I am a HUGE Raspberries fan - how could any power pop fan not be, one could argue? Well, some do but, generally, they are heralded, and rightly so, as one of the most important bands in the genre. Their legacy,though, is somewhat dimmed by the fact that little of the post-Berries projects had much to build on that legacy. Fotomaker released two fine albums, one complete dud and Eric Carmen, like Rod Stewart, forgot how to rock pretty quickly becoming a balladeer. There is one exception in his solo career and it is "Tonight You`re Mine" which has some pretty awesome rock moments and while the ballads are there, they are classic Carmen gems that have moments of Berry sweetness. The proceeding are helped with Carmine Appice playing drums on the tracks here giving some iron to this pump. This guy on the net had a similar experience to me except that I bought the album when it came out. "Once I had picked up all four of the Raspberries albums at used record stores over the years, I began to concentrate on finding Eric Carmen`s three solo albums. I located Eric Carmen, Boats Against The Current and Change Of Heart fairly easily, and just thought it ended there. Imagine my surprise at finding this one in a cut-out bin for a dollar several years later. While I had the greatest respect for Eric as a writer and a singer, I had pretty much resigned myself to his slide from a top-notch rocker with the Raspberries to the smoother, almost easy listening crooner on his solo albums. Then I got this album home. Tonight You`re Mine turned out to be the closest thing to a rock album that Eric ever made as a solo artist. There are two songs I`d consider somewhat clinkers, Inside Story and You Need Some Lovin`, but they`re not so bad that they drag the really choice stuff down, and not so bad that they`re unlistenable. All For Love is a great lite rocker, with Eric switching gears as deftly as he did in his Raspberries heyday, while It Hurts Too Much also holds it`s ground well. A surprise favorite from the album was Sleep With Me. I was never much on schmaltzy ballads, but something about this song struck a chord with me. (It probably had something to do with the fact that my girlfriend at the time liked it also.) The title track is the one that kills me. On Tonight You`re Mine, is it my imagination or did Eric just rewrite Go All The Way for the sleazier, disco weary, late `70`s/early `80`s? It`s like the girl from Go All The Way has grown up to be something of a tramp. It fits in perfectly with a lot of what I remember from this time period. (Some of it all too well.) Overall, this album turned out to be a pleasant surprise, even more so because I hadn`t even known it existed when I found it." - William Eichelberger.
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