Credit: Rose WesterbackNeal Smith, founding drummer of the original Alice Cooper group, has released a brand-new solo album titled POP 85/95. It’s a collection of retro-sounding tunes that were mostly written between 1985 and 1995.
The 11-track record, which is available now on CD and digitally, features songs that Smith describes as “sexy,” focusing on various aspects of romantic relationships “in a simpler bygone era before Coronavirus, politically [sic] correctness and the new world disorder.”
Smith co-wrote most of the songs on POP 85/95 with guitarist Jay Jesse Johnson, a.k.a. “Triple J.” Neal played with Triple J in a short-lived band called Deadringer that also featured Alice Cooper group bassist Dennis Dunaway, former Blue Oyster Cult guitarist Joe Bouchard, and ex-Ted Nugent and future Foghat front man Charlie Hune.
Deadringer released one album, 1989’s Electrocution of the Heart, and Smith has included a new version of one song from that record, “Secret Eyes,” on POP 85/95.
The project came together after Neal recently rediscovered the tracks that he and Johnson worked on, and decided to record updated versions of them for a new album.
The material on POP 85/95 was inspired the pop-rock-oriented music of another drum-playing singer/songwriter — Phil Collins — and was written using synthesized programmed drums that were so popular in the ’80s and ’90s.
Autographed copies of the POP 85/95 CD are available at Smith’s official website, NealSmithRocks.com.
Here’s the full track list:
“If I Only Had You”
“Dying to Love You”
“Secret Eyes”
“Love Sets the Night on Fire”
“Distant Drum”
“I Wanna Be Good, but I Don’t Know How”
“Love Can Run, Love Can Hide”
“In a Heartbeat”
“Fly Home Sweet Angel”
“I Love You to Death”
“All My Eyes Can See”
By Matt Friedlander
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