RAW

Raw, much like the rest of the 80's CTS albums - Photoflamingo, World In Motion I, and From The Greenhouse, is frequently marred by substandard songwriting, dated, overly artificial 80's production cliches in addition to often indifferent John Palumbo vocal performances. Where Raw differs even from those flawed albums is that there is not a single redeeming song present here. World In Motion I had the ferocious rocker "Breakdown", the ever-so-slightly underrated Photoflamingo had a few gems like "Only Lonely" and the eerie "The Other Guy," and From the Greenhouse held a serviceable refraction of post-Roger Waters Pink Floyd. Raw instead offers unintentional hilarity, like "Elvis is My Daddy" - the most ham-fisted attempt at social satire to be excreted from Palumbo's lackadaisical pen. Or the simpering "Song For Another Year", which is conceptually from the same place as Billy Joel's "Piano Man" or CTS's own, far superior "We Want Mine" - but will definitely not make you forget either. An album so bland it isn't even adored by their cadre of Baltimorons, this is very generic-sounding mid 80s hard rock trying to be lyrically clever and failing miserably. It's hard to even recommend this album to CTS completists who have made it through World In Motion I. Both time and Palumbo himself have publicly forsaken this album, and so should you.