BOSS: Step On It

Released: 1984

Sometimes it's hard to see exactly what appeals to record labels when they go looking for hitmakers. Step On It came out just as the hair/pop-metal juggernaut was gathering momentum thanks to the combined successes of albums like Metal Health, Shout at the Devil and (most significantly in terms of this album) Pyromania, so clearly in this case, timing was everything. Boss was a hard-working band that had come across to Sydney from Adelaide in the early 1980s and it was probably the combination of being in the right place at the right time and having just the right level of Def Leppard-ness in their sound that attracted the interest of RCA, who gave Step On It immediate worldwide release when it came out in 1984.

I bought this album after seeing Boss open for Iron Maiden and thought it was all right but even back then I didn't love it that much. It has a couple of songs that are OK and one that I still quite enjoy but this is an album that has dated really badly and, on the face of it, wasn't that great to begin with. First of all, there's that cover, which, if you can't see it too well, is a woman's leg in heels (and studded leather anklet) stepping on (geddit?) a Gibson Destroyer. It's pretty lame, but in the context of 80s album covers, not as bad as some. Secondly, the production is the stock standard paper-thin and gutless "rock" mix that every Australian band who couldn't afford Mark Opitz or Nick Launay or Mike Chapman (or someone of similar stature) seemed to get. Nevertheless, none of this would have mattered if the songs were there, but they're not.

"Kick Ass (Rock N Roll)" isn't quite as kick ass as its title suggests but it is clearly the best song on the album, a nice hard rocker that I still crank from time to time and the track that best showcases the two aspects of Boss that were in any way remarkable: Craig Csongrady's wailing vocals and Kevin Pratt's blazing guitar solos. Both of them have loads of obvious ability (particularly Pratt) and this combination would arguably work better several years later in a reconfigured version of the band called BB Steal, but on Step On It the overall amateurish approach doesn't do much for them. "That Woman" (and quite possibly "Free Wheelin'") is the only other song that really rises above the terribly average; "Cry Cry" is a detestable attempt at a ballad and "Shake It" (which begins "Saw you last night at the local dance/I was feelin' pretty lucky, thought I'd take a chance") is just awful. In between, there's just a bunch of unmemorable songs (a couple of which were, amazingly, issued as singles) that, like the album itself, fail to rise to any great heights.

1. Kick Ass (Rock N Roll)
2. That Woman
3. Dancin' Queen
4. Strange Games
5. Hard N Fast
6. Escapee
7. Take It or Leave it
8. Free Wheelin'
9. Cry Cry
10. Shake It

Rating: 45%