Aching for Originality : CHECK LIST****<i> Great Balls of Fire</i> ***<i> Good Vibrations</i> **<i> Maybe Baby</i> *<i> Running on Empty </i>
**CINDERELLA. “Long Cold Winter.†Mercury. This album consists of fourth-generation blues-rock from a band whose intentions are good but which, even after a million-selling debut LP, emits a certain amount of insecurity. Instead of coming into their own, the members of Cinderella do their best to mold themselves to the Aerosmith-Zeppelin sound so fashionable this year. They actually do a good job with those familiar licks and hooks, but underneath it all, this band is aching for some originality.
“Long Cold Winter†isn’t completely a copycat wasteland. “Bad Seamstress Blues/Fallin’ Apart at the Seams,†though derivative, is a good white-boy effort at blues. “Second Wind†is a dynamic rocker with action-packed time changes. Unfortunately, too many of the other songs are throwaway commercial hard-rock, and the cliches abound.
By the end of Side 2, Cinderella seems lost in a quagmire of influences. Singer Tom Keifer has a strong personality and the band has the capability to stand on its own merits. They seem to sense this occasionally, and a persona of their own sneaks through once in a while. But on “Winter†they allow their uniqueness very little space.
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