CLEAVAGE – 15 Gets Ya 20

In the very early ’90s New Jersey Hard Rockers CLEAVAGE were one of the most promising bands of the area, prepping to be the ‘next big thing from the Garden State’, but as many, arrived too late into the scene for national success. Anyway, Cleavage managed to self-release in limited quantities their album ‘The Demo’, a highly sought after CD for years among fans and collectors of the genre.
Forward this new century, Cleavage in association with FnA records is re-releasing, officially on a label for the first time ‘The Demo’ (don’t let the title fool you, it’s a professional recording) re-entitled “15 Gets Ya 20” with eight additional bonus tracks.

The music in “15 Gets Ya 20” is pure American Hard / Hair Metal from the late ’80s in the same game of Warrant, Ratt, Friction, Lancia or Rock Boulevard.
The musicians in Cleavage weren’t newcomers at all; founder Larry Ganci used to play in Hollywood Tease (which released an indie record), brothers Mike and Ronnie Parkes played for Benny Mardones (Ronnie now handles bass in FarCry and Seven Witches) and drummer Scott Nazz worked as session man on many recordings.

What you get here are catchy hard rockers with melodic rocking guitars ala Warrant, sticky choruses and a swaggering singer sounding a lot like Autograph’s Steve Plunkett.
Sometimes laid back with acoustic tracks thrown in the best MTV style, the good thing in this recording is the attitude, the freshness of the Hair Metal in its pure essence.

Tonge-in-cheek rockers like “In Your Face” (title says all), the Ratt-like “In Your Face”, “Shake It For The Boyz” and the Warrant-riff bounce of “Grease Monkey” are fun and contagious.
The corky title track “15 Gets Ya 20” was some kind of a local hit in Jersey’s radio station for several weeks in a row and it’s another cool rocker.

The slower tunes are quite good and melodic as well, like midtempo “Blood And Wine” or the acoustically filled “Time May Rust” which reminds me Mariah or XYZ.
But the best is “It’s Not Goodbye Forever”, a wonderful power ballad akin Danger Danger best moments plenty of nice harmonies, a sustained melodic guitar solo and a lighters-in-the air feel.

“15 Gets Ya 20” is a great testament of the Hair Metal era from a band with a superstar potential.
The songwriting quality is not sub par to anything released by Warrant, Ratt of Danger Danger in the late Eighties, extremely catchy, really well composed and performed with the typical ‘juice’ of the genre. You can’t hear that guitar sound anymore…
Production is very good for an early Nineties indie (with slightly differences in the bonuses, obviously from different sessions) professionally recorded & mixed, surely remastered for this reissue obtaining a quite crisp sound.
A cool, fun, magical trip back to the Hair Metal heyday, really, really enjoyable. If you’re fan of the genre, “15 Gets Ya 20” is a must have.

01 – Un Da Fi Uh
02 – In Your Face
03 – Blood And Wine
04 – I Got The Gun
05 – Shake It For The Boyz
06 – Hard To Get
07 – 15 Gets Ya 20
08 – It’s Not Goodbye Forever
09 – Grease Monkey
10 – Little Girl
11 – I’m No Angel
12 – Time May Rust (Billboard Winner)
13 – Blood And Wine (Unedited)
14 – Take Me Back [Bonus Track]
15 – Getting Away With Murder [Bonus Track]

Larry Ganci – Vocals
Ronnie Parkes – Guitars
Mike Parkes – Bass
Scott Nazz – Drums
Joe Osso, Steve Ceragno – add. guitar

BUY IT !
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