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Anteater · 12-07-2014, 09:32 PM

Steve Kipner - Knock The Walls Down (1979)

"Oh no, not another one / Not another romantic fool / Your all the same / Your just like me / Welcome to the school of broken hearts..."

Our next album voyage on the S.S. Wimp Rawk comes in the form of someone who actually become incredibly successful after the fact. Steve Kipner may not be a name most of you are familiar with, but I'd say pretty much everyone on planet Earth has encountered his songs at some point in their lives. Olivia-Newton John's 'Physical'? Chicago's 'Hard Habit To Break'? Christina Aguilera's 'Genie In A Bottle'? Those are just a few of the commercial juggernauts that this guy has penned. Gives guys like Max Martin a run for his money, and that's probably a bit modest.

Everyone, however, has a starting point in their careers no matter how successful (or relatively unsuccessful) they become later. In Kipner's case, his one and only solo outing Knock The Walls Down also marks the starting point for the production career of L.A. guitar messiah Jay Graydon, fresh off axe duties on Steely Dan's Aja and already in the midst of writing immortal tunes like 'After The Love Is Gone' for Earth, Wind & Fire alongside heavyweights like David Foster.

The creation of this particular record, therefore, is a very pivotal one in Westcoast-AOR / yacht rock canon: it literally catapulted the primary careers of two of the biggest names in early 80's L.A. pop-rock into platinum success stories.

But even if you took that fact out of the equation though and rated this album based purely on its own merits, this thing is a top flight yacht rock album on the songwriting end of things. Furthermore, the personnel is simply aces: you not only have Graydon in creative control, but also guys like Steve Lukather and Larry Carlton, two of the best guitarists of all time in any genre. This is one of the few times where all of these cats were actually on a record together, and the level of polish and performance you get as a result of that is out of this world.

The first thing you'll notice is that Kipner has a pretty decent voice: a bit plaintive, but its got a snarky touch of character to it. Sounds even better when Graydon applies his magic from behind the scenes to create those harmonies, which you get on 'The Beginning' and the foot-tapping title track. Speaking of which, the remastered version of this album absolutely jumps off a decent sound system, and Graydon's mixing & mastering of everything here is right up there with any of Toto's best stuff or Michael Jackson's Thriller in terms of clarity. Things like that can't usually save bad songwriting of course, but when you've got cuts as good as 'I've Got To Stop This Hurting You' to work with, the results speak for themselves.

Another interesting thing you'll notice as you listen through is a sense that Kipner intended Knock The Walls Down to be a loose concept record in some respects about not only life and romance in L.A., but about the pursuit of success in the music industry too. Nobody typically steps into this sort of genre for anything besides the sheer joys of hearing these immaculate productions play out, but Donald Fagen and Dan Fogelberg this ain't in the lyrical department. The former writes about gangsters and the latter mediated on numerous occasion about grander concepts (more on that later), but Steve Kipner is mostly interested in wry observations on intrinsically shallow relationships and feelings of bitter isolation on both sides of the gender divide.

The album's best moment, interestingly enough, actually comes in on the sardonic closer 'The Ending', which thanks the listener for sitting through the album before erupting into one of the best extended guitar solos you'll ever have the pleasure of hearing outside the realms of hard rock or heavy metal. Wonder why I gush on Jay Graydon all the time? From 1:35 onwards I think you'll be suitably impressed...heh.

There's a lot of classics floating around the backlog of the yacht rock vaults, but Kipner definitely stamped his own unique mark in the world of smooth music world before sailing off towards more commercially viable horizons. And honestly, I kind of wish he'd stuck around for another album or two...