#10/1167
January 10 1986
Van Stephenson
Suspicious Heart
Genre: MOR
3.25 out of 5
As I sift through the morass of musical styles of the middle of the 80s one style pops up every so often and reminds me that it’s out there, begging for our MTV eyeballs and vinyl dollars. It’s that mid-tempo balladeering Bryan Adams sounding almost heartland but not quite heartfelt Middle of the Road sound that is meant to sound like it was recorded in a room smeared with gauze and soft lighting.
That’s this.
It’s so of the era that it’s impossible to think of it as anything other than stuck in the amber of the era. If I’ve never heard of Van Stephenson (and I hadn’t) it’s for good reason. His music seems to be made for the closing credits or the fall-in-love montage of an faux-military Tony Scott movie. Or any and every Brat Pack flick. When he’s not doing that he’s ripping off The Police “Dancing with Danger” or Rick Springfield “Fistful of Heat”.
Ugh.
It’s never insultingly terrible and it never makes me hungry for the next track.
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