Whitesnake – Restless Heart (1997, EMI Records – UK Import)

1. “Don’t Fade Away” … 5:01
2. “All In The Name Of Love” … 4:42
3. “Restless Heart” .. 4:50
4. “Too Many Tears” … 5:44
5. “Crying” … 5:34
6. “Stay With Me” … 4:00
7. “Can’t Go On” … 4:28
8. “You’re So Fine” … 5:10
9. “Your Precious Love” … 4:34
10. “Take Me Back Again” … 6:02
11. “Woman Trouble Blues” … 5:36

Band:
David Coverdale – Vocals
Adiran Vandenberg – Guitar
Guy “Starka” Pratt – Bass
Denny Marmassi – Drums, Percussion
Brett Tuggle – Keyboards, Backing Vocals

Additional Musicians:
Tommy Funderburk – Backing Vocals
Beth Anderson – Backing Vocals
Maxine Waters – Backing Vocals
Elk Thunder – Harmonica

Producer: David Coverdale

The only Whitesnake album of the 1990s (which has never seen a proper U.S. release) sees David Coverdale taking the band closer to their bluesy roots after the last few albums delved deeper and deeper into pop metal. The closest the band gets to the pop years is “Restless Heart”, which is one of my favorite Whitesnake songs and would have fit in well on Slide It In.

Anyone expecting another batch of glossy party tunes will be quickly set straight with the opening track “Don’t Fade Away”, which is basically a soft rock ballad. Not exactly the way you’d expect any Whitesnake album to start off but then again, this wasn’t intended to be a Whitesnake album. Coverdale intended this to be a solo release, but EMI forced him to put the Whitesnake name on it to help sales and so we have the compromise on the cover of “David Coverdale & Whitesnake” (just like how Tony Iommi shared billing with Black Sabbath on Seventh Star).

To this day, David doesn’t acknowledge this album as a Whitesnake album and prefers to look at it as a solo project but we finally get hear the legit studio debut of Whitesnake guitarist Adrian Vandenberg, even though he doesn’t really get a chance to show off. As if there was ever any doubt before, this album totally belongs to David Coverdale. Say what you will about these soft rocking, bluesy mid-tempo numbers, but his voice is incredible is the star of this album. I especially love his performance on “Too Many Tears”.

I was turned off by this album at first. Despite immediately recognizing the great vocals performance David was laying down, I couldn’t get past the fact that this album only seems to rock half the time. It was way more melodic and mellow than I wanted it to be. With repeated listenings, the album has grown on me. Taken as a Whitesnake album, it isn’t their finest moments, but I think it’s worth the time of any Whitesnake fan just for David’s vocals and if you keep an open mind, you’ll enjoy some of these slower numbers as well. Really old school Whitesnake fans should enjoy “Crying”, “You’re So Fine” and “Woman Trouble Blues”. Pure blues rockers.

I picked this one up at FYE for $14 and immediately kicked myself when I got home and realized it was on CDUniverse.com for only $7. I knew I had it on my CD Universe wish list, but I was thinking that it was about the same price online. I was pretty excited when I saw it in stock though because I knew it was not an album that could have been there for long because I frequently check out FYE. I don’t buy much from them because everything is usually marked up too high or they don’t have whatever I want.

Highlights: “Restless Heart”, “Too Many Tears”, “Crying”, “You’re So Fine”, “Woman Trouble Blues”

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