Every Dog Has His Day, the final
Let's Active album, clearly has a different feel than the rest of their catalog. The album, and especially the title track, has all the earmarks of a major bid for mainstream appeal, which it should have achieved. It certainly sounds like an album of its time; it has the drum sound of 1988. It also features an overall heavier vibe, with the band rocking like never before, emphasizing a love of hard rock only briefly hinted at on earlier albums, and it's all done very well. Some of the sonic changes may have been a result of the label's urging for the use of name producer
John Leckie, an utterly confusing decision considering
Mitch Easter's standing as a producer, not to mention his proven ability on previous
Let's Active albums. At this album's peak moments,
Easter's songs are top-notch as always, though there seems to be a little less drive -- often the songs seem like throwaways, albeit very good throwaways. ~ Chris Woodstra