Shane’s Rock Challenge: FIONA – Beyond The Pale

Shane | 14 August 2014 | Reply

Shane’s Rock Challenge: FIONA – Beyond The Pale
By Shane Pinnegar
6/10

Fiona Flanagan sports a horribly dated pale pastel outfit and a thousand bangles on the cover of this, her second album, and to many ears the music herein will be the aural equivalent.

Listen a bit closer though – through the mid-80s production and cheesy synth sound – and you’ll hear nothing but super-polished AOR and pop-rock.

Tragedy is co-written by Flanagan, producer (and later [now ex-] husband) Beau Hill and Kip Winger, Living In A Boy’s World by J Geils Band singer Peter Wolfe and his wife Ina, and In My Blood is another Hill/Winger composition.

Big name writers adding polish to 80s albums was nothing new – everyone from Alice Cooper to Aerosmith, Bon Jovi to Def Leppard and Heart did it and scored big hits as a result. It would have just been nice to hear more of Flanagan’s own work here (only four tracks have her as a co-writer) but there’s no denying her voice is fantastic and carries the album superbly.

Oh, talking about the cover… anyone wanna explain the back panel picture where Ms F is all hot n’ stylish (in the context of the times) while a fat cat (literally) stares up at her? I have no idea what it’s supposed to represent!