Excellent Munich based label Yesterrock specializing in re-releasing classic albums, managed to put out the first 2 records by PAGANINI, both impeccably remastered and containing bonus tracks. “It’s A Long Way To The Top” is the second album from Swiss / German melodic hard rock band PAGANINI, and it rocks greatly in an American fashion.
After the success of their debut album – at least in Germany, Switzerland and Austria – PAGANINI took over 2 years to compose, arrange and record second effort “It’s A Long Way To The Top”. If you already heard the band’s first LP, let me tell you this is almost a completely different beast.
The aim with this new album was to conquer the American market, hence the material is oriented to the sound & style ruling the Rock scene in U.S. 1987.
But not only the songs on “It’s A Long Way To The Top” are pretty party rock / hair metal / melodic hard rock oriented: now PAGANINI feels million times tighter as unit, the musicianship is more complete, and essentially; production is very good, bright n’ punchy.
There’s ‘that’ reverb on the drums making all sounding huge, guitars are bigger, the backing vocals soar and Mark’s lead voice is clear and more sexy.
On “It’s A Long Way To The Top”, overall PAGANINI sounds a lot like AUTOGRAPH (title track ‘It’s a Long Way to the Top’, ‘Mr. Big Mouth’) and VAN HALEN (‘Rich Girl’, ‘One of a Kind’). As you see, absolutely American oriented.
And it doesn’t ends there: ‘Salted Water Kisses’ has some HELIX on it, the pretty killer ‘Our Rock Will Find a Way’ a bit of RATT, while ‘Hold You Back’ (again some HELIX) adds more bite to the guitars and is one of our favorites.
Surprisingly, there’s no room for a power ballad on the album, quite strange for the era.
PAGANINI’s “It’s A Long Way To The Top” is million times better than the band’s debut, in all departments. It’s a pure ’80s American Melodic Hard Rock affair, and while some may miss the band’s early European flavor, this album is far superior than debut.
I still remember being a teenager, this album was one of the ‘rare pieces’ to hunt down. It never was easy to find / buy, becoming a much sought after piece by collectors. Yesterrock solved this with this very good remastered reissue, but dates from some years ago and has become pretty scarce again, quite hard to find.
Pure ’80s stuff requested by one of you in this remastered version.
Highly Recommended
01 – It’s a Long Way to the Top
02 – Rich Girl
03 – Salted Water Kisses
04 – One of a Kind
05 – Our Rock Will Find a Way
06 – Mr. Big Mouth
07 – Hold You Back
08 – For Your Love
09 – Get Ready
BONUS TRACK:
10 – Follow The Sun (Singing Saw Hit Edit)
Mark Paganini – lead and backing vocals
Ralph Murthy – guitars, backing vocals
Edgar Zanoni – guitars, backing vocals
Iso – bass, backing vocals
P.B. Bega – drums, backing vocals