Atlanta Rhythm Section

Truth In A Structured Form Floating World

Re-release of 1989 album from southern soft rockers.

Strictly speaking, this album should be credited not to Atlanta Rhythm Section but to ARS, the acronym they were forced to go under for this album only, for legal reasons too obscure to go into. It was their first album in eight years, and it saw founding members Barry Bailey (guitar) and Dean Daughtry (keyboards) return to the studio along with vocalist Rodney Hammond and drummer Sean Burke, plus a brace of new players. The group had suffered throughout the 1980s as their 70s southernfried, hazy stylings fell out of fashion. Truth was a conscious, commercial attempt at radio friendliness, glazed in a postJefferson Starship production.

Nonetheless, there’s an oldstyle, strolling amiability about the album that’s reassuring to long-time fans. Awesome Love sets the tone, while Listen To

The Wind works up a mild guitar breeze. There are moments of pastiche – a quote from The Stones’ Start Me Up on I Want You Here With Me, the highly Springsteen-esque Neon Street, and is that a nod to The Human League on Don’t Get Me Started (‘She was working as a waitress at the interstate cafe’)? Perhaps not.

Anyway, the album didn’t sell and it’s uncertain why it’s being reissued, except to sate ARS (not Atlanta

Rhythm Section) completists.