MICHAEL STANLEY BAND – You Can’t Fight Fashion [remastered reissue]

Fronted by Cleveland, Ohio born singer-songwriter Michael Stanley, The MICHAEL STANLEY BAND enjoyed considerable popularity during the first half of the ’80s with their brand of radio-friendly Melodic Rock with AOR touches.
Later Stanley turned solo artist with a more Americana musical approach, but the Michael Stanley Band is still a staple in US Classic Rock radio, so he decided to reissue through his own label all the MSB classic catalog in a remastered form.
“You Can’t Fight Fashion” was their their most commercially successful album, featuring great songs, wonderfully executed performances and impeccable production.

“You Can’t Fight Fashion” is a very nice, catchy exponent from the first half of the ’80s American Melodic Rock, plenty of straight ahead rockin’ tunes with lots of keyboards and melodic hooks.
The record scored two prosperous singles with the anthem “My Town” into the Top 40 – a song with more than 100 recorded versions all over the world – and the highly melodic and personal favorite “Someone Like You” sung by talented Kevin Raleigh (also keyboardist and second lead vocalist), reaching a very respectable #75 on the Billboard charts.

“You Can’t Fight Fashion” is mostly a collection of uptempo radio rock oriented songs interspersed with pristine mid-tempo tracks like the highlight “The Damage Is Done”, another AOR gem from Raleigh that reminds Orion The Hunter and Franke & Knockouts.
Stanley’s strong rocker “Fire In The Hole” is a story song about a mining disaster, with lead guitars all over (courtesy of new guitarist Danny Powers), while “Hard Time” is rich on stabbing keyboards / synths typical from the early ’80s.

Released nationally by EMI America and handled by high-profile producer Bob Clearmountain (Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi), “You Can’t Fight Fashion” should have been MSB’s deserved widespread success. But a dispute between Stanley and the label ended with EMI dropping the band after only six months of contract.

Despite of being the most fruitful on sales album in the entire Michael Stanley Band history, “You Can’t Fight Fashion” was quite hard to find on CD for years, only reissued by Stanley some years ago with a couple of live bonus tracks.
Now is on print again and remastered, available on very limited quantities.
Hurry up and get yours, it’s a collectors edition.

01 – Hard Time
02 – Just Give Me Tonight
03 – Someone Like You
04 – Highlife
05 – My Town
06 – The Damage Is Done
07 – Fire In The Hole
08 – How Can You Call This Love
09 – Just How Good
10 – My Town (Live) [bonus track]
11 – Someone Like You (Live) [bonus track]

Michael Stanley: vocals, guitar
Kevin Raleigh: vocals, synths, organ
Danny Powers: lead guitar, vocals
Bob Pelander: piano, synths, vocals
Michael Gismondi: bass
Tommy Dobeck: drums, percussion
Rick Bell: sax
Jimmy Maelen: percussion
Bob Clearmountain: arranger, mixing, producer, backing vocals
Digitally Remastered by Dean Sciarra

BUY IT !
www.nehrecords.com/SHOP/StanleyYou.htm
.