Finally someone has had the good taste to rerelease this CD. Recently prices have soared in online auctions for the original CD release, so it is good to be able to pick up a copy without being held to ransom. Really, this album is that good. Vain were pidgeon-holed with the L.A. glam rock explosion of the late 80`s, although the band were from San Fransisco and dealt up a far tougher brand of music. There was no bubblegum pop rock for these boys. This really was the shadier side of glam metal. Unfortunately this album arrived too late (1989) to be massively successful like Guns n Roses, Motley Crue or Poison and the band fell through the cracks.
The album kicks off with "Secrets", which is like a bomb going off. There are no big production gimmicks here, only big guitars, big choruses, some dark subject matter and a moody atmosphere topped off by Davy Vain`s unique vocal style. There is no let up in quality as the album continues: "Beat the bullet" (I still remember seeing the promo video on "The power hour"), "Who`s watching you", "Aces", "Down for the third time" and my own personal favourite "Icy" should all be massive classics of the era, rather than the cult phenomenon this album became. It is a real disappointment that it never caught the imagination of the public. If there is one gripe with the sound then perhaps the drums should be less echoey and the bass turned up a bit, apart from that this is a flawless piece of work.
Vain did release another couple of albums but they didn`t really match the down and dirty streetwise feel of "No respect". It is an injuctice when you think of how many poor bands came out of the same genre (Slaughter, Poison, Trixter etc) and went on to sell millions. At least now we can all enjoy this without having to outbid each other for it. All we need now is for someone to reissue Tigertailz "Bezerk" on CD and we`ll all die happy.
