Now on to their fifth album, The Treatment would have been forgiven for experimenting. Instead they seem to have focused on their core strengths and simply tried even harder not to bore us, and to get to the chorus.
The opener’s hook ‘We’re in the rat race, and there ain’t no escape’ won’t win any literary prizes for lyrical wit. But when it’s performed like Def Leppard without the production sheen, and then followed with Take It Or Leave It’s defiant determination to sound like a hairsprayed headliner at the Sunset Strip Cathouse in 1985, you’ll have no qualms about signing up for some dumb fun.
The boogie-infused romp of Lightning In A Bottle, built around funky Aerosmith-style riff knots, is also hard to resist.
In truth, not all these dozen songs can match that opening trio for immediacy, but they’re still served well by similarly unpretentious trad-rock tricks, most memorably on No Way Home’s chunky swagger.
