#74
Reviewed by Aaron Conte
February 1980
Survivor
Survivor
Allen’s rating: 3 out of 5
Aaron’s Rating: 4 out of 5
Aaron’s Highlights:
Somewere in America
Can't Getcha Offa My Mind
Let it Be Now
As Soon As Love Finds Me
Youngblood
Freelance
20/20
Whatever it Takes
Of 11 songs, only 2 real clinkers here.
By Aaron Conte
This album constantly surprised me and made me wonder why I never picked up this album back when it was new (1980). Maybe it was because I only had a fleeting flirtation with the "Molly Hatchet", "38 Special", Lynyrd Skynyrd", "Kansas", "Foreigner", "Thin Lizzy" genre and was too much of a KISS fan to entertain the thought that there was any other guitar band out there that could turn me on. That and I didn't smoke, drink, wear jean jackets or cut class. I was leaning further into what would become new wave, and "college rock" so I guess...my loss.
"Survivor" came from the midwest at a time when guitar bands were changing. We were being introduced to "The Pretenders", "Def Leppard", "Loverboy", "U2", "Dead Kennedys" and a solo crazy train wreck named Ozzy Osbourne. Their debut release simply titled, "Survivor" was a bold full-throttle statement that they could still be contenders in the swiftly changing landscape of what we called Album Oriented Rock.
With an Andrews Sistersesque (my word) cover model self-consciously hiding a dazzling smile, the juxtaposition of band name and album art seems as if they were trying to throw us off their tail. This is a band who in two short years would be in full mainstream radio saturation, win a Grammy, go platinum twice as well as win a Peoples Choice Award. Midwestern modesty, to be sure, guided their quiet footsteps into the punishing world of rock and roll.
Every song with the exception of two, is a celebration of guitar riffs, big anthem choruses, power chords, clear drum sounds, some minor touches of eighties technology on down beats occasional date the record but mostly it is an unabashedly romantics take on what was then modern love. We now know who South Park creators Matt and Trey were listening to in 1980. More than twice we hear the refrain, "your love, your sweet sweet love" and maybe without irony think back to when we could say words like that, and mean it.
We are even treated to a taste of what lead to the penning of their signature song. "Youngblood", the fifth song that closes out side one, begins with almost the very same guitar tick, starting out quietly and building into a rock and roll boogie about a "cocksure school girl who gets what she wants,"...and who will "get what she needs". I think we can agree, even when they broke through with "Eye of the Tiger", these guys wrote lyrics that were a little bit too much on the nose at times.
Another "sweet love" track is in the middle of side two is "20/20". More adolescent lyrics about "having you in my sights" (get it? 20/20!), and, "can't disguise the fire in your eyes" (eyes! 20/20!), but what I really enjoyed about this song is what I enjoyed about another early eighties band, "R.E.M.". You can make this song about whatever you want when/if you give it a listen this year, because ultimately you get to sing along at the top of your lungs with the chorus, "twenty twenty!!!" Stipe was notorious for intentionally garbling words or just making sounds to go along with their melodies, leaving it up to the listener to decide what the message, if any, was.
Unfortunately that's not the case here with "Survivor". It's all too clear what they mean, but its still a fun song to sing, and hilariously, not the last...
"Freelance" is for all my friends out there who still go out there and bash their heads against the wall of this America to make a living. It begins with a transparent rip of Van Halen's "Running with the Devil", even borrowing Dave's first line, "I live my life..." If the first side of this debut album is one good track after another, this might be my favorite track on the record, if only because I couldn't shake the image they drew of a somehow sexy, badass freelance office temp who steals all the ladies hearts, OR maybe even better, a Broadway musical about a big city office boss who preys on the office temp pool. Ok maybe not the second one.
"Survivor" by "Survivor" is damn good album. Eleven songs at forty minutes is perfect. They definitely deserve the long storied career they had. This album was released in February of 1980, which means they wrote and recorded it in 1979. "Eye of the Tiger" hit in 1982.
If only they held onto the song they also wrote then,"Rockin' Into the Night", instead of selling it to "38 Special".
They could have gotten there sooner and enjoyed some of that sweet sweet love before Rocky had to get involved.
- Aaron Conte 4/16/2020!
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