable from its power ballads and hard rock mixed with glam songs.

Back to the Alley

The album had poor performances in the charts, in spite of a worldwide headline tour, a supporting slot for Heart and ZZ Top on a run of European shows, and appearances at festivals in the years following its release.

Critical reception for the album was much better than its commercial performance, with critics showing enthusiasm for the album, highlighting it should have performed better than it did.

Rock Hard

Backstreet Symphony opens with ‘She’s So Fine’, a hard rock song driven by its guitar riff and follows a simple structure used in classic rock, where a verse and chorus play through twice, followed by a guitar solo.

The album that follows mixes love ballads, including one of the album highlights ‘Don’t Wait for Me’, and hard rock / glam songs, such as ‘Higher Ground’.

Morley and rhythm guitarist, Ben Matthews, provides a number of notable catchy guitar riffs, such as in the verse’s of ‘Dirty Love’, ‘An Englishman on Holiday’ and ‘Distant Thunder’. Morley also shows his ability to create memorable guitar solos, such as on ‘Backstreet Symphony’, ‘Love Walked In’ and ‘Girl’s Going Out of Her Head’.

The vocals by Danny Bowes are powerful, distinctly recognisable and fun to sing. The lyrics are a mixer of fun, playful lines and serious love songs.

Every great rock band needs to find the perfect singer / lead guitarist double act. Thunder achieved this with Bowes and Morley with the clean and powerful vocals of Bowes blending perfectly with Morley’s similarly powerful and crisp guitar playing.

Both Bowes and Morley, along with the rest of the band execute their playing so effortlessly and confidently in a way where every notes has a moment to shine. A skill which shows how truly talented the band are.

On the surface of it, Thunder and Backstreet Symphony had everything to be a chart topper and it is difficult to understand why the album didn’t perform better. The album is well put together, brilliantly written and if you asked someone new to rock what they thought of the band, they’d assume they were one of the big hitters of the 90’s.

Rating

Lyrics: 7/10

Melodies: 7/10

Instruments: 8/10

Uniqueness: 4/10

Overall: 7/10

Tell me what you think

Do you believe Backstreet Symphony deserved greater chart performances or were they a missing that extra something to take their reputation to a new level.

---