Crash and Burn

Pat Travers' love for the blues and loud, fierce rock 'n' roll comes through on the album following his career high point, the incendiary concert album Live! Go for What You Know. Travers is in fine voice here, with enough dexterous guitar licks to keep air guitarists quite busy. Though he hails from Toronto, he has enough southern soul in his singing and playing to make "Can't Be Right" a great R&B-fused hard rock tune. But the obvious highlight here is the AOR hit "Snortin' Whiskey," which takes Lynyrd Skynyrd's southern rock and amps it up for the '80s. His take on Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign" is positively ferocious, with a guitar tone that's thick and present. Travers' take on Bob Marley's "Is This Love" fixes up reggae for the hard rock crowd and leaves enough room for Travers to really sing. Travers' keyboard playing fleshes out the group and brings a new dimension to the album's title track.