Pat Benatar - Tropico
#295
November 1 1984
Pat Benatar
Tropico
3 out of 5
Highlights:
Diamond Fields
We Belong
Ooh Ooh Song
The last day of school in May of 1985 this record was sitting on the carpet in front of an empty dorm room. Just the record. No cover, so sleeve.
I don't know what that means in the greater context but it's the only memory I have of this record, which I've never heard.
I have to admit I wasn't expecting the pro-rock opening of "Diamond Field". It's actually a lot more pulsating and energetic than I was anticipating, since I always wondered why the album didn't open with the massive hit that follows it.
Now, everybody knows that I am not a fan of original acts opening their albums with a cover but this one seemed obvious to me. And, also, I don't know if, at the time, anyone would've known that it wasn't a Benatar/Giraldo original.
What "We Belong" is, though, is one of the best songs of the era. Bar none. I say that, not because I know the author but in spite of it. It's haunting and delicate and then explodes into a siren call of hope and connection. How has it not become a political anthem? It's more than just a love song, which it is, it's a love song to people, not just a person. It's perfect. And it lingers long after the fade out.
From there we get some seriously MOR stuff. "Painted Desert" & "Temporary Heroes" are slow paced and almost ponderous and, while they don't build on the promise of her earlier stuff, it points to a mature direction, a sound that, dare I say, Madonna would mine about a decade later.
I'm not sure that's what we want from Pat, though, is it? She was a warrior voice in male dominated 70s rock, a beacon for, I know this sounds weird, Lita Ford and Joan Jett and others. She was fierce.
Tropico is the sound of someone leaving their youthful exuberance and energy behind and settling in to comfortable adulthood. But that doesn't yield the catharsis I want from her.
Then Side Two bursts out with the "Ooh Ooh Song" and we are at a carnival and I wonder...how come this wasn't up front? After the turgid, somnambulant end to Side One, why would anyone turn the damned thing over to even know that there's anything with any life in it on Side Two???
Sadly, it doesn't really last. I mean, "A Crazy World Like This" tries, but it's too little, too late.
Too bad, really.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tropico/716134525
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