Rock Hard

DREAMLAND, 1980

Although possibly not the most accurately titled album, Quatro’s sole full-length release for Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman’s Dreamland imprint has much to recommend it. The title track is textbook Chinnichap, but times were changing. Suzi had prevailed through punk, but in the wake of NWOBHM and the arrival of Joan Jett into the mainstream marketplace, Rock Hard sounded relatively tame. Regarded retrospectively, it’s revealed as the album where producer Chapman tempered Suzi’s usual, reliable glam swagger with slick Hollywood gloss in pursuit of AOR gold, and when it works (Hard Headed, the decidedly Gloria-alike Lipstick) it works perfectly.