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By GREG MAKI
Listening to Skid Row’s Revolutions per Minute, I can’t help but wonder what kind of reaction it would receive without the Skid Row name attached to it. That then leads me back further to wonder what the perception of Skid Row would be if they hadn’t emerged in the late 1980s with the flowing blonde locks of their singer as their most memorable image. The occasional power ballad aside, Skid Row always has had more in common with the Sex Pistols than Poison. Revolutions per Minute, their second album with singer Johnny Solinger, hammers this home more than ever. It’s essentially a punk rock album and a pretty good one at that. It’s certainly more punk than Green Day and the other power-pop bands radio has fallen in love with. The core of guitarists Dave “The Snake” Sabo and Scotti Hill and bassist Rachel Bolan is intact and as strong as ever on anthems like “Another Dick in the System” and “When God Can’t Wait.” “Shut Up Baby, I Love You” is a great punk rock love song, while “White Trash” is a hilarious mockery of the trailer-park culture of its title. The band throws its best curveball on “You Lie,” which begins as a knee-slapping country tune and ends as the most punk song on the album. It’s one of my favorite songs of the year. “Strength” is the only track to stray in its entirety from the raw, back-to-basics formula, and not coincidentally, it’s the low point of the disc. But the hole they dig isn’t deep, and it’s one from which they easily climb out. On the vocal front, Solinger continues to show he is a first-rate frontman, displaying just as much—if not more—range than Sebastian Bach in his prime.
Many people, “I Remember You” still echoing in their ears, probably won’t give this album a chance. But it’s a solid effort. Unlike most of the bands from their era, Skid Row has a lot more to offer than nostalgia.
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