BULLSEYE – On Target [Rock Candy remastered +3]

Featured here when released, there were some bad ripping into the original file. Here’s a proper, fresh one using the Accurate Rip tool.

New York based BULLSEYE only album “On Target” was originally launched through a big label (Columbia / CBS) but over the years the record turned an obscure rarity, fortunately now released on CD for the first time & remastered by Rock Candy plus 3 bonus tracks.

Long before MTV or the internet new artists and records just sort of escaped into the record stores with little explanation or indeed fanfare. Now all is global and easy to reach, but in the LP vinyl era you gotta keep an eye on the import racks looking for new stateside releases that showed some kind of musical promise.
For fans like us living outside America, Journey, Boston, Kansas, Starcastle, etc all came to our attention via this random method of discovery and Bullseye were no exception to this.

With roots in the Boston, Massachusetts scene but coming together in New York City, they quickly secured a record deal with the prestigious Columbia label and set about recording their debut album with producer Rob Stevens (who’d previously worked with prog rockers Crack The Sky), at the renowned Le Studio, Morin Heights, Quebec, and finished it in NYC at the Hit Factory.
It was a match made in heaven, with the results displaying a musical maturity that defied the band’s relatively fresh faced status.

Housed in a striking cover that suggested something special indeed, those of us that ventured deeper were delighted to find a well honed record, exploding with melodic hard rock firepower and one that always kept songs at the forefront of the objective.
Combining a late seventies AOR feeling with a FM radio friendly rock&pop sound typical of the era, this quintet’s music is quite varied and entertaining.
To give you an idea about Bullseye’s versatility, opener ‘Treat Me Right’ (later covered by Pat Benatar) attacks from the start with stabbing pianos and clean melodic guitar riffs reminding the very early TOTO, followed by ‘Seventh Heaven’ which wouldn’t be out of place in Loverboy’s debut.

The melodic nuances of “I’ve Changed (Never Want To See You Again)” has some Survivor touches, then “Moonwalk” adds a southern flavor in the vein of Moxy, and “My Old Car” goes poppy ala The Kinks.
The keyboards / guitar lines on ‘Don’t Lose A Day’ brings to mind some Giuffria’s Angel, while ‘In The Heat Of Summer’ and the highly harmonic ‘March On, Time’ offer lots of lovable AOR melodies.

“On Target” sold pretty well upon its release, but due to internal troubles the band split few months after the release.With a track featured on the legendary Munich City Nights compilation series, Bullseye received some airplay on European radio years later, but “On Target” remained deleted for years.
Now Rock Candy has rescued this truly enjoyable, melodic, very well recorded, played and produced album with a pristine remastered sound, plus 3 lovely bonus tracks from the same sessions, especially the AOR breeze of ‘Ageless’.
Highly Recommended

You’ve seen it first here, at 0dayrox

01 – Treat Me Right
02 – Seventh Heaven
03 – I’ve Changed
04 – Moonwalk
05 – In the Heat of the Summer
06 – My Old Car
07 – Don’t Let Him Know
08 – What Can I Say
09 – Don’t Lose a Day
10 – March On, Time
BONUS TRACKS:
11 – It’s Over
12 – Ageless
13 – Olivia

Manny De Magistris – vocals, guitar
Tom Ferrara – guitars
Tom Graves – keyboards
Kevin Clougherty – bass
Alan Childs – drums, percussion

BUY IT
www.amazon.co.uk/Target-Bullseye/dp/B01GI8BFTW
.