MICHAEL STANLEY BAND - You Can't Fight Fashion [remastered & expanded]

Requested in "REQUEST & FILL CORNER" section...

As requested, here it is the penultimate MICHAEL STANLEY BAND album, and their most successful commercially. Although my favorite from the combo is the already posted Inside Moves due its mid-eighties AOR feel, this "You Can't Fight Fashion" from 1983 it's a very nice exponent from the first half of the '80s American Melodic Rock.
The record scored two prosperous singles with the anthem "My Town" into the Top40 - a song with more than 100 recorded versions all over the world - and the highly melodic and a personal pick "Someone Like You" sung by talented Kevin Raleigh, reaching a very respectable #75 on the Billboard charts.

"You Can't Fight Fashion" is mostly straight forward radio rock oriented interspersed with pristine midtempos like the highlight "The Damage Is Done", another AOR gem from Raleigh that reminds Orion The Hunter and Franke & Knockouts.
Stanley's strong rocker "Fire In The Hole" is a story song about a mining disaster, with lead guitars all over (courtesy of new guitarist Danny Powers), while "Hard Time" is rich on stabbing keyboards / synths typical from the early '80s.



Released nationally by EMI America and handled by high-profile producer Bob Clearmountain (Bryan Adams, David Bowie), "You Can't Fight Fashion" should have been MSB's deserved widespread success. But a dispute between Stanley and the label ended with EMI dropping the band after only six months of contract.
Despite of being the most fruitful on sales album in the entire Michael Stanley Band history, "You Can't Fight Fashion" is quite hard to find on CD (and in good quality on the blogosphere), only reissued some years ago with a couple of live bonus tracks.
A fine, catchy slice of American Melodic Rock ripped at maximum quality.


01 - Hard Time
02 - Just Give Me Tonight
03 - Someone Like You
04 - Highlife
05 - My Town
06 - The Damage Is Done
07 - Fire In The Hole
08 - How Can You Call This Love
09 - Just How Good
10 - My Town (Live) [bonus track]
11 - Someone Like You (Live) [bonus track]

Michael Stanley: vocals, guitar
Kevin Raleigh: vocals, synths, organ
Danny Powers: lead guitar, vocals
Bob Pelander: piano, synths, vocals
Michael Gismondi: bass
Tommy Dobeck: drums, percussion
Rick Bell: sax
Jimmy Maelen: percussion
Bob Clearmountain: arranger, mixing, producer, backing vocals




MSB You Can't Fight Fashion HQ
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