The Lizard by Saigon Kick (CD, Jun-1992, Third Stone)

I have recently been trying to improve my glam/hair metal collection, and bought this album because 1) I had heard the song "Love is on the Way" on the radio and liked it, and 2) a number of reviewers (both here on Ebay and elsewhere) claimed that this band fit the "glam" genre. And they couldn't be more wrong. In terms of style, the singer has a voice similar to the singer for the "Crash Test Dummies", although the bands style overall is much edgier. And the singer does not sound like he's been sucking helium all day before the recording session. The band itself has an early "Pearl Jam" kind of sound going on, although they explore drop-D tuning as well as alternative scales/modes more than contemporaries. While it's possible that the bands first, self-titled album (produced by Michael Wagener of all people) has more "hair"-style elements, this album definitely does not.

And so, I've waited a while to actually review this album, because I didn't want to be biased by my initial shock at the fact that this album wasn't hair metal at all. That said, the album is just "OK". The tune "Love is On the Way" I think was a radio-friendly hit of the bands off this album, but anything else would have only been fit for modern rock/alternative radio formats. Unfortunately, unlike other bands such as Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains which found commercial success, none of the rest of the songs off of "The Lizard" have that same radio-friendly sound, and so, despite quality production and very excellent playing, I can only give this album an "Average" rating, due to its poor demonstration of song-writing.