PAT TRAVERS – Hot Shot [Japan SHM-CD remastered] Out Of Print

The influential early albums by legendary PAT TRAVERS were requested by a fellow 0dayrox contributor in its best versions available; these remastered Japanese limited edition on high quality SHM-CD are the ones to get (unfortunately out of print).
Of my special interest are Travers ’80s recordings, all really good melodic hard rock oriented albums, some with a strong AOR feeling such as this “Hot Shot”, a true mid-Eighties US Rock LP, and my Travers’ favorite.

“Hot Shot” would be Pat Travers’ last studio album of the ’80s due his disillusion with the music industry and his recording label, Polydor, particularly.
Like most Rock musicians of that era (first half of the ’80s) Travers began leaning towards melodic hard rock, pretty popular in the US from the hands of acts such Night Ranger, Loverboy, etc.

For “Hot Shot”, Pat Travers hired a secret weapon to update his sound to mid-Eighties Melodic Rock / AOR; great guitarist, vocalist and composer Jerry Riggs. Yes, we featured here on the blog few days ago the album Riggs released with his own band two years before.
If you enjoyed that awesome disc, “Hot Shot” has many points in common.
Riggs brought the catchy chorus arrangements, clever keyboard arrangements and a overall sense of polished sound, that alongside Travers brilliant guitar playing resulted in a superb rockin’ AOR record.

An Angel / Giuffria-like keyboard intro leads into ‘I Gotta Fight’, a melodious rocker with a wonderful AOR pulse, great backing / harmony vocals and an elegant, radio/ready guitar solo.
‘Killer’ goes for more straight melodic rock akin Loverboy, same with the hot guitar driven title track plenty of te-rri-fic riffs and solos.
Travers famous anti-record industry ode “Just Try Talking (To Those Dudes)” is remarkably bitter lyrically, but radio friendly musically, as Pat tells us how tired he is of the radio and how the top five isn’t reality.

“Women On The Edge Of Love’ is pure first half of ’80s AOR, and if this track does not shake your AOR heart, you do not like this genre. This is the kind of action-movie track plenty of blood running and akiller chorus. This track alone worth the entire album. A Gem.

Same with “In The Heat Of The Night”… could you resist to a song with this title? You can hear Riggs’ touch on the harmony vocals and the overall rhythm, akin Night Ranger best moments. Another pearl.
“Louise” visits again the Loverboy territory with tons of catchiness, “Tonight” is (again) a melodic rock polished diamond, and closer “Night Into Day” an elaborated FM ready golden tune combining Melodic Rock and elegant AOR with mastery.

Simply put, “Hot Shot” is one of the best first half of the ’80s US Melodic Rock / AOR albums, heard by few fans of the genre and pretty ignored by the press.
This Japanese remastering / SHM-CD is clean and bright, worked from the master tapes and preserving the original vinyl LP harmonic output. Great album, great sound quality.
You’ve seen it first here, at 0dayrox
HIGHLY Recommended

Universal Music Japan ～ 【UICY-75930】
【ＬＴＤ ＳＨＭ－ＣＤ】

01 – I Gotta Fight
02 – Killer
03 – Just Try Talking (To Those Dudes)
04 – Hot Shot
05 – Women On The Edge Of Love
06 – In The Heat Of The Night
07 – Louise
08 – Tonight
09 – Night Into Day

Pat Travers – vocals, guitars
Jerry Riggs – guitars, backing vocals
Pete ‘Mars’ Cowling – bass
Dave Kiswiney, Barry Dunaway – bass
Pat Marchino, John Thorpe, Don Brewer – drums

Out Of Print
www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/UICY-75930
.