Look at Me Now

Audio Mixer: Guy Bidmead.
Liner Note Authors: Hugh Gilmour; Bernie Marsden .
Recording information: Britannia Row Studios, London (03/20/1981-04/14/1981).
Bernie Marsden's first solo album, And About Time Too, did well enough to warrant a sequel and so he set about recording Look at Me Now, an LP that appeared in 1981, the same year he played on Whitesnake's Come an' Get It. Many members of Whitesnake appear here too -- drummer Ian Paice, bassist Neil Murray, and keyboardist Jon Lord pretty much play throughout the whole thing -- and while this is certainly loud and rocking, it's not heavy the way Whitesnake was back in 1981. It simultaneously has a brighter arena rock punch and a bit of a prog rock bent (the instrumental "Byblos Shack"), taking its time to delve into lyrical instrumental ballads ("After All the Madness"), but usually playing along the straight and narrow. Sometimes this gets pretty silly -- "Can You Do It? (Rock City Blues)" lives up to its title -- but it opens strongly with a pair of propulsive AOR pop tunes, "Look at Me Now" and "So Far Away," tunes that are far more melodic than Whitesnake but not quite distinguished by Marsden's guy-next-door vocals. Marsden may not be compelling, but he seems like a good bloke throughout Look at Me Now and, similarly, the album isn't much but it's a nice enough artifact of where pre-MTV hard rock met pop. [Cherry Red's 2013 reissue includes the B-side "Always Love You So."] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine