This mouthful of a compilation follows the successful Metal Mania Stripped collection, which featured hair-metal artists performing modern-day stripped-down versions of their biggest ballads. It sounded cool, but many arrangements weren't that different from the originals. But here, when Stephen Pearcy sings Ratt's "Round and Round" sans slick production so you can actually understand the words – and when Cinderella's "Shake Me" is barely even recognizable – the differences are enormous and fun to explore. L.A. Guns rev up the middle of "Sex Action" with a rockabilly guitar solo, Kip Winger gets gritty on "Madelaine," female backing singers enhance the Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and Nelson's even-more-poppy-than-the-original version of "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection" could be a hit today on adult-contemporary radio stations - but only if the blonde twin brothers changed their name. If anything, most of these 15 songs prove that there was more to these guys than hairspray and spandex. Nine performances are new recordings, while the rest are culled from hard-to-find imports (Whitesnake's Starkers in Tokyo), live albums (Dokken's One Live Night) and rare performances (Poison on MTV's Unplugged). Still, the songs you recall being kind of lame all those years ago still sound lame – no matter how they're played. Jani Lane should never sing "Cherry Pie" again, and Bullet Boys' "Smooth Up In Ya" will never be a good tune. But the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses on this second volume, which lives up to the standard set by its predecessor. Where a third volume could go is anybody's guess…
Track Listing:
1) Rock You Like A Hurricane-Scorpions
2) Here I Go Again-Whitesnake
3) Don't Tell Me You Love Me-Night Ranger
4) Talk Dirty to Me-Poison
5) Shake Me-Tom Keifer of Cinderella with Fred Coury
6) Cherry Pie-Jani Lane, formerly of Warrant
7) Heaven's Trail (No Way Out)-Tesla
8) Round and Round-Stephen Pearcy, formerly of Ratt
9) Madelaine-Kip Winger
10) Into the Fire-Dokken
11) Smooth Up In Ya-Bullet Boys
12) (Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection-Nelson
13) Sex Action-L.A. Guns
14) Don't Treat Me Bad-Firehouse
15) Once Bitten, Twice Shy-Great White
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