Welcome To The Neighbourhood

(VIRGIN 1995)

Two years after the massive success of Bat II, Meat offered up this relationship-gone-awry concept record. And while it failed to produce any real hits of note, it went platinum anyway. Seven-minute single I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth) is primo to-the-limits Meat Loaf, but the album is fairly bristling with pleasantly hooky hard rock from beginning to end, and the songwriting credits are stuffed with legends including Steinman, Sammy Hagar and Steven Van Zandt. It was not the heartstopping follow-up anyone hoped for after Bat Out Of Hell II, but it’s still a solid collection of crunchy AOR.