I consider
“Demons down” from
HOUSE OF LORDS one of the best AOR and hard rock album ever, release in 1992 when I was in my teenager epoch. Then, what does
MARK BAKER have to do with this fact? Actually
MARK BAKER co-wrote almost the entire album (a few exception, like the magnificent ballad
“Inside You” and
“Spirit of Love”), and this has made him one of my teenager heroes.
“The future Ain’t What it Used to Be” is a collection of the tracks contained in demos dated back in the eighties and nineties (coming from a DAT tape) and remastered by
JK Northrup, featuring singer like
James Christian (
HOUSE OF LORDS),
Marcie Free a.k.a
Mark Free (
KING COBRA, SIGNAL) and
Bill Champlin (
CHICAGO). I have not mentioned it, but
MARK BAKER is also the main co-writer of the Signal album
“Loud & clear” dated back in 1989, with hits like
“Does it feel like love” and many others.
The production, being still demo material, is surprisingly clean. But the album still remains a compilation of old material and I would recommend it only to die-hard
MARK BAKER fans, but, even if you are not into him, in my opinion it has a great merit: for “differently young” rocker like me, it reminds of old and great albums and emotions, and for “correctly young” rockers it is a great opportunity to discover songs and albums from the past that they may have missed (see the bands and album above).
So, as a conclusion: great buy, as said, if you a die-hard fan. But, do not miss the opportunity of listening to the origins of
MARK BAKER, listen to House of Lords, listen to Signal, those are true hard rock masterpieces, and
MARK BAKER was (one of) the person(s) who made that possible
(“O Father” and
“What’s Forever For” are still one of the best hard rock songs ever!). This was hard rock in the nineties and in my opinion that music will always be amazing and deserves not to be forgotten.
Songwriting: 10
Originality: 8
Memorability: 10
Production: 7