Cinderella - Still Climbing (1994)

Artist: Cinderella
Title Of Album: Still Climbing
Year Of Release: November 8, 1994
Country: USA
Label: Polygram Records
Genre, Style: Hard Rock
Quality, Bitrate: FLAC (image + .cue), lossless; MP3, 320 kbps
Total Size: FLAC - 393,84 Mb; MP3 - 101.26 MB; COVERS - 16.57 MB

Still Climbing is the fourth studio album by Cinderella, released in 1994 through Mercury Records. Musically, it followed in the footsteps of their previous effort, Heartbreak Station, providing them with another album of gritty blues-rock in the vein of The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses and Humble Pie. Unfortunately, the album, which by most fans has been named as the equal or more of their previous efforts in terms of quality, was the victim of an MTV that ignored it, a record company that barely promoted it, and an audience whose taste had changed completely.

While Cinderella's first three albums all had gone platinum, the domination of grunge and alternative rock in the mid-1990s was so strong that it forced Still Climbing to chart at a lowly #178 and drop out after a mere few weeks. Despite featuring the minor hits "Bad Attitude Shuffle" (which was released as a single), "Hard to Find Words", and "Hot and Bothered" from the Wayne's World soundtrack, the album went nowhere, and the band's so far last studio album stands as a prime example of the loss of popularity among 1980's hard rock bands after the arrival of Nirvana.

Эта американская группа из Филадельфии была сформирована в 1983 году Томом Кейфером (гитара, вокал) и Эриком Бриттингемом (бас) при участии Майкла Келли Смита (гитара) и Тони Дестра (ударные). Последние двое покинули состав банды в 1985 году и были заменены Джеффом ЛаБаром (экс-"White Foxx") и Джоди Кортезом, соответственно. Смит позднее основал проект "Britny Fox". Как-то на выступлении группы в одном из филадельфийских клубах ребят приметил Джон Бон Джови и команда ему так понравилась, что он порекомендовал компании "Polygram records" подписать контракт с "Синдереллой". Вскоре после записи первого альбома Кортеза сменил Фред Коури.

На "Night songs" сразу же проявились незаурядные способности Кейфера как талантливого автора композиций.

Чем-то смахивающий на "AC/DC" и "Aerosmith" стиль группы плюс хрипловатый вокал Тома оказались довольно-таки популярными, и их композиция "Nobody's Fool" достигла тринадцатой строчки в американских чартах, а сам дебютный альбом вскарабкался на третье место. На втором диске "Long Cold Winter" уже присутствовал более индивидуальный саунд. "Синдерелла" исполняла оригинальный блюз-рок, идеально сочетавшийся с хриплыми интонациями Кейфера. Особенным успехом пользовались такие песни, как "Gypsy road", "Don't know what you got (Till it's gone)" (штатовский № 12 в сентябре 1988-го) и "Coming home".

На третьем альбоме "Heartbreak station" группа использовала элементы ритм-энд-блюза, которые придали альбому схожесть с "Rolling stones". Этот диск был менее успешным, чем предыдущие, хотя композиция "Shelter Me" с него попала в американский Топ 40.

Фред Коури ушел в "Arcade" и на временную подмену ему был взят экс-ударник из "Shadow king" Кевин Валентайн. Кейфер же поимел проблемы с голосовыми связками. Короче, вся эта бодяга потребовала длительного перерыва перед тем, как группа смогла приступить к записи нового альбома. Вышедший в 1994 году диск "Still climbing" оказался удачным возвращением группы к музыкальной деятельности, так как он был исполнен в стиле "Long cold winter". Барабанил на нем Кенни Ааронофф - ударник Джона Мелленкампа. "Cinderella" же в это время подыскивала себе нового ударника по Интернету.

В конце концов, им вроде бы это удалось. Новым членом их группы стал Кевин Конвей.

Track listing
All songs are written by Tom Keifer, except "The Road's Still Long", which was split between him and Andy Johns, and "Hot and Bothered", which was split with Eric Brittingham.

01. Bad Attitude Shuffle (5:32)
02. All Come Down (5:02)
03. Talk is Cheap (4:01)
04. Hard To Find The Words (5:46)
05. Blood From a Stone (4:52)
06. Still Climbing (5:22)
07. FreeWheelin (3:08)
08. Through The Rain (5:07)
09. Easy Come Easy Go (4:35)
10. The Road's Still Long (6:08)
11. Hot & Bothered (3:57)

Состав группы:
Tom Keifer – гитара, вокал
Eric Brittingham – бас
Jeff LaBar – гитара
Kenny Aronoff – ударные
Gary Corbett – клавишные

Cinderella is one of those groups that I found myself discovering only recently. Their first two efforts included the 'Night Songs' (the band's rockin' debut) and the
excellent 'Long Cold Winter'. These two albums are very enjoyable and everyone had high expectations for their next record. Unfortunately, in 1990 when the band released their third album, 'Heartbreak Station', it failed to meet most fans' expections including mine. There are a few very good songs on the cd and that is the problem because there are not enough of them. Also the music on this record is so blunt and in-your-face flat-out blues it becomes unbearable at times for me to stand listening to. I was expecting a rock and roll cd not a blues record. Lyric-wise, though, the songs have matured considerably. Also keep in mind that this album is not terrible; but it just is not nearly as much a pleasure to listen to as their previous albums.

'Still Climbing', which hit shelves (but not very hard, i.e. grunge) four years after 'Hearbreak Station', more than makes up for the previous let-down. This is a very solid, hard-rocking album. "Freewheelin'" completely threw me off--I did not expect to hear Cinderella rock that hard. This one should have been played all over the radios but it WAS 1994 wasn't it? "Through the Rain" is an excellent ballad along the lines of "Coming Home" and "Don't Know What You've Got (Til It's Gone)"--it's that good. My other favorite tracks are "the Road's Still Long", "Bad Attitude Shuffle", "Still Climbing" and "Blood From a Stone". "Hot & Bothered" is a very good bonus song that was originally featured on the Wayne's World soundtrack but it does not belong on this album. I agree with one of the other reviewers, it sounds TOTALLY out of place on this album. As for the rest of the songs, they are good as well. So, all in all, you get a very solid album with Cinderella's latest studio album (they still haven't released a new one yet, hopefully one is in the works), 'Still Climbing'. I would recommend this cd to any fan of good rock and roll.

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Cinderella- Still Climbing

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0oa5q34aKE[/youtube]