Well Well Well – Dangerous Dreams (1988)

This is again one of those albums where I'm not really sure how I ended up owning it. It must have either came from my grandmother's house and used to belong to one of my uncles, or alternatively it's one of the albums my friend bought me at a flea market. In any case, it's fairly safe to say that I haven't listened to the album that much. It doesn't help that it's not available on Spotify and this vinyl of mine is lying in a box at my grandmother's place at the moment. Fortunately I could find this album on youtube. Well Well Well plays fairly mainstream 80's rock music with big electric guitar sounds and heavy synth element. The band seems to be a prime example of the genre called AOR (adult-oriented rock). There are not many surprises in the production and it's just as cheesy as most of 80's radio music was.



I'm not really saying this is bad music, but also there's nothing particularly interesting in this music. It's something that probably played on the radio all the time in the 80's and if it was in any way known in its time, it's long since been forgotten. You can hear that this album has been made with a lot of money, so at least there were high hopes for them. The lyrics sound quite good, but I haven't really listened to this enough to see if that's the case throughout the album.

The album starts with wild electric guitars and a steady 80's beat in the song Revolution. The chorus is quite catchy, so I could see this could've been something of a hit back in the day. The guitars sound a bit like Billy Idol. Back to You starts with sweeping synth sounds before, again, the weeping and overly produced electric guitars kick in. The drums and bass are very unimaginative as was the case in mainstream pop in the 80's. There are hardly any fills and they're just keeping the beat extremely steady. Murderous People starts off a bit calmer than the first two songs. The song has been built in a way that makes you listen to the lyrics intently. It's good for someone like me who only starts listening to the lyrics after a while. Someone You Need sounds very massive and there are similarities to bands such as Journey or Toto. The chorus is very cheesy. One In a Million continues with steady drum beats. There are some very 80's sounding sharp bass sounds and even, I think, some slapping. The title-track Dangerous Dreams is like any 80's rock anthem. The synth sounds are extremely cheap sounding and cheesy and there are crazy echoey guitar sounds in there as well. Possession is another obvious hit song. At least in this song, there are some interesting bass lines, but mainly just as fills. Empty Eyes is an 80's ballad that has almost funnily cheesy sounds and lyrics. I can almost see the drummer with a headband twirling his drum sticks in every pause of the song. I Will has this wild galloping drum beat and some bass slapping along with clear high vocals. The guitar riffs are really funny. Freedom has some piano sounds that are probably meant to sound authentic, but they actually sound very clearly electric. It feels like the song is supposed to start at any minute, but it never really does. The album ends with Back to You that is a very stereotypical 80's hit song. The pan flute synth sounds are absolutely hilarious.

I'm sure there must be some music videos by this band as they made the album in the late-80's when MTV was everything, but I was not able to find anything on Youtube. It seems that no-one remembers this band in the internet era, because there's really not that much information available about the band. I don't even know where this band is from or anything.

It's funny how I actually own quite a few strange albums that one of my relatives has bought at some point in their lives and I don't even know who they belonged to before. I guess it's good to broaden my horizons in music by listening to stuff I wouldn't have bought myself, but quite often these albums are not good enough to make it into my normal listening. Well Well Well is not an exception, but it's nice to have something like this in the record collection, because it's so different from anything else I have.

Listen to the album on Youtube.