CHERRY ST. – Monroe [Rerelease]

Cherry St. released their Monroe album back in 1996. In 2004 they re-released the album, adding another 3 (bonus) tracks to it. The original 6 tracks offer pretty much straight forward Rock & Roll, often with lyrics down the naughty street. The 3 bonus tracks are lyrically in the same shape, but with a more modern, Metal kind of musical style. In general, all songs are at first a little pale and anonymous, but after a few listenings, they pick up some color and form a more comprehensible identity.

The first highlight comes with track 5, “Bite the Bullet” — a kind of midtempo thing with a very AC/DC style riff and groove. Unlike some of the other songs, this one sticks in your mind, and the band’s performance really peaks with this song.

The next track, “The War Is Over” (which would be the original closing song), sounds somewhat like the horrific Guns N’ Roses “November Rain,” and almost spoils the entire album. Luckily, among the following 3 bonus tracks, there is a savior: “Soft & Slow.” It is indeed the juicy fruit in the basket, not so much because of its TNT sounding opening riff as because of its memorable lyrics:
“Soft and slow, That’s how you like it, Baby, I know …”
No need for books on Kama Sutra or anything: this one tells you all you need to know.

Production on Monroe is quite good, but the studio ambience is rather apparent. Also, the main guitar struggles a bit to cope with syncopated material (like the riffs that appear in opening track “Dogtown”). Finally, one might prefer the vocals to be a little more up front in the mix.

This album will serve nicely as time passing entertainment, or as a source for a giggle or two over how explicit you can put something on a record without seeming – well – explicit! Apart from this, this is easy come easy go and just after you start liking it, you might grow tired of it.