1.

The cover of the album is very puzzling in that it doesn't make it clear who the band are or what the album is called. The only word or words on the front are "SWEETLIFE" in which the "Sweet" bit is written in white and the "Life" bit is in yellow. This isn't the first Sweet album to have an ambiguous cover though, since Sweet Fanny Adams also omitted the name of the band except for the fact that it was within the album title. The picture on the front is of a view of Earth from aboard what I think is a space vehicle. Exactly what relevance it has to the music is beyond me though I'm afraid. One thing I do like about the cover is that it comes with a lyric sheet. As far as I'm aware, this is the first Sweet album since Desolation Boulevard (European version) to come with one. The fact that the majority of their previous albums don't have one is a major disappointment to me since I love to read along to songs as I first get to know them.

After listening to the album a couple of times, I put it away for a week, then when I got it out again, I used the CD player to pick songs at random as I listened to it in the background. It was then that some of the songs started to hit home with me. The title track is an ok song with a good solid riff, but the album really starts to get into groove with "Do It All Over Again", with Andy at his falsetto best in the chorus. The next track, "Everything", is a gorgeous ballad that I can listen to over and over again no problem and I often find myself singing it when I'm doing something else. "Leap Of Faith" is pretty good too, and even "You're Crazy" is ok to listen to although its not one of the better tracks. Sixth track on the album is yet another excellent number called "Never Say Forever" with some lovely hooks in it. There's a hint of the Four Seasons in this one, but only a tiny bit. The next track, "Airheads!" is probably my favourite at this moment in time. As I mentioned in part I of this review, its got a lot of Bowie/Mott The Hoople in it, but not enough for someone to complain that its a Bowie rip off. Not for the first time, it looks like The Sweet have improved on something the thin white duke did originally. I originally thought the chorus on this one was a bit frivolous, but its grown on me a hell of a lot now and would probably be a hit if it recieved the air play it deserves. Get out and bug your local radio station. :-) "So Far So Good" is a look back at the good and bad times of being in The Sweet and how much Andy's enjoyed all the highs and lows. The next two tracks, "Everybody Wants To Be Someone" and Neon Psychedelia" are probably the two heaviest numbers on the album and just go to show that Andy and the lads can still rock with the best of them.

Lastly comes the instrumental "Sweetlife Overunderture" which consists of a few hooks from previous songs and closes the album nicely. All in all a damned good album that I'm playing constantly at the moment. I read that Andy was happy to just make the tea while Steve Grant wrote the songs, but there's definate riffs and stuff thats typical of Andy's style in the majority of songs. It seems to me though that Steve is a very accomplished songwriter in his own right. Andy says in "So Far So Good", "I want to do this forever", then says "I don't know if I should".

Well from the evidence of this album and from the performance they gave at Thornaby Hanger I'd say that they definately should. I haven't seen the album in HMV or Virgin or any other music store so I can only assume that they haven't got a distribution deal which is a damned shame. This album deserves to succeed. Bloody good songs performed extremely well. I love it.

Ewan.

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2.