LEE AARON‘s impact on Canadian music is undeniable. Over her career she did metal, melodic rock, AOR music to jazz and classic rock, always with her distinctive voice exploring new music colors. Lee was the ‘Metal Queen’ in her origins, but in the second half of the ’80s and with the success of the likes of Robin Beck, Fiona, Lita Ford, Vixen, etc, she needed a fresh, mainstream sound.
Alongside his songwriting partner & guitarist John Albani, for his 1987 self-titled fourth album “Lee Aaron”, the singer penned songs with the help of Joe Lynn Turner, plus AOR gurus David Roberts & Dan Hill.
The result is “Lee Aaron”, the most smooth, AOR album in Lee Aaron’s career. The so-called Canadian Metal Queen made a left turn on this self-titled release, a reinvention to show off her vocal talents without the normal hard rock thudding – a collection of midtempo catchy songs with mainstream radio potential.
And it’s refreshing, showcasing some of the best songwriting and strongest music of her career. Despite the shock value to her fans, she succeeds in this softer, melodic, commercial vein with mature subject matter.
As requested, here’s the only remastered version of “Lee Aaron” only released in Canada, which sound fabulous.
Despite its polished, slick arrangements / production, “Lee Aaron” still has Lee’s trademark intensity and powerful vocals, and memorable songwriting.
It’s obvious on one of the JLTurner co-writes, “Hands Are Tied”, the heaviest song on the album and a personal favorite, with its catchy, slightly funky riffs, powerful howling vocals and lyrics about a relationship with someone who’s never satisfied by anything you do. Lee is known for empowerment songs, but this is one of her saddest, an anomaly in her discography – in the best of ways.
More action comes from “Powerline” – kind of feels like the theme song for an ’80s movie, AOR with extra spice of hooks, another track co-written with JLT.
Then there’s synth-laden pure ’80s AOR tunes like “Don’t Rain on My Parade” driven by a catchy chorus with back-and-forth vocals between Lee and her back-up band. “Going off the Deep End” is an even better song in that vein, with a chant by the entire band that will be repeated in the chorus, catchy riffs and synths, and lyrics all about the dizzying joy of falling madly in love.
“Eye for an Eye” is the complete opposite, being a catchy guitar and synths song… about promising you’ll fight back if anyone ever tries to hurt you. This one pretty rocks, but with a clean melodic production.
The single/ballad “Only Human” is a very nice one with Lee propelling emotion, very soft, not too far off from stuff the Scorpions would do later on (Lee actually sang back-up vocals on “The Rhythm of Love” by the Scorps in ’88.)
More AOR come with “Heartbeat of the World”, “Dream With Me” (Dan Hill co-write) and “If this is Love”, all very well arranged with excellent instrumentation, sweet, soothing numbers, with instantly memorable choruses. I’d even say they’re better than some of the ballads / midtempo tracks in her previous or next albums.
Fans of the ‘Metal Queen’ era were shocked by the sound & production of “Lee Aaron”, but at the end of the day, what matters are the songs. And soon all discovered that the songs on this album are very good, some, if you love ’80s AOR, are excellent.
Yeah, “Lee Aaron” may be polished, mainstream, but still retains a lot of Lee Aaron’s personality, just softer than the larger than life tone of her previous albums. This is a little gem for ’80s aficionados, so you can’t go wrong here.
Highly Recommended
01 – Powerline
02 – Hands Are Tied
03 – Only Human
04 – Empty Heart
05 – Number One
06 – Don’t Rain On My Parade
07 – Goin’ Off The Deep End
08 – If This Is Love
09 – Eye For An Eye
10 – Heartbeat Of The World
11 – Dream With Me
Lee Aaron – lead vocals, background vocals
John Albani – guitar, background vocals
Jim Gelcer – keyboard, background vocals
Randy Cooke – drums, percussion
Chris Brockway – bass, background vocals
David Roberts – background vocals (tracks 3, 5)