VINCE NEIL - Exposed

In 1993, Motley Crue's former lead vocalist, Vince Neil, started his own band (Neil has since returned to the Crue). Neil hooked up with former Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens (also from the Atomic Playboys) and the result is a very good album, as good as most of Motley Crue's work. For those of you unfamiliar with Stevens' style, take the spacey pyrotechnics of Steve Vai, the sometimes-quirkiness of Adrian Vandenberg and the virtuosity of Joe Satriani and that pretty much describes Stevens' style. Stevens and Neil wrote most of the songs on the album together and the result is hair metal injected with a far-out twist. Former Ozzy Osbourne bass guitarist Phil Soussan also contributes to the songwriting, co-writing half the tracks on the cd (Soussan co-wrote "Shot in the Dark" with Ozzy, among other songs). So, on to the song descriptions...

1. "Look In Her Eyes" - Pretty much straight ahead hair metal...except we are treated to Steve Stevens' spacey guitar fireworks, which makes the song even better.
2. "Sister of Pain" - Until recently, I had always assumed this was a Motley Crue tune, I was surprised when my friend pointed out to me that this was Vince Neil. Another interesting tidbit about this song is that Vince Neil wrote this tune with Jack Blades (Night Ranger, Damn Yankees) and Tommy Shaw (Styx, Damn Yankees). Sleaze metal at its finest, this is a great song, as good and rippin' as anything the Crue ever did.
3. "Can't Have Your Cake" - Cool, up tempo song, the excellent guitar work by Steve Stevens continues.
4. "Fine, Fine Wine" - The "sex, drugs & rock 'n' roll" attitude is prevalent here, Motley Crue exemplified that lifestyle more than any other band in rock history. Vince Neil carried that tradition to his "solo" work. Another fine tune (heh, heh).
5. "The Edge" - This song starts off with an excellent Spanish-type guitar solo, something you don't hear often (if at all) in hair metal. And then Stevens gives us a Satriani/Vai-esque guitar solo. Good vocals & vocal melodies follow and we hear another fabulous guitar solo in the middle of the song, very much like the opening.
6. "Can't Change Me" - This ballad was written by Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades who are making another excellent contribution to this album.
7. "Set Me Free" - Nothing ground breaking, just good hair metal.
8. "Living is a Luxury" - What stands out on this song is Stevens very cool guitar solo at the end. This guy is good. Hey, the rest of this song ain't bad, either.
9. "You're Invited (But Your Friend Can't Come)" - Blades, Shaw and Neil hook up again to write this excellent tune. You know, they are a good writing team, makes you wonder what would happen if they actually formed a band together... Anyway, this is a good, sassy tune.
10. "Gettin' Hard" - Good, semi-bluesy song dripping with attitude and filled with Stevens quirky guitar work, perhaps the best tune on this album. Stevens is doing some unusual things on his guitar, I cannot accurately describe it.
11. "Forever" - Hey, Vince Neil does ballads right plus we are treated to Stevens' brilliant work on guitar, spicing up an otherwise by-the-numbers hair metal ballad.