Reviewed by Tom Mott
Released: 1980 Jimmie Mack Jimmie Mack And The Jumpers Genre: The Great Lost Bryan Adams Album Rating: 3.7 out of 5 Highlights: It's Gonna Hurt Hold Me Tight When I Kiss You I Want It All HIGHLY RECOMMENDED if you like Bryan Adams and Graham Parker. Eddie Money and Bryan Adams had a love child, and his name is Jimmie Mack. There's a certain strain of versatile pop rock that with just a small tweak becomes something else. Add the farfisa and you're in Elvis Costello's world. Layer with 12-strings and you're in Tom Petty land. Replace with a throbbing synth and you're cruisin' with Aldo Nova. Strip to the basics and you're down at the local bar with Huey and the boys. This is right in that zone: Phil Lynott, Huey Lewis, Clover, Costello, Graham Parker, Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Tom Petty, Martin Briley, Donnie Iris. Heck, throw in Aldo Nova, John Waite, and .38 Special. This is one of those albums where dagnabbit, it's well done, it's catchy, he's got the feels, I'm rooting for him, and he's delivered a really well-crafted set of 3-1/2 minute songs. The kind of songs where midway through you think maybe you've heard it before. I would list way more highlights, but even with all of its strengths, it's still not going to cut through the other hundreds of thousands of albums vying for my attention. That sucks because it's a pretty freakin' great record. The first track is super catchy: sounds like it woulda/coulda been a massive hit for Phil Collins. Hold Me Tight evokes both .38 Special (Caught Up in You) and Whitesnake (Here I Go Again). I Want It All could have been produced differently and ended up on an Elvis Costello album. P.S. Jimmie Mack wrote a lot of Earl Slick's songs.
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