Orion The Hunter – Self Titled 1984 album review. 4 star rating.

Orion The Hunter

‘Self Titled’

1984 release from Portrait/CBS Records.

Orion The Hunter – So You Ran music video.

Fran Cosmo – Vocals, phased guitar. Barry Goudreau – Guitar, rhythm guitar, backing vocals. Bruce Smith – Bass, backing vocals. Michael DeRosier – Drums.

Artist location: USA.

4 out of 5 stars rating.

Reviewed by David.

1. All Those Years.
2. So You Ran.
3. Dreamin’.
4. Dark & Stormy.
5. Stand Up.
6. Fast Talk.
7. Too Much In Love.
8. Joanne.
9. I Call It Love.

 

An oft forgotten, typically overlooked, and amazingly little known classic, this debut, and sole record from Orion The Hunter, is a wonderful album with some great songs and some outstanding vocals that deserves a place in any classic rock music lover’s library.

Orion The Hunter was a short-lived American rock band that was almost a supergroup of sorts. Featuring the vocals of future Boston vocalist Fran Cosmo, ex-Boston and future RTZ guitarist Barry Goudreau, ex-Heart drummer Michael DeRosier, bassist Bruce Smith and none other than the late, great Brad Delp helping out with some co-writing and backing vocals, talent was in no short supply for this band.

I have always liked the voice of Cosmo. Although his time with Boston is not the band’s best, or most well known work, I have always enjoyed his vocals. And he was with the band for the album that I think is the band’s most underrated record, ‘Corporate America’. He has a fantastic, high pitched and crystal clear vocal. Combine that with the voice of Delp backing him up and you have some truly wonderful vocals on this record.

The first four tracks are just some great classic rock songs. The rockers ‘All Those Years’ and ‘Dreamin’, the beautiful mid-tempoed ‘Dark & Stormy’ (my favorite, and one of the best vocal deliveries of the album in my opinion, love that chorus!) and the sole hit from the album, the song most of you are likely to recognize even if you are unfamiliar with the band name, the rocker ‘So You Ran’ (click on the link near the top of the page to see the music video).

‘Stand Up’ is another upbeat song that is not quite as strong as the first four tracks but it is still a good song and it leads us into ‘Fast Talk’, a fantastic rock number with a great little guitar solo near the end.

The weakest song of the record, in my opinion, comes in at track number seven. ‘Too Much In Love’ is, again like ‘Stand Up’, not a bad song, it is just not that great. An upbeat track with everything working for it but the melody, it is easily my least favorite.

But we are right back to it with track eight, a fantastic ballad called ‘Joanne’ that is one of the songs co-written by Delp. The short album ends with track nine, ‘I Call It Love‘, another fun rocker that ends the record in a great way.

It is not a perfect album and all of the songs are not home runs, but the songs that are good are excellent! The musicians are, of course, extremely talented. The vocals are obviously out of this world and the music is just some good ol’ classic rock in grand style.

Fans of Boston will obviously be interested in this one as will fans of similar style classic rock as Boston.

Highly recommended.

 

 

Standout Tracks:

 

‘All Those Years’.

‘So You Ran’.

‘Dreamin’.

‘Dark & Stormy’.

‘Fast Talk’.

‘Joanne’.

‘I Call It Love’.