This is a real underrated
album in the AOR scene. Not many AOR fans realise how good this album is
and not many AOR publishing magazines have wrote about it, so a review
in our magazine is necessary. I can’t tell much about CHRIS MANCINI, because
I don’t have any information about him. He is probably a New Yorker from
Italian origin.
On his only (?) LP release
‘No strings’ from 1983 on the major recordlabel Atlantic Records, Chris
proves to be an excellent AOR performer. Besides, he sings and wrote all
the 10 songs himself, he also plays guitar and synthesizer. Still the list
of additional musicians on the LP is huge and impressive. On drums appear
Carmine Appice ((KING KOBRA), Jeff Porcaro (TOTO) and Anton Fig (SPIDER).
On guitar are RICK DERRINGER,
Stephen Geyer and Waddy Wachtel (STEVE PERRY). Mike Porcaro (TOTO) and
Lequint Jobe appear on bass. Roy Bittan (BON JOVI/Bruce Springsteen), who
also played keyboards on the LP, produced the album. If you get the help
of such musicians then you can’t go wrong.
The 10 songs on the LP are
all very impressive and from a very high class. The LP is up there with
the classic AOR releases of DAVID ROBERTS, BERNIE LABARGE or STAN MEISSNER.
The album opens with “City girl”, a great laid back AOR song that is sounding
like DWAYNE FORD. Next up is “(Here comes that) Hurt again”, a nice poprocker
like DWIGHT TWILLEY.
Things really get going with
the next track “Gonna find me a girl tonight”, this is very impressive
prime-time pure AOR rock with all the ingredients to be a winner. The song
sounds like BERNIE LABARGE. After this song, “Lovers in love” take things
slower and this is a beautiful AOR ballad like VAN STEPHENSON in many ways.
Closing track on side-A is
the sublime uptempo AOR/Radiorocker “Wild eyes” that is sounding like DAVID
ROBERTS on his rockiest moments. Side-B opens with a nice hi-tech AOR song
that comes close to CELLARFUL OF NOISE. “Where’s that feelin’” is one of
those great laid-back AOR songs you play on a hot summernight. The song
is similar in style to FRANKE AND THE KNOCKOUTS, ALLIANCE (1982), THE AUTOMATIX…
The following track “Hot streets”
is a lovely uptempo AOR/Radiorocker based on the US Radiorockstations of
the early 80’s. “Hot streets” is sounding like a mixture of STAN MEISSNER
and STEEL BREEZE. “Let down easy” is again that laid-back AOR sound and
a comparison to BERNIE LABARGE here is possible.
Closing track of this wonderful
album is the wonderful AOR Ballad “I never believed” that sounds very much
like VAN STEPHENSON and this song also has a lovely bridge that quite reminds
me of SURVIVOR on their calmer songs. Concluded we can say that this LP
is very much recommended to every AOR fan. Mostly, this LP is pure AOR
and can best be compared to David Roberts’s solo-album ‘All dressed up’
without the Westcoast influences.
