Love and Other Bruises

by

Air Supply

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Air Supply released their first album in 1976, with 'The whole thing started' in 1977. For some reason, this album was released in 1977, and contains eight re-worked songs from both of those albums. Many of the songs are given a nice reworking, such as 'empty pages' (possibly hte best song here), 'love and other brusies' and 'feel the breeze', which is really funky and given a grittier edge here. It is clear that Russel Hitchcock's songs here are the stronger of the two lead vocalsits. 'Do it again' is a gorgeous vocal performance.

Graham sings 'what a life' which begins as a promising ballad, but morphs into a dull mid-tempo song. 'End of the line' was originally horrible and remains so here. 'Ready for you' is the best of his contributions here, but I think he still needed time to deliver that velvety voice he would somehow acquire by the 'lost in love' album, in 1980.

There are two songs that I assume are new to this release, as they didn't turn up on any other prior albums. Both are handled by Graham. 'Who will love me now' is very mediocre by air supply standards. It has a nice melody and the chorus is saved by Russel's tenor supporting role, but the song is clearly filler and goes nowhere. 'Does it matter' is the better of the two. It is smooth and jazzy with a nice melody and quirky instrumentation. The lyrics are insipid though.

An uneven album, with enough to get 3.5 stars, but far, far better was to come.