40 Is the New 20

After Aldo's career had been declared clinically dead and Aldo himself a "one hit wonder" ("Fantasy"), it took the mighty Jon Bon Jovi to resurrect him. JBJ, who co-produces and co-writes pretty much every song here, has a heavy stamp on this album. Considering that Aldo played on several Jon Bon Jovi releases, this album will appeal mostly to fans of the Well-Coifed One.

The problem with Blood On The Bricks is not lack of decent material, or lack of chops. Indeed, Aldo proves on several tracks that he is a burnin' axeman, and even takes a killer keyboard solo on "Bright Lights". The problem here is that this album is choked to death in overproduction, and you have to blame JBJ for that. Every song collapses under its own weight of gang "whoa whoa" backing vocals, shrilly recorded instruments, and thudding drums with the characteristic telltale signs of samples.

A song like "Medicine Man", for example, is a decent if generic song on its own. However it stumbles and falls under layers and layers of backing vocals and overdubs. The production ruins this batch of pleasant if ordinary toons. This type of production value was way too common in 1991. Play Prisoners in Paradise by Europe, or Hey Stoopid by Alice Cooper for an idea of this sound. Aldo's album, however, is recorded and mixed even worse than the two I mentioned. And the lyrics are pretty juvenile. "His boom-box blastin' some Metallica track"? Did Aldo really sing that?

Song highlights for me incluced the burning title track and a couple other nice moments like "Touch Of Madness" or "Medicine Man". However everything here is terribly generic, there's nothing here that you haven't heard before, and that makes me sad.

Two stars. I do love the cover. (This edition has an annoying "FEATURING JON BON JOVI" scrawled on an otherwise fine piece of art.)

This CD deserves more..Aldo Nova deserves more..more credit, more respect both as a musician and a singer.

This is a great rock CD. The Bon Jovi influence is unmistakable. Which gives this CD a Bon Jovi meets Loverboy feel. You won't find any long jams or lightning fast finger, screeching guitar work, but what you do find is 10 rock solid songs. There is not a dud in lot. Although there is not a huge song like "Fantasy", from his debut, each song can stand on it's own and could have been released as a single, there are no filler songs here. Put them all together in one CD and you have a great "pop metal" rocker. Personally, the song "Hey Ronnie" is a standout for me.

You just can't go wrong with this one. If you liked Aldo Nova's debut, then I guarantee that you will love this one. Even if you have never heard Aldo Nova before, this CD deserves a listen.

Rock on.

I have a brother who DJ's and we search diligently for old 80's to 90's Glam Rock that went un-noticed from radio. When I stumbled onto "Blood on the Bricks" I jammed to it in my car for at least a month. That was 5 years ago.
I wasn't big into Aldo Nova even when he hit big back in the eighties, with "Monkey on your back". I was more into Motley Crue, Judas Priest, Def Leppard, Krokus, and Bon Jovi. Now that I've got his self titled, Twisted, and Portrait albums I'd have to say I'm blown away that I held a deaf ear to his music for so long. This is one of the best, and well manicured albums I've ever listened to. If you are into the lost sound of the Glam / Melodic Rock of the eighties and early 90's this is a must have. I own two of these cd's(not burned) one for the car and one for the house. As I stated in the title to my review this album Rocks. Not a bad track on the whole CD.
Aldo Nova even showed America he can still crank out awesome hits. "This is the night" sang by Clay Aiken was a recent tune Aldo was involved on, and that was the biggest selling single for 2003. It'd be great to hear him crank out another cd in the future.