Chameleon - Chameleon
#713
1981 Housekeeping
Chameleon
Chameleon
Genre: Yanni Rock
3.5 out of 5
Highlights:
This and That
Forever
Requisite 80s cover: It’s a bonus track but, since I love this song I had to hear what they did with “Friday On My Mind”. It’s an ominous, driving, theatrical version and you know what? I love it.
Not a typo. This is Yanni’s pre-“Yanni” band.
Remember when Billy Joel started off in a terrible hard rock band, Attila? This is Yanni’s story. As I said when Im mentioned Snuffy Walden in another review, Everyone’s gotta start somewhere.
It opens like the soundtrack to St. Elsewhere. And that’s all Yanni, baby!
Some of it’s actually catchy, if not really unctuous, like the almost slimy “All Night”. These guys come across as the nerdiest sleeves at the night club providing the soundtrack to gauze filtered rocking discotheque vampires.
Which is a shame cuz they have some really interesting ideas. Like the Yes inspired progger “This and That” which leans heavily into the theatrical rock.But for every bonkers fun track there’s an “Oh Love” which really sinks this thing. (“Love, oh love. Look what you’ve done to me. Taken a boy and made a man and thrown away the key.” Ugh.)
It was halfway through that I wrote the note: “REO Speedwagon meets Supertramp”. I don’t know how accurate I was but there are times I love both of those groups and this was more the good parts of those than the bad.
Warning. This feels like the longest record of 1981.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3FUNf-r4v8
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