The 1981 Listening Post - Shot in the Dark - Shot in the Dark

 Reviewed by Jim Coursey

Released: 1981 Shot In The Dark Shot In The Dark Genre: Soft Rock Rating: 2 out of 5 Highlights: Just As Well Shot in the Dark got their start as Al Stewart’s backing band on 1980’s “24 Carrots.” With their self-titled debut, they step from the shadows and onto the marquee, with Stewart producing. The Funk Brothers they ain’t, and it seems like nobody bothered to commission a sequel. It’s always a bad sign for me when I start imagining sitcom credit sequences while listening to an album, and sure enough their self-titled song fit that bill. Most of the stuff here is plenty cheesy, if not as sitcom theme-like. Marginal highlight “Just As Well” breaks the mold with some Irish-tinged folk rock. It’s a fleeting respite though. Commenters on Discogs are very complimentary about the recording and pressing quality of this as well as Stewart’s 1980 album. If tastefully recorded, DBX-encoded soft rock is your bag, you could probably do worse than this album, but you could probably also do well better. Personally, I’ll skip the category altogether and go with the 1986 Ozzy single of the same name.