Review Summary: A different yet oddly familiar debut
Let’s catch up with an old friend, who has a long and varied discography. So varied in fact that her debut album feels like an odd one out, even though it anticipated some of the styles she would use on her later albums. Yes, it’s time to look at “The Lee Aaron Project”.
What kind of music is this? Some nice 80s hard rock, with some catchy and heavy riffs like on opener “Under Your Spell”, which also has Lee’s powerful, clear voice. Her voice is a lot higher-pitched than on any post-“Bodyrock” release, which is what makes this album so refreshing.
That’s what I needed, because the album quickly gets a little repetitive and generic. “Lonely for Your Love” comes right after “Under Your Spell” and sounds almost the same: same riffs, same vocals and same generic “I want you so bad” lyrics. Similarly, “Should Have Known” and “Took Your Heart Away” have similar, sort of blues rock melodies, but their attitude and punch make up for that. “I Like My Rock Hard” feels like a barely finished song, like the first song you ever wrote with some of the first riffs you could ever play, but Lee’s strong, raspy and enthusiastic performance makes it worth your while.
The most interesting parts of the album are its heavy metal or blues experimentations. “Texas Outlaw” is a really catchy blues rock song, sung as a duet with Buzz Shearman. It’s about Lee and Buzz playing an outlaw couple on the run, and it’s a lot of fun. “Running From His Love” is an even better bluesy hard rock song, with an irresistibly catchy melody and those opening lines: “I got myself in trouble, I’m running from the law, ‘cause of the thing I did to this man”. Her crime is breaking her ex’s heart, and she’s determined not to be caught and sent back to him.
“Night Riders” has a fantasy theme, a fast and catchy riff, some powerful, raspy singing and the epic feel we would later hear on her “Metal Queen” album. Finally, the best for last: “Under the Stars”, the ballad that starts soft and then really soars, as it tells us the story of this character who wants to explore the world, to see that there’s more than to life under the stars… That’s the appeal of those kinds of vaguely fantasy and adventure-inspired heavy metal songs, how huge and soaring they are, and how they make you feel that there’s more to life.
That’s why “Under the Stars” is one of my favorite Lee Aaron songs, not just my favorite from this album. I think it’s also a really important one in her discography, because it lays out some of the foundations for the heavy metal songs she would make on her two next albums. Meanwhile, other songs laid out the foundations for her more generic but catchy rock songs. “The Lee Aaron Project” does indeed feel more like a project where various ideas are thrown around rather than an album, but those ideas are a good representation of what her music would end up becoming. It also uses ideas that would not really reappear on her next albums, like all those bluesy songs. Some of those ideas work better than others. This is the kind of debut that’s far from perfect, but that you should listen to at least once, because it has some good songs and really shows how Lee Aaron started her career. And that she can do all sorts of different songs.
