tjhassecrets's Full Review: Crimes of Passion by Pat Benatar
= You want me to leave, You want me to stay You ask me to come back, You turn and walk away =
I saw Pat Benatar on stage a couple of months ago in August before I moved to Germany. But who gives a damn. The point is that I heard her. I heard her screech, scream, holler, and belt out a classic setlist featuring fan favorites and chart topping hits. Track after track after track rocked my world, and from that moment on, I became a fan who needed a little something more substantial than one of her millions of greatest hits compilations. After the concert, the list of Pat records on my Zune increased significantly, and I delved into her discography beginning with a powerful and experimental bar-rock record In the Heat of the Night, which, while doing nothing to establish her a songwriter, proved that she had a real voice. Without such convenient tools such as iTunes and YouTube, Pat hit the road with her seemingly typical rock music and quickly followed up her mainstream success with Crimes of Passion in 1980, just a year after her debut was recorded and pressed to vinyl. What set Pat apart from other female rockers and other artists in general was the way she combined opera and rock music. This genre had been seemingly perfected by progressive pioneers Queen in the early to mid 70s, but then Pat came along to make it just that much more accessible. Though Queen saw success Bohemian Rhapsody and '39, Benatar was better known for making cleverly inserting her octave-smashing voice into a pop song. Most wouldn't associate Pat with such a classical form of music. But when you hear the acrobatic tricks her vocals perform on some of these tracks, you might not be as surprised.
Crimes of Passion is very much an expansion on Pat's artistic credibility. My stance is that if you have the talent to bring something new to other people's material, songwriting can take quite the backseat. After all, Tina Turner rarely puts pen to paper, but she does what she does with such honesty that it sounds like she does write her own material. Benatar's lyrics are still not running rampant on this record either, but I think it's important to make note of her work on Treat Me Right, a thrashing song of female empowerment that not only features those crazy operatic vocals but also her original words. Her credibility as a tried and true artist is solidified on this record: she can sing her heart out, she can act through her voice, and she can write herself a Top 20 hit. There you go. The girl's got talent. I know it's a little bit like throwing a seal a sardine after it claps, but I think it speaks to her versatility. Pat doesn't have to write her material, but it's certainly an option, and Treat Me Right is certainly better than, say, I'm Gonna Follow You, which she had no hand in writing.
As a cohesive album, this record very much stays in the same vein as her debut album: slightly bluesy, dark, bar rock. Something is certainly missing from the overall presentation, but not every record for me needs to be a five-star masterpiece. Regardless of a few slight missteps, Pat Benatar's sophomore release is still very much worth the price tag. Some of Pat's future production had her vocals pushed way too much to the front as to where it can be called over-saturation. On this record, her voice seems to blend in smoothly with the downtown and slightly muddy backing band. Of course the biggest hit from Crimes of Passion was Hit Me With Your Best Shot, which has since become a karaoke staple. I always hated this song growing up, but then again, I don't think I could have picked out the original version if you had pay me. But when I heard her snarl out the line "You're a real tough cookie with a long history of breaking little hearts so easily...", my mind was instantly changed. Pat's original recording is the only version of this classic that's bearable. The guitar breaks in the middle of this track are perfect, and the band really shows off its skill on this track, as well as on You Better Run, which features more balls-to-the-wall delivery.
When I first got this album, I was perhaps most excited to hear her cover of Kate Bush's classic Wuthering Heights, which is one of the weirdest pop songs of all time. Upon first listen, I was exactly into it because of Pat's lower register. Maybe Kate's insane delivery had conditioned to associate this particular track with ear-piercing vocals. But after giving it another listen, I realized that had I never heard of Ms. Bush, I would have fallen in love with Pat's version. This is exactly the type of song that she should be singing, and I love her slightly more rockstar approach to the material. Kate Bush is one of the best songwriters to come out of England, and Pat certainly does her justice, particularly when she hits the notes on "You know it's me...CATHY!" (though I must admit that Kate's version is about a million times better.) What I've always liked about Pat Benatar was that she was all-woman. Her appearance was as feminine as it was strong and in-your-face. She was the girl in the gorgeous silk gown who could throw down. She was uncompromising in her image and delivery. This is well outlined in her future work as well as her past, and Prisoner of Love fits the bill just fine.
The main issue that Crimes of Passion runs into some slightly lackluster material. Out-A-Touch, another partly Pat-penned track, doesn't really do it for me, and Little Paradise is more than just forgettable. While nothing on this album classifies as bad, it runs into the problem of filler. Encased in such strong material, Never Wanna Leave You is a good song that's a little overshadowed, with its Queen and Police influences, which experiment with reggae-based timing and some clattering punk licks. The spiraling guitar work at the end of the track is certainly interesting, and it kind of makes me wish that it was the album's closing statement.
VERDICT 01. Treat Me Right [5 Stars] 02. You Better Run [4.5 Stars] 03. Never Wanna Leave You [4 Stars] 04. Hit Me With Your Best Shot [5 Stars] 05. Hell is for Children [4 Stars] 06. Little Paradise [3.5 Stars] 07. I'm Gonna Follow You [4 Stars] 08. Wuthering Heights [5 Stars] 09. Prisoner of Love [4 Stars] 10. Out-A-Touch [3 Stars]
BEST:Hit Me With Your Best Shot WORST: Out-A-Touch
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