The Firm

The Firm

Released: 1985

Rating: 👍👍👍👍

For most in the Rock world, this was an interesting pairing, to say the least, but ex-Led Zeppelin guitarist, Jimmy Page is not above strange pairings, eg; David Coverdale on the Coverdale/Page collaboration. But for all intents and purposes, his pairing with Paul Rogers on The Firm albums seems like more of a good fit. After all, the two were pretty much cut from the same musical background cloth. Really a shame that after only two albums, the pair called it quits.

The first of these two masterpiece albums kicks of with a pretty rockin' tune called "Closer". Really a great pick-me-up kind of tune, complete with bits of a brass section filling in any gaps in parts of the song. Although it is a rather short song by comparison to what was available on the radio in '85, coming in at just under three minutes, it's still enough to get you moving and wondering what the rest of the album holds. 

Next is "Make or Break" another decent all out rocker once it gets moving, but is a little slow to get there at first. The next few songs are ballads, which for me, don't really do much. They kinda fall a little flat of their intended purpose, even lyrically. Mediocre ballads at best. Closing out the first set on the album is their #1 US hit, "Radioactive", which is a great first set closer and the reason I bought the album to begin with back then.

The second set of songs starts out with an awesome rendition of a classic Righteous Brothers tune, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling".  A song they successfully made their own on this release and definitely worth a listen! Where the second set of tunes really shines though is in the last few songs in the set. "Satisfaction Guaranteed" has always been a staple in my play lists, even to this day, as well as "Midnight/Moonlight", coming in at a whopping nine minutes and thirteen seconds, and worth every bit of it! This song is where you feel this collaboration of Rogers and Page works extremely well with the best of Bad Company and Led Zeppelin wrapped into one nine minute opus!

Upon first listen, it's easy to see where the average listener would probably spin this one once or twice and then leave it in the pile where albums go to die. But for the true enthusiast, this album is an incredible joy ride from start to finish with plenty of rollercoaster moments throughout! Really too bad Page and Rogers didn't continue past album number two, an album that I feel really elevated the pairs creative flow. But don't just take my word for it! Find it and have a listen for yourself!