The most defiant aspect of Mr. Big’s continued existence is their drummer, Pat Torpey. Despite being incapacitated by Parkinson’s disease, he continues as best he can to play for the group, even it means using programming.
That apart, this is an album with no particular angle except straight ahead, from the Zep-like propulsion of Open Your Eyes to the swagger of Everybody Needs A Little Trouble.
For all their occasional disagreements and discouraging developments, there’s a good deal of cheer about Defying Gravity, on the sunny acoustic strum of Damn I’m In Love Again or the fondly reminiscent 1992. From the cover art to the face-melting soloing that courses gleefully through these tracks, this is indeed an album that inhabits a world in which Tower Records is still open, Clinton is president, OJ Simpson is a national American treasure and Sunset Strip is a sea of stripy trousers.
