Cadillac

If Fandango were guilty of anything during their early years, it was an apparent willingness to embrace all the new contemporary sounds of commercial AOR radio in an attempt to win over a mass audience. The resultant shifts in tone and style led to some mild unpredictability, and with each new album came the same question: just how much of the album will consist of the straight-ahead arena rock found on their first records and how much will emulate the trends of the day? With Cadillac, the group stays in this pattern of unpredictability. For evidence, one need look no further than the album's first four songs. "Blame It on the Night" leans toward the last exhausted gasps of the disco culture, and by the next track the group has embraced the emerging L.A. glam-metal sound with "Rock 'n Roll You." "Hypnotized" borrows a jangled guitar line from Blue Öyster Cult and a vocal delivery from Boston, while "Don't Waste My Time" is straight-ahead power pop. The willingness to experiment is Fandango's greatest attribute, but also the group's most fatal flaw. Creative evolution is a wonderful thing to be admired, but Fandango's lack of solid roots in any one sound or trademark element makes them easy to dismiss and forgettable to casual listeners. ~ Rob Theakston