Metal Reviews

So, here we go, Whitesnake's fist hair metal album, kinda...

John Sykes on the main guitar (one might ask where Micky was during the sessions), Cozy Powell on drums (yeah!), John Lord on the keyboards (just before he left to reform Purple) and Neil Murray on bass... Quite a line-up!

The result is insanely catchy if a little pedestrian at times... Still, the crapfest 1987 and Slip of the Tongue (their worst!) wasn't there yet...

I say HIT. What do you say ?

Hit, without a doubt.

Shit, I'd call the next two hits as well, taken in context of course. I actually just bought Restless Heart by David Coverdale "& Whitesnake" today. Talk about some bullshit corporate swindling. And Whitesnake. Haha. Pffft!

Hit, and Whitesnake'87 is a hit too... But I agree Slip of the Tongue is a miss... John Sykes' guitar work was the key in these two.

87 was a hit in its own time.
The two best song on it, Here I Go Again & Crying in the Rain had had superior versions on previous Whitesnake albums.
The only new song I still like is Still of the Night though, would it have been blusier, it would have been even better.

Hit all the way

Yeah, the Saints & sinners version of Here I go again and Crying in the rain are better. Still of the night is one of the better songs of all his discography. Children of the night, Give me all your love, You're gonna break my heart again, Straight for the heart & the bluesy Looking for love are also good songs and a pleasant listen. But when John Skies went to Blue Murder, all the magic was gone out of Whitesnake. Steve Vai was just not a good idea, he and Coverdale mixed very bad.

I really like Slip Of The Tongue, but this is likely because it was the first Whitesnake album I ever heard. I still don't think it's a bad album. "Judgment Day" and "Sailing Ships" remain two of my favorite Whitesnake tunes. The rest of the album is good, too, but I could live without "The Deeper The Love." Never really liked that tune.

Either way, Vai had nothing to do with the songs on this album. He just played. Everything was written by Coverdale and Vandenberg.

Slide It In is definitely a HIT! The '87' self titled was definitely a HIT! You could not get away from that album in the late 80's. Whitesnake were all over the radio and MTV. John Sykes made the songwriting and over all guitar sound incredible on SII and the ST albums. SOTT was not a bad album but the guitars were weak with Vandenberg at the helm. At least the tonality was, which of course that comes back to Vai's tone I guess. He just doesn't have that huge Sykes tone/sound.

The only thing I ever tire of in regards to Whitesnake are all the songs with 'love' in the title. Coverdale really enjoys his 'love'.

There are 2 versions of Slide it In. If youre in the UK (and perhaps anywhere outside of North America) Sykes does not play on it. Only the "US" version has Sykes playing. I think this is something to do with Micky and Mel being fired and replaced by Sykes. Wikipedia has a pretty decent summary of the changes between versions.
Its a HIT for me otherwise and it includes my favorite WS song, Love Aint No Stranger.
I have a huge soft spot for Slip of the Tounge as it was the first WS album I heard and have awesome memories of the Fool for your Loving video with Vais Jem and him playing it like a lap steel! Its still one of my favorites..

Fool for Your Loving is so much better in its original version...

Hit . I like it better than 1987, but less than Saints&Sinners or Ready&Willing.

I have both US and European versions.

The 25th anniversary edition is coming out soon.
I'm getting it.

And I agree it's no S&S or RaW but still the best "americanized" Whitesnake effort... by far!