Rocktrospectiva: The Succesfull "Stick It To Ya" Turns 35

Released on 23 January 1990, "Stick It To Ya" was the debut studio album by American band Slaughter, it sold over 2 million copies and became one of the biggest albums of 1990. "Up All Night" (No. 27), "Fly to the Angels" (No. 19), and "Spend My Life" (No. 39) all charted in the Top 40 on Billboard's Hot 100 and their videos were in solid rotations on the music television outlets. The album was also nominated for a best metal album of the year at the 1991 American Music Awards show. 

Back in the day when "Fly To The Angels" played all over, and if you don't like it, you were nothing, maybe because it was a nearly perfet rock power ballad back then, I think the album just came in time to enjoy huge success, attached to the last shimmering of commercial succes of that hard rock/glam metal era, "Up All Night" was another smasher, it was the first slice of success this album had back then, intense and powerful just like the genre demanded, "Spend My Life," was another outstanding track in which Mark Slaughter sang about wanting to spend the rest of his life with a particular paramour. 

Talking about how this album has aged, some songs are now simply too pop, such as “You Are The One”"and "Spend My Life". However, mercifully, there’s only one ballad! "Fly To The Angels" it has a little more atmosphere than the average and of course lyrically it had integrity. Some songs, such as "Up All Night" and "Eye To Eye" have some groove. If only the production was a little heavier, these would be bonafide classics. 

There’s also some 80’s style fast and speedy numbers such as "Loaded Gun" (with some just awful lyrics). Also awful in the lyrical department were "She Wants More" and possibly "Burning Bridges", it must be remembered, was a cutting attack on former bandmate Vinnie Vincent,

The fate was not kind to Slaughter after 1990. Although the band's debut album spawned a number of notable singles, the group could not withstand the changing tastes of public in the early 1990s. Their 1992 follow-up LP, The Wild Life was far less popular and far less interesting, and even an appearance on the soundtrack of the 1991 film Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey could not insulate them from the onset of grunge. The band's original guitarist, Tim Kelly, died in an automobile accident in 1998, in despite of all, back in the day, the critics called it a smart, sassy pop-metal effort. 

 

Stick It To Ya Track List: 

 

1. Eye To Eye

2. Burnin' Bridges

3. Up All Night

4. Spend My Life

5. Thinking Of June

6. She Wants More

7. Fly To The Angels

8. Mad About You

9. That's Not Enough

10. You Are The One

11. Gave Me Your Heart

12. Desperately

13. Loaded Gun