Faster Pussycat

iTunes Review

Though they would go on to greater success with 1989’s Wake Me When It’s Over, Faster Pussycat were never better than on their eponymous 1987 debut. The band was not as raw as Guns N’ Roses but they weren’t as slick as Poison. They take their cues from early Aerosmith, and actually come up with a fairly credible brand of strutting saloon rock. Taime Downe’s vocals are so uncouth that they echo the style of punk hero Darby Crash, even though Faster Pussycat is nowhere near as dangerous as the Germs. If they didn’t have the misfortune of coming out the same year as “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Mr. Brownstone,” “Bathroom Wall” and “Babylon” could have easily been the toughest, sleaziest hard-rock songs of 1987. Like GNR, Faster Pussycat reveled in the sordidness of '80s Hollywood, and they wrote a few great tributes to their turf, including “Smash Alley” and “City Has No Heart.” However, the era’s best anthem is probably the rollicking “Cathouse,” named for the Hollywood nightspot that served as playroom for the hair metal movement.