Cinderella - Heartbreak Station [Holland Import]

Cinderella swapped hairspray for honky-tonk on Heartbreak Station, a rootsy, blues-soaked album presented here on 180-gram black vinyl as a Holland import.

Released in 1990, the Philadelphia band's third album pushed further down the road that Long Cold Winter had opened, leaving the glam metal of their debut behind in favor of Rolling Stones swagger, Southern soul and acoustic textures. Tom Keifer wrote the songs and sang them with that unmistakable rasp, and the band sounded more like themselves than ever before. Years of heavy touring had given them an easy, lived-in swing, and it shows on every track.

"The More Things Change" opens the record with a gritty, mid-tempo strut, and "Shelter Me" follows with a rollicking, good-time groove. The title track is a sweeping, string-laden ballad that ranks among the best things the band ever recorded, and "Winds of Change" closes the album on a reflective, slow-building note that lingers well after the needle lifts.

It is the sound of a band growing up in public, and anyone raised on classic Stones and Faces records will feel right at home. The heavyweight pressing gives Keifer's guitars and those warm, rootsy arrangements plenty of bite, and the whole album rewards a patient, front-to-back listen with the volume nudged up.