Love/Hate - Blackout In The Red Room

On the surface, the music of Love/Hate's debut may seem no different than almost any late-'80s L.A. pop-metal, but the band's performance exudes a fury and belligerence that posers such as Poison or Warrant could never even grasp; actually, they would turn on their heels and run away screaming from it. The band literally "plays on 11" from the very first crunching power chord of the title track to the last cymbal crash of the frenzied "Hell Ca., Pop. 4." In between they alternate the sheer power of "Rock Queen," "One More Round," and "Straightjacket" with the haunting yet beautiful melodies of "Mary Jane" and "She's an Angel." The strangely message-oriented "Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?" does stick out like a sore thumb; no thanks to its funk-metal bassline and overtly commercial mix. But with delirious performances, such as guitarist Jon E. Love's on the massive "Tumbleweed," there is little here to criticize. Blackout In The Red Room is a very impressive album.

 

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Not all great albums are constructed by exceptional musicians. The band Love/Hate is a mixed bag of talented musicianship with questionable lyricism. But something about their entire vibe paired with the excellent production/mixing of their days with Columbia Records makes for an intriguing sound that I can only label as “quality sleaze metal.” The outstanding sound can be attributed to the fact that Tom Werman (of Motley Crue, Ted Nugent, Junkyard, Cheap Trick, Molly Hatchet fame) produced this album. While Love/Hate‘s fame may have been short-lived, and mostly forgotten, their first 2 albums have been criminally overlooked, but Love/Hate‘s debut album Blackout In The Red Room is far and away their best effort.

Blackout In The Red Room is a 12 track sleaze metal classic from the Jizzy Pearl-led quartet Love/Hate. I’m sitting here calling it a classic, and you’re sitting there wondering why in the hell you’ve never heard of it. Even in 1990, there was a good chance you may not have heard of this band. But after today’s album review, you’ll be on Amazon searching for it, and it’s worth your hard earned sheckles. There’s no denying that Love/Hate is about as rock n’ roll as they come. Just take a look at their frontman Jizzy Pearl. He once strapped his body on a cross on the famous Hollywood letters as a publicity stunt, only to get stuck and require law enforcement to get him down! He’s almost solely responsible for the motion sensors that were installed soon after. Now if that ain’t rock n’ roll, I don’t know what is.

Blackout explodes right out of the gate with the titular song about getting hammered and blacking out. But this is not the last time you’ll hear a song about getting drunk, stoned, wasted, etc. In fact, this entire album is loaded with debauchery to the max. Sex, drugs, rock n’ roll is the general theme throughout Blackout, and there’s no hiding it. Jizzy Pearl may not be the best lyricist, but he’s a more-than-capable frontman. The song “Why Do You Think They Call it Dope?” is actually making light of doing drugs and promotes it fairly well. While nearly every song focuses on alcohol and drugs, the debauchery doesn’t stop there, as evidenced in the song “Slave Girl,” where Jizzy Pearl sings “She’s a gangbang slave girl, I’ll be your homeboy” in the chorus. But the songs that have the best sound and production are “One More Round” and “Mary Jane” as they both feature an awesome breakdown that stays in your head for days. The sound in these songs is a hair more mature, albeit with alcohol and drug centred lyrics.

Overall, Blackout is a masterfully composed sleaze metal album. It’s just track after track after track of relentlessly pounding rock music with incredible vocals. I can’t say that Jizzy Pearl is a great singer, as I feel he lacks a sort of “flow” and “rhythm” with his style of singing, but for the kind of music he was making, it strangely enough finds a way to work! I particularly love the song “Why Do You Think They Call it Dope?” and the accompanying music video.

 

 

 Love/Hate may have had their time in the sun, but it was very short lived. They deserved much more fame than they ever received, but a lot of that was due to poor timing in the music industry paired with a musical style lacking in crossover appeal. Love/Hate’s Blackout In The Red Room has gone from a gold record to a forgotten album, and you’ll likely never hear any of these songs on the radio ever again. But it’s easily found on Amazon and eBay, so go get your hands on the sleaze metal classic from the heyday of the Sunset Strip.