{"id":6890,"date":"2011-05-17T07:00:04","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=6890"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:53:58","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:53:58","slug":"album-review-mr-big-what-if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=6890","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Mr. Big “What If…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Mr. Big – What If…<\/strong>
\n Release Date: January, 2011<\/strong>
\n Highlights: Undertow, American Beauty, Still Ain\u2019t Enough For Me, As Far As I Can See, Around The World, Unforgiven<\/strong><\/p>\n

In all honesty, Mr. Big was never really a band that did much for me but managed to have a song here and there that I would find myself enjoying. In 1989, their first single \u201cAddicted To That Rush\u201d was pretty cool but I loved their cover of \u201c30 Days In The Hole.\u201d I also really dug \u201cGreen Tinted 60\u2019s Mind\u201d but found myself cringing at the song \u201cTo Be With You.\u201d So for a band that didn\u2019t do much for me in their hayday, just how would a new Mr. Big album sound in 2011? Well, the answer is: Surprisingly Awesome.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I was absolutely blown away by the opening track \u201cUndertow\u201d with its heavy, crunchy groove and Eric Martin\u2019s still amazing vocals. I was immediately drawn in to settle in and open my mind and ears for a musical ride full of musical dynamics ranging from the fun to the dark and all else in between. \u201cAmerican Beauty\u201d reminded me right away of \u201cShy Boy\u201d by David Lee Roth but and even guitar god Paul Gilbert seemed to be nodding to Steve Vai on this one. The interplay between bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Pat Torpey really reminded me of that classic David Lee Roth band that once featured Sheehan and drummer Greg Bissonette playing like a well oiled machine. I don\u2019t know if this was an intentional move but whatever it was it totally worked. This song kicks so much ass that I had to listen to it 2 or 3 times before moving forward onto the rest of the album.<\/p>\n

\u201cStranger In My Life\u201d brought things down a notch or two and while it was a good song, it was just another \u201clighters in the air\u201d ballad in my opinion. It didn\u2019t really seem to stand too strong this close to the beginning of the album and was pretty much a mood killer coming off such a kick ass song as \u201cAmerican Beauty.\u201d Luckily, the album picks up steam again with \u201cStill Aint Enough For Me\u201d and the heavily groove laden \u201cAs Far As I Can See.\u201d This particular song has some great melodic playing between Gilbert and Sheehan. On \u201cI Won\u2019t Get In The Way\u201d, Mr. Big channels their inner Van Halen as they deliver a song that I can best describe as post-Roth sounding Van Halen with a singer singing good lyrics. They should\u2019ve contacted Eric Martin after Roth bailed and if this song is any indication, Van Halen just may have had some pretty awesome songs with this guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAround The World\u201d is without a doubt the highlight of this album as this is the one song where Mr. Big completely shows just what they are capable of pulling off. The song is so damn dynamic and it is prog rock at it\u2019s finest. Harmony vocals, amazing interplay between Sheehan, Gilbert and Torpey and Eric Martin totally ripping out some serious vocals. In all honesty, I would love to hear them do more of this. The album closes out with \u201cUnforgiven\u201d which is yet another dark sounding groove laden track that possess all the qualities of a great heavy prog rock band.<\/p>\n

Mr. Big has managed to surprise me with a really enjoyable album with \u201cWhat If…\u201d My only gripe about this album is the two or three ballads that really bring the vibe down a few notches. I\u2019m not opposed to hearing ballads by a band but for a band that can play at this caliber, it\u2019s hard to hear them using only \u00bc of their potential on these slower, sappier songs. With that aside, I found this to be a really fun album to listen to and everything about it is stellar from the production, to the playing to vocal delivery. The songs are well written and performed with a lot of passion. I would love to hear how these songs translate in a live setting. \u201cWhat If…\u201d is a very pleasant surprise and something that I feel any fan of great, melodic hard rock could enjoy having in their collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr. Big – What If… Release Date: January, 2011 Highlights: Undertow, American Beauty, Still Ain\u2019t Enough For Me, As Far As I Can See, Around The World, Unforgiven In all honesty, Mr. Big was never really a band that did much for me but managed to have a song here and there that I would find myself enjoying. In 1989, their first single \u201cAddicted To That Rush\u201d was pretty cool but I loved their cover of \u201c30 Days In The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,277],"tags":[640],"class_list":["post-6890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-music-news","tag-mr-big"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19851,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6890\/revisions\/19851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}