JIMMY BARNES: Freight Train Heart

Produced by Jonathon Cain, Desmond Child and Mike Stone

Released: 1987

A conversation on Facebook the other day put me in mind of just how much I love this album. It's both a shame and a surprise that Jimmy Barnes wasn't able to crack the American market with Freight Train Heart because it is easily one of the best examples of radio-friendly AOR ever recorded. Anyone who doubts this should first take a look at the list of people who played on this (half of Journey, the singer from Guiffria, Huey Lewis and the guy who would replace Gary Richrath in REO Speedwagon), and then just randomly play any track off it. This is finely-tuned, shiny hard rock that showcases the immense power of Jimmy Barnes' vocals like nothing he's done before or since but it's also one where he and the various musicians around him work as a complete band to create a collection of fantastic songs. Considering the problematic recording process that used three studios in two countries and dozens of session players and the arguments Barnes had with Cain and his US label over who should play guitar on "Too Much Ain't Enough Love" (among other things), it's surprising that anything so cohesive could have resulted. Four singles came from this album, but really all ten of them are hits.

Freight Train Heart opens with some mean, bluesy David Lindley slide guitar as Barnes echoes the blue-collar rock of his previous album with "Driving Wheels", the ultimate ode to truckies. Then, with the help of some of the guys from INXS and the Angels, Jimmy turns an obscure Ronnie Wood song into an absolute blues rock ball-tearer; "Do or Die" is similarly raucous, like Cold Chisel at their most fired-up, but even louder. In between these two is the smouldering "Too Much Ain't Enough Love", one of Jimmy's best songs with one of his best controlled vocal performances. Neal Schon plays all over this and does such a killer job you can understand why Barnes defied company executives who wanted Robert Cray instead.

Later on there's the pop-laced "I Wanna Get Started With You", another riotous rocker in "Lessons in Love" and the majestic "Last Frontier", Jimmy's tribute to the battlers who built his adopted country. And then there's the power ballads, and if ever there was a guy who could put power into the rock ballad, it's Jimmy Barnes. In "I'm Still on Your Side" he hits notes that float somewhere in orbit and unleashes a scream that must have just about blown the roof off wherever he was at the time, and not once does he go out of tune. "Waitin' for the Heartache" is almost the perfect radio rock song, but the real gem is "Walk On", an undiscovered slice of brilliance from Desmond Child and Joe Lynn Turner that Jimmy Barnes takes to a whole new level of awesomeness. It's the perfect closing moment to one of Australian rock's perfect albums.

1. Driving Wheels
2. Seven Days
3. Too Much Ain't Enough Love
4. Do or Die
5. Waitin' for the Heartache
6. Last Frontier
7. I Wanna Get Started With You
8. I'm Still on Your Side
9. Lessons in Love
10. Walk On

Rating: 100%