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LITA FORD
Time Capsule
SPV / Steamhammer - 2016
http://litafordonline.com

While the Time Capsule album is essentially a "From The Vault of Lita Ford" release, it is pretty easy to say that for the most part this is a pretty darn good collection of songs both from and of the 1980's.

Unfortunately, the album gets off to a pretty horrific start with the "Intro" track, which kicks off with some lame game show sounding music before making your ears bleed (in a bad way) to a spoken word type performance piece. The best way to deal with this gawd awful dreck is to listen to it once and then never again OR simply skip to track 2 from the time you put the disc in your player.

I had such a bad feeling about that first "track" that it tended to color my perceptions about the next two songs until I started skipping it. "Where Will I Find My Heart Tonight" ended up being a slow growing track. It's a classic mid to uptempo power ballad that features a guest co-lead vocal performance with Jeff Scott Soto.

I should mention that a number of cuts on the album, if they'd been released back in the '80's, could've been huge hits for Ford. The special guests on the album are pretty impressive as well. Bruce Kulick and Gene Simmons from KISS, Blues Saraceno, Dave Navarro, Billy Sheehan and both Robin Zander and Rick Neilsen from CHEAP TRICK all show up throughout Time Capsule.

I loved the enhanced dramatic shading to "War Of The Angels" in both musical and vocal performance. It gave the song a dense atmosphere and made it seem more epic in scope.

I was a little disappointed that on an album that contained 11 songs you had 2 instrumentals. Ford covers the Jimi Hendrix "Little Wing" number, which while good kind of felt a little unnecessary. However, whatever disappointment I felt over the instrumentals kind of went away when I listened to "On The Fast Track". That song had a gritty and aggressive bent to it and while there weren't any vocals, actually worked quite well.

I think the weakest track on the album (not counting track 1 of course) is "King Of The Wild Wind". The title is great for a fantasy novel but the song as a whole just fell flat for me. I loved the shredding guitar work on "Mr. Corruption" but the vocals sounded as if they were recorded in an echo chamber and sounded as if they stood apart from the music instead of merging together with it.

I'm not going to lie, the song "Black Leather Heart" has a set of lyrics that can probably easily be written off as totally cheesy, but I thought the song killed. It is a pure Lita song and to hell with anyone who complains about the possible "cheese factor".

Gene Simmons co-wrote "Rotten To The Core" and Lita's vocals had a nice extra edge of nastiness to them as the song burns right into your head.

Ford's closing song on the disc is probably one of her all-time best numbers. Seriously! "Anything For The Thrill" is fast and aggressive with a huge chorus, unstoppable guitars and just a pure ballsy joi de vivre that would be hard to match in any year.

While there are some painful missteps on Time Capsule, the album easily earns a place amongst Lita Ford's best solo albums. Regardless of the time it was originally recorded, the album rocks and is well worth adding to your collection.

3.9 Out Of 5.0

Grab your copy of Time Capsule in the KNAC.COM More Store right HERE.