Leading off with the 1981 number six U.K. hit single
"Night Games,"
Line Up
is a journeyman, early-'80s cross between
hard rock
and
AOR
. It's neither
pop
nor
heavy metal
, but somewhere in between. Though it may be far less
metal
than the group he'd just left (
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
), it was also far less catchy than, say, the post-
Keith Moon
-era
Who
. It was just the sound of a guy belting out mediocre songs with a lot of lung-power in the waning days of '70s-style
popularity, with
Cozy Powell
's thumping drums doing more than anyone else to bring it into the 1980s production-wise. Some debts to old-time
rock & roll
are also heard in the cover of
"Be My Baby"
; a pretty lousy, ponderous pass at
the Kinks
'
"Set Me Free"
; and an-out-of-place-sounding run through
Chuck Berry
's
"Anthony Boy."
Also on hand is his low-charting, synth-heavy cover of
Argent
"Liar,"
with other songs bearing some faint traces of the likes of
Supertramp
the Police
. ~ Richie Unterberger