After the recent very good album by the Rick Pierce Group produced by Floyd Rose many of you asked for both musicians’ former band Q5 and their Eighties debut album, the cult classic “Steel The Light” from 1984. But Q5 also recorded a second LP, 1986’s “When The Mirror Cracks“, not so well known as their debut but perhaps musically even better, more mature in songwriting & lyrics.
“When The Mirror Cracks” retained the band’s trademark traditional hard rock / melodic straight-forward metal sound however the mid-80 brought to all this type of outfits a strong radio melodic approach, keyboards in the mix and harmony rich choruses.
The title track rocks hard, but ‘Your Tears (Will Follow Me)’ is classic American AOR, with a polished sound production. Other excellent tunes can be found on titles such as ‘Livin’ On The Borderline’, or the passionate ‘Never Gonna Love Again’. Seriously, this is a great AOR album, still unheard by many.
Following the first album release and gigs, guitarist & songwriter Floyd Rose was considering other plans for Q5. And those plans had a name: U.S. Market and the conquest of the FM radio.
At least two members (vocalist Jonathan K. & guitarist Rick Pierce) didn’t share his point of view but they went ahead nonetheless. Q5 entered the studio in late 1985 and due to the fact that the studio facility belonged to Rose, they took their time to polish things thus the album didn’t see the light of day until late 1986.
Upon its release “When The Mirror Cracks” divided the fan base as the keyboards and guitar synths were predominant throughout the album while the polished production was ideal for heavy airplay all around northern America.
However fate had other plans for the band and the much desired commercial breakthrough never happened despite the video-clip for the excellent opening track “Livin’ On The Borderline” was aired on MTV.
The fact that the album was first released in Europe by Music For Nations and with a considerable delay in USA through Squawk Records (a Polygram imprint created by non-others than Cliff Burnstein & Peter Mensch) definitely played a big part, too. The band and the new album wasn’t properly promoted by their management and record label.
Q5 entered the studio for a third album that unfortunately never saw the light of day, and the group disbanded soon after. Fortunately for all of us, the band eventually returned in 2016 with “New World Order”.
Personally, “When The Mirror Cracks” is my favorite Q5 album as packs the best of both worlds: mid-80s wonderful AOR tunes in the American school, spiced with some edgy hard rock tracks in the vein of their debut, as the riff-driven closer “Let Go”.
Highly Recommended
01 – Livin’ On The Borderline
02 – Your Tears (Will Follow Me)
03 – Never Gonna Love Again
04 – Stand By Me
05 – When The Mirror Cracks
06 – Runaway
07 – In The Rain
08 – I Can’t Wait
09 – Cold Heart
10 – Let Go
Jonathan K. – vocals
Floyd Rose – guitars
Evan Sheeley – bass, keys
Rick Pierce – guitars
Gary Thompson – drums, percussion