City Boy/Dinner at the Ritz

Both solid albums, City Boy and Dinner at the Ritz are packaged as a double disc and burst at the seams with glorious guitar craftsmanship from Mike Slamer and vivid keyboard artistry via Chris Dunn. At times exhibiting a symphonic feel, City Boy mainly played to a dense, hard background of raw electric guitar that took turns with a progressive sounding synthesizer, melded together to form a well-grounded sound. Both City Boy and Dinner at the Ritz are from 1976 and are the band's first two releases. As wild sounding as Lol Mason is, his energetic vocal style rescues this British, six-member band from the undercurrent of average-sounding art rock and brings it up a couple of notches. "Momma's Boy" and "Dinner at the Ritz" explode with waves of musical bombast and fill both ears with a multitude of sound. Never straying or getting lost in extensive instrumental suites, City Boy inflicts strong and effusive musical intricacies involving basic synthesizer and guitar, but unite the two to form entertaining, tight-fitting songs. This double-CD package is a perfect place to start for anyone interested in this band. ~ Mike DeGagne