Girl On Top have released yet another hard rocking CD. Live For It is loaded with feisty original songs and lead singer Karen DeBiasse’s fine tuned vocal prowess. From a kittenish purr to a lioness roar, DeBiasse handles all sorts of demanding vocal chores. Live For It also finds Girl On Top paring down their classic hard rock sound into something more raw, emotional, and compact. Elements of grunge, punk, and even metal inform DeBiasse’s songwriting sensibilities this time around.Title track “Live For It” opens the album with its compressed, edgy guitar rhythms and its light tinge of lead guitar skating over the surface. DeBiasse, adorned as usual in fishnets on the cover, injects her purring tough girl vocal line with unabashed assertiveness. She takes no prisoners here. Guitarist Dave Simmons plays an icy cool phrase that darts around the groove on its own determined path.
“Crucify Yourself” finds DeBiasse serving up a little sass in her carefully considered vocal phrases. She just glides over a lot of heavy duty lead guitar phrasing that’s going on. She’s also on top of the charging rhythm guitar, and all of the turbo charged, racing rhythm section dollops of low end and manic drum rolls. This song feels like you’re in for the ride of your life, way over the speed limit, abruptly changing lanes, almost hitting other cars. The stinging guitar phrase with DeBiasse’s repeated call to “Crucify Yourself” creates a further feeling of manic urgency.
Girl On Top slow things down to deliver the power rock charm of “Superman.” Bass player Peter Zicko administers deep, meaningful low end notes loaded with density. Drummer Angelo Aversa nails down a marching beat underneath a snarling rhythm guitar. Meanwhile, DeBiasse unleashes everything from gentle sensuous coos to rock and roll roars, and she gives a unique personality to her vocal lines. The guitars, too, get some breathing room here, the rhythm appropriately grungy and the lead possessed by the devil when things get frenetic.
“Me” chugs along with extra coal in the fire, its punchy rhythm section sounding mean and dangerous. There is no stopping those hard-charging groove boys once they start rocking. Augment them with a jerky lead guitar line, and you have a quirky sense of movement that startles with its twists and turns. DeBiasse declares her individuality with strident rock and roll enthusiasm. She has a way of asserting herself over what is going on musically to gain independence, vocally and emotionally. You can easily imagine this track being used in a television or film score during a scene of triumph and empowerment.
“Let It Rock” has its own distinct edge in its combustible guitar and drums while DeBiasse only needs to coo over them to make her point. Still, she cranks up the intensity during her pro-rock chorus, one of many vocal spikes to keep things kicking and interesting. Her lead guitarist/husband David Simmons, who keeps it self-restrained like a bit pull on a leash, eventually plays a typhoon of a guitar phrase, moving forward with the unstoppable force of an avalanche.
“Can’t Stop Living” continues the tight rhythm section thing with more of DeBiasse’s tough girl approach, purring with authority on this cry for life anthem. The players come out of their corner swinging. They make the music lurch forward with a menacing gait. There is a bumpy beat and groove that makes the whole song dance. The lead guitar is on fire here, Simmons unleashing his grungy phrase, compressed high notes that take on a life of their own. He’s like a burning building that can only be contained but not put out.
“Deranged” is an ode to mental illness. The riffing is pure hard rock that DeBiasse opens with a metallish roar. This number feels like DeBiasse is plunging headlong into a manic darkness. Her smooth, submissive vocal cries, haunting and eerie, create a sense of foreboding. Mad cackling before the break are scary, like someone is really losing it. It is a relief when DeBiasse becomes a metallish belter, making it clear then that it’s only been a fun ride through a tongue in cheek look at lunacy.
“Still Alive” delivers more of Girl On Top’s punchy, driving punk influenced rock. This one feels unstoppable. Bass player Peter Zicko plays a persistent, strident bass run over a concise drumbeat. That results in a pedal to the floor sense of movement. DeBiasse, meanwhile, belts out her revenge to a former lover as Simmons coats the groove with a bright shiny line.
“Sun Is Shining” is basically a metallish cry for the sun to come out. DeBiasse has enough charisma to light up the two word chorus while the feisty guitars feel at once compressed and expressive, as if there is more dynamic energy just below the surface ready to blow.
Girl On Top close their disc with a credible cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s fairly recent hit. DeBiasse is at her sexiest when she sings of going to extremes. The rhythm section must have had a lot of fun keep this hard rocker danceable.
Girl On Top have topped themselves with this collection of sturdy, straightforward rockers. Drummers Angelo Aversa and Ray Fernandes keep things anchored and moving so DeBiasse and Simmons can stay on top and move around with ease. There is a dynamic coiled spring in each song that makes you want to keep listening until the climactic finish. Live For It stands up to repeated listening and it should go over big with fans of hard rock, punk rock, classic rock, and grunge.