mr big what if...

Released: 31 January 2011 Label: Frontiers

With the original line-up reunited for the first time in some fourteen years, there was always going to be a huge weight of expectation on Mr Big with this album. Lead single Undertow released last November, certainly did enough to whet the appetite, being a prime-time slab of classic eighties rock packed with a groove and melody as pleasing as anything they created first time round.

A few more like that and Mr Big would have been laughing, but the rest of the album rarely hits those same heights. It’s not that What If... is packed with duds because it isn’t. It’s simply that too many songs stray dangerously close to middle of the road filler.

As producer Kevin Shirley ably demonstrated on the recent Black Country Communion album, he is more than capable of capturing the rootsy vibe of live rock and this approach suits Mr Big really well. It’s the material itself that too often misses the mark.

Surprisingly for a band that topped the charts worldwide with songs like To Be With You, both of the big ballads – Stranger In My Life and All the Way Up – are pretty bland, nondescript affairs, while the uptempo likes of I Get the Feeling are far too pedestrian for musicians of this calibre and pedigree.

There are some great moments. The aforementioned Undertow is complemented by the rock solid I Won’t Get In My Way and Billy Sheehan’s punishing bass workout on Around the World, but the overall inconsistency of the songs results in this being a patchy, hit and miss affair.

Not the triumphant return we were hoping for. But it’s a start.

by Marcus Jervis