Artist: Mr. Big
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2011
Length: 46:38
Rating: 5/5
A new studio album. Yet another reunited band. A hard rock band. A supergroup. Billy Sheehan, Paul Gilbert, Pat Torpey and the eternally boyish-faced charmer Eric Martin. These guys don’t need a detailed introduction. “What If…?” indeed. What if you swap the “B” in “Big” for a “P”? You get the cover of the new Mr. Big album, complete with a flying piglet. Relax, no alarm bells. It’s not a parody of that famous Orwellian Pink Floyd record, but a thoroughly genuine, brand-new, standalone studio album from a super rock quartet that’s back in action.
Eight years of downtime didn’t mean the guys sat around twiddling their thumbs. Proverbial workaholics, especially the hyperactive Billy Sheehan and Paul Gilbert, they’ve kept the fans spoiled the whole time with all sorts of bands, solo releases and whatever musical challenges the various projects threw at them. When you find yourself back at the same table after a gap like that, it’s not even hard to pick up the story where it left off, especially if you’re well oiled. And believe me, these four know nothing of rust or sneaky forms of arthritis. “What If…” is bursting at the seams with youthful potency and all the pent-up energy that the band’s elemental rock n’ roll charge sets off.
Imagine walking into the studio full of energy and a need to prove yourself, ready to record your debut album. That’s the energy “What If…” embodies. No less, no more If we set aside the two studio albums Mr. Big made with Richie Kotzen in the lineup, “What If…” is the best possible logical continuation of the story that was left unfinished after the release of “Hey Man” in 1996. The only difference is that the music “What If…” embodies in 2011 is no longer trendy or current. On the flip side, over the years of the band’s break the guys in Mr. Big have grown wiser, more mature and more seasoned, and their drive gets them to their goals far sooner and more easily than it used to.
“What If…” has outstanding interpretation, outstanding execution, outstanding playing. It sounds like it was nailed in the first take, like a “mini” live gig in the studio, that’s how alive its pulse is. With that much mileage on the clock, this approach is a piece of cake for a band of Mr. Big’s caliber. Not only does it save you a ton of time and nerves, it also rewards your work with the greatest possible studio authenticity, which the song arrangements express (at first only on paper), and on top of that it practically guarantees a hundred percent of studio looseness and fun, which, by the way, is the very essence of a healthy rock n’ roll principle. Kevin Shirley managed to pour that chemistry between the four building blocks onto studio tape brilliantly, intensify what each member brings to the table, and melt it all down into a stunning collage of perfect studio sound that grabs the listener by the ears from the first second and doesn’t let them breathe for the whole running time.
The album opener Undertow is a roaring roll, embodied by the wrecking-ball avalanche of Sheehan’s thick, tightly wound bass weaving. When the bass guitar shadows Paul Gilbert’s splendid, classically built hard rock riff, it feels like Sheehan and Gilbert didn’t drift apart for a split second during the band’s long hibernation. Pat Torpey’s voluminous, at times cannon-fire-heavy drumming across the album, plus Eric Martin’s charismatic, melodic, authoritative vocals, enriched with an innate soulful veil, chime in alongside them, and the magic is born (again). Eric left his soul on this album. If nothing gets you earlier, he’ll cast a spell on you with his outstanding vocal performance in Nobody Left To Blame. It’s a treat to see how the Mr. Big mission dictates an adaptation of its basic building blocks, which outside this band play completely different music, subject to far more experimentation and trial and error.
Throughout the album, in the brilliance of the Sheehan/Gilbert instrumental partnership, especially in the instrumental mid-sections, you can feel that the duo is always at a point from which they could escape into progressive excursions of musical experimentation. Yet both players dutifully stick to the red thread and, amid all the brilliantly varied playing, keep the compact core of the band’s basic rocking charge intact. And Undertow? Take Cover wound up for 2011, with far more soloing and instrumental seasoning. Hot all over the place! It doesn’t get more “Mr. Big” than this!
The quintet has put together a set of new songs with a varied touch of arranging, along with the unmistakable stamp of the Mr. Big original. They never stop impressing with their inventiveness and sharp, incisive polish All The Way Up, for instance, is a stylishly built ballad that carries that bit of innate naivety the band has, the same one you can still find in their ultra hit To Be With You. It’s also one of the few spots where the album steps out a little from the overall dramatic feel, the faintly gloomy veil hanging over the songs. Then there’s I Get The Feeling, which, with the huge seductiveness of its trivial chorus melody, could easily have taken on the status of a mega hit on any of the early Mr. Big albums, like the commercially breakthrough “Lean Into It”..I Won’t Get In My Way is a moment of optimal use of all the attributes of the classic Mr. Big pedigree. A gloomy feel, but a chorus superbly carved into the melody, which brings the song’s atmospheric peak. Again, in a track like American Beauty, you can feel the charisma of older Mr. Big classics like Addicted To Rush or Shy boy poured in.
Even though “What If…” is a thoroughly “Mr. Big” album, this time it’s not about reviving nostalgia. No. With the new album, Mr. Big managed to pour the charm of the essence of their classic albums into it and add a touch of modern times. At the same time, “Waht If…” contains more soloing than any album before it. The built-in wit and mischief is of course a constant of Mr. Big albums, except that this time on the new record it works that much more astonishingly, with Sheehan and Gilbert at moments literally putting the listener under a spell through the fascination of their manual dexterity and exceptional solo embroidery (Around The World, the bluesy “waltz” witchcraft of Nobody Left To Blame) . “What If..” is a one-of-a-kind comeback album from a one-of-a-kind band, one that has to find a place in the collection of every fan of Mr. Big standards. With such vehemence, rediscovered creative inspiration and drive, and after two European tours within two years, there’s no doubter left who’d dare claim that “What If…” won’t soon be followed by a new studio sequel. So “What If..” is an exciting, thrilling musical gem from the band, and as such one of the highlights of the melodic rock releases of 2011.
Lineup
Eric Martin – vocals
Paul Gilbert – guitar, backing vocals
Billy Sheehan – bass guitar, backing vocals
Pat Torpey – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Production
Kevin Shirley
Track List
1. Undertow
2. American Beauty
3. Stranger In My Life
4. Nobody Left to Blame
5. Still Ain’t Enough for Me
6. Once Upon a Time
7. As Far As I Can See
8. All The Way Up
9. I Won’t Get In My Way
10. Around The World
11. I Get The Feeling
