Champion – “Champion”

The Sleeve:

The Liner/Sleeve Notes:
None.

Personal Review:
 So, I don’t remember why I bought this record, but it was most likely for the bowl of cornflakes on the cover, or the fact they’re eating cornflakes on the back cover.

 The album opes with the song “I’d Lie to You for Your Love (And That’s the Truth)” (and that’s a horrible song name.) – so we open with that typical 80’s hard rock drumming, and we go into the vocals, and they’re alright, and even though the song is ever so horribly named, the chorus, featuring the song title, is a pretty decent chorus. Nothing overly special. Next up comes “Never Give Up” and we’re continuing on with that typical over used 80’s hard rock sound. Once more, we get to the chorus, and it’s not overly bad, but it’s not overly good either. “Runnin’ From My Love” comes next, and I’m still not feeling much towards this album besides overly cheesy 80’s hard rock. Kind of overly repetitive. Like my use of the word, overly. Anyways, we carry on to the track “It Ain’t Easy” and I do like the intro, it’s not too bad, but then the vocals come in, and it feels like it’s kind of overdone. The A-Side closes with “Bird of Paradise” which is more of a slow jam, but the thing is, it’s too slow and not that interesting, so far this album is doing nothing for me. I will say, however, Alex’s vocals aren’t bad and the musicianship is good, just typically 80’s.

 So we go onto the B-Side which finally has a good song, “Sin Sensation” opens the B-Side, and thankfully so. It’s not bad, the vocals are good, and so are the lyrics and musicianship too! We go onto the track “Love’s Gone” and we’re back into love ballads again, but hey, eventually they do pick up the pace some and get the song going with some heavy drumming. After that comes the easily predictable “Don’t Wait for Me” – these songs all have the same vibe to them, and don’t really change much, I see this band being more of a one hit wonder type of band, who released like maybe ONE good B-Side single, but nothing more. “Hold On” comes next, and basically we’re still where we were at the start of this album, cheesy 80’s AOR Hard Rock, that’s overly boring. The album ends (thankfully) with “One of the Boys” and this has been another very boring and dull album, with basically only one song that stood out.

Interesting Facts:
None.

Track Listing:
A1 – I’d Lie to You for Your Love (And That’s the Truth)
A2 – Never Give Up
A3 – Runnin’ From My Love
A4 – It Ain’t Easy
A5 – Bird of Paradise

B1 – Sin Sensation
B2 – Love’s Gone
B3 – Don’t Wait for Me
B4 – Hold On
B5 – One of the Boys

Label:
Solid Gold Records

Catalog Number:
SGR 1026

Studio Musicians & Other Album Credits:
Lead Vocals – Alex Machin
Guitars – John Duva, Ashley Mulford & Brian Allen
Bass – Dave Rose & Mike Gingrich
Drums – Paul Hannah
Background Vocals – John Duva, Alex Machin, Dave Rose, Brian Allen & Sharon Alton
Saxophone – Leo Sullivan
Produced by Brian Allen
Assisted by Alex Machin
Arranged by Champion & Brian Allen
Engineer – Peter Mann
Second Engineer – Mike Baskerville
Recorded at Eastern Sound, Toronto, Canada
Pre-Production at Perceptions Studio
Post-Production at McLear Place
Engineer – Peter Norman
Cover by Dean Matter / Modern Imageworks
Photograph – Douglas Brown
Make-Up – Maja
Hair – Fine Lines
Wardrobe – Maggie Bell

Other Albums I Own by Champion:
None.

Released:
1984

Related Vinyls:

Wraith: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack AC/DC – “Back in Black” Norman Nardini – “Love Dog”  John Cougar – “Nothin’ Matters and What If It Did”