Unruly Child is the fully realized vision of Marcie Free. The band’s self titled 1992 debut combined the hard and heavy riffs of King Kobra with the gentle melodic touch of Signal, both acts that Free had previously fronted. Considering the album is a cult classic in the melodic rock community, it’s nothing short of odd that band self destructed not long after its release. They released a couple albums without Free, first with Hurricane/Foreigner singer Kelly Hansen and then with veteran sideman Phil Bardowell, but it just wasn’t the same.
Much to the delight of melodic rockers the world over, Free returned to the fold in 2010. Unruly Child has been making up for lost time since. Their latest album, Our Glass House, is their eighth album overall and fifth of the last decade. And much like previous Unruly Child efforts, it’s a largely solid outing. Aside from a couple questionable tracks of Bon Jovi flavored adult contemporary (“Talked You Out of Lovin’ Me”, “Catch Up to Yesterday”), it’s by and large the same Unruly Child you came to love three decades earlier.
The album’s opening track, “Poison Ivy”, was previously released as a single. I must admit that upon first listen, I wasn’t too impressed. That said, this is a common trope of advance singles and why I try to avoid them. On their own, they don’t represent the scope of the album as a whole. “Poison Ivy” is one of those slow burners that makes more sense when followed by the heavy, upbeat King Kobra stylings of “Say What You Want”. This rager left me wanting more, although the only other song in this vein is the album’s second to last track, “The Wooden Monster”.
The rest of Our Glass House is traditional AOR. “Glass House” is an excellent power ballad with crunchy guitars and atmospheric synths. It’s just the throwback to Signal’s Loud and Clear that I needed, as is “Underwater”. Meanwhile, “Freedom is a Fight” has that early 90s AOR vibe to it, while the closing “We Are Here to Stay” sounds like an AOR spin on Coverdale era Purple. Perhaps it’s the funky Blackmore riff and the organs that make me draw this comparison.
Our Glass House carries on Unruly Child’s winning streak of meaty melodic rock. If this is the last AOR album I review in 2020, then what a way to end the year!
6 out of 10
Label: Frontiers Records
Genre: AOR
For fans of: King Kobra, Signal, Bon Jovi