Lita Ford - Wicked Wonderland (2009)

Holy shit Lita, what happened ? Lita Ford was the sexy MILF most metalheads wanted just two minutes with! Of course, most of us headbangers had to be content with her rather middle of the road rock records. However, after a huge hiatus (her last album being 1995's 'Black') Lita is back, and this time she means business. She's teamed up with her husband, and one time vocal rock god Jim Gillette, who, if you don't know, could once shatter glass with his high-pitched pipes. Bizarrely, the couple haven't spat out a mediocre or any way predictable rock record, and I'm sure that after hearing this many of Lita's fans are gonna either be pissed off, or simply drowned by the heaviness as well as bloated production, because 'Wicked...' is almost like a Gothic theatrical show put to record. The dynamics are immense, the layers impossible to unfold, and as for cheesy hair metal ballads...not a soul in sight. This is dense, over-produced metal for the modern day, and not only has Lita upped her vocal delivery, her husband's contributions, almost on every track, will even please the more extreme metal fans out there. However, some, including myself, will see this record as a messy, confused affair...sure, Lita seems to be back to top form and certainly wants to play ball with the major league teams, but 'Wicked...' is so far removed from her original sound it's almost impossible to grasp any of it. I'm not going to knock progression, but where tracks such as 'Crave' might well have existed as stripped down metal, they are now existing as labyrinths of sound.

I like Lita Ford. She was always a nice bit of crumpet, and she rocked pretty hard...now she rocks even harder and may actually scare a few metalheads away with this unexpected foray.

7/10