L.A. GUNS – Hollywood Vampires [Bad Reputation remaster +5 bonus tracks]

French reissue label Bad Reputation has been doing a great job releasing ‘Collector Series / Remastered with Bonus‘, with the main attraction being the addition of bonus tracks or bonus disc, making these reissues the ‘definitive expanded versions’. In a Rock Candy Records fashion, these are official remasters in arrangement with the original recording companies.
Their own remastered version of “Hollywood Vampires“, for many the best L.A. GUNS album, comes with 5 bonus tracks.

“Hollywood Vampires” is one of the most complete L.A. GUNS albums, presenting various shades of the band and is representative of the late ’80s / early ’90s US hard rock sound & style, with riff-laden songs and big choruses on every song.
The album starts with “Over the Edge”, which was used in the film Point Break, and since then it’s plenty of catchy tunes such as “Kiss My Love Goodbye”, the hooky “Some Lie 4 Love”, “My Koo Ka Choo” and the classy from the era ‘na nanana’ melody of “Dirty Luv”.

There’s melodic midtempo / ballads in “Crystal Eyes”, “It’s Over Now” and the retro-style of “I Found You”, attempting to repeat the earlier success of their major single ‘The Ballad of Jayne’.

The meticulous production gives the album a punch typical of the period (1990-92); a full sound, with lots of background harmony vocals, layered guitars and additional keyboard arrangements.
If “Hollywood Vampires” had been released just a year earlier, and gotten a good push, it could have maintained the momentum that the band built with its first two albums and even expanded their fan base.

In a perfect world, “Hollywood Vampires” should have easily made L.A. Guns household names in 1991 with equal success to Guns N’ Roses Use Your Illusion.
Sadly, for L.A. Guns, and so many other great bands of the period, their brand of ultra-hooky hard rock was soon to be replaced with angst ridden grunge from the Pacific Northwest.

But all of us know that the US rock albums recorded between 1990/92 are fantastic, and this Bad Reputation remaster handled by Jean Yves-Legrand (Giant, Cinderella) sound million bucks.
This release includes as bonus various live versions of the album tracks recorded at the era (great quality) and to make it more juicy we have added the original Japanese bonus track.
The definitive, most complete version available of “Hollywood Vampires”, the one to treasure.
HIGHLY Recommended

You’ve seen it first here, at 0dayrox

01 – Over The Edge
02 – Some Lie 4 Love
03 – Kiss My Love Goodbye
04 – Here It Comes
05 – Crystal Eyes
06 – Wild Obsession
07 – Dirty Luv
08 – My Koo Ka Choo
09 – It’s Over Now
10 – Snake Eyes Boogie
11 – I Found You
12 – Big House
BONUS TRACKS:
13 – Over The Edge (Live) [bonus track]
14 – Dirty Luv (Live) [bonus track]
15 – My Koo Ka Choo (Live) [bonus track]
16 – Kiss My Love Goodbye (Live) [bonus track]
17 – Some Lie 4 Love (Live) [bonus track]
0dayrox Extra Bonus:
18 – Ain’t The Same ’92 [Japan bonus track]

Phil Lewis – lead vocals
Tracii Guns – guitars, slide, theremin, backing vocals,
Kelly Nickels – bass guitar, backing vocals
Steve Riley – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Mick Cripps – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, strings arrangements

BUY IT !
badreputation.fr/LA-GUNS-HOLLYWOOD-VAMPIRES