vmagistr
I discovered Y&T on sometime in 2011 or 2012 and I quite enjoyed some of their glam metal stuff with rich backing vocals and awesome guitar solos. I listened to their classic 80's albums Eartshaker (1981) and Mean Streak (1983), but I was most hooked by their follow-up In Rock We Trust (1984). I've given it a few more chances in recent months to see if this music would still work for me.
In short - it works. The fine-tuned sound has just the right groove for me, Dave Meniketti's voice was dealing with some serious rough sawing, and his guitar soloing usually comes at the best possible moments. There's a catchy riff at the core of almost every song included, my favorites probably being in the hits Masters and Slaves, Rock & Roll's Gonna Save the World and Don't Stop Runnin'. The last one is also my absolute number one on the album, primary because of the awesome chorus with vocal answers. I'm also having fun with the wilderness She's a Liar, in whose verses the bass rips into runs with jazz roots under the guitar chords. On the other hand, the two included ballads (I'll Keep on Believin' (Do You Know) and This Time) don't make me sit on my ass as the band sounds quite replaceable in them - especially the second of them, in essentially identical form, could very well be in the repertoire of band such as Journey.
From the lyrics of the first three songs one could get the impression that In Rock We Trust would be a philippic against the rulers of this world and a warning against the war that the imaginary chess of earthly strongmen could cause - even after forty years this theme is not completely passé. But beyond that, it's along the tried-and-true relationship line, oscillating between the self-praise of a kicked-off desperado (Don't Stop Runnin') and a paean to the girl who gives a guy a hard time in bed on demand. In between, of course, you'll find plenty of self-centred lovelorn despair, of which the aforementioned Journey were masters. Fortunately, I can enjoy most rock music quite well without concentrating on the lyrics any more, so as long as it doesn't offer topics for deeper thought, it's not a major obstacle for me.
I've been friends with In Rock We Trust over and over again because Dave Meniketti and co. have managed to deliver the music on this album in a catchy yet uninhibited way. This mix of riffs and melodies is quintessentially 80s in the best sense of the word.