Animal Grace

Album Review

Setting the stage for the final phase in the sputtering glory period of Montreal celestials April Wine, Animal Grace stealthily practiced commercially competent clod rock but distinguishably disappeared without a trace. Leadoff "This Could Be the Right One" escapes the fate of ad infinitum wussy ballads via a brisk tempo and cynical lyrics. The herky-jerky "If Money Could Talk" breaks with one of those great yuppie funk moves isolated to the '80s. The dead-on-the-vine vintage Wine pumping out "Gimme That Thing Called Love" invokes a glorious but extinct custom of quaintness and Quaaludes. Über AOR producer Mike Stone co-writes the downright great "Hard Rock Kid" who cooly cooks in the spotlight ("Leave him alone, he's in the hard rock zone"). Weirdo "Sons of the Pioneer" sported a silly video, dressing the boys in some crazy Hoth threads. Like Loverboy, Canuck kings of frat rock, the April Wine muscle machine was running out of steam and about to be displaced by handyman Bryan Adams' installation of Canadian Hartland into the American consciousness. But even this late in the game, Myles Goodwyn and company are good for a few choice cuts. The celebrated three-guitar lineup long gone, the rest of the band (included bald dynamo Jerry Mercer on the skins) dissipated after this release, due to Goodwyn's dictatorship. Nobody ever expected April Wine to achieve so darn much in rock's vicious game anyway.