Starting Over (Raspberries album)

Starting Over is the fourth and final studio album by the 1970s power pop band Raspberries. It peaked at #143 on the Billboard pop album chart in 1974.  The LP generated the #18 Billboard pop single "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)," while a second single, "Cruisin' Music", did not chart. This was the first album by the Raspberries to feature songs with profanity. Those songs were “Starting Over”, which featured the word "fucking" once, and the song “Party’s Over”, which featured the word "shit" twice.

Background
Stylistically, Starting Over represented a more aggressive arena rock/hard rock sound than previous albums in a way reminiscent of The Who, which was one of the groups' biggest influences. The album also included softer ballads such as "Rose Coloured Glasses" and "Cry".

Starting Over featured a new line-up with Michael McBride (drums), who had drummed with Carmen and Bryson in their previous band in the late '60s, Cyrus Erie, and Scott McCarl (bass, vocals). Drummer Jim Bonfanti and bassist Dave Smalley had left the band the previous year.

Bruce Springsteen's drummer Max Weinberg has said that he based his early drum style (particularly on the Springsteen album Darkness on the Edge of Town) on Raspberries drummer Michael McBride's work in this album, while Springsteen himself has also mentioned several times in live performances that the title track is one of the greatest pop songs ever written.

John Lennon, a Raspberries fan, particularly liked the song "Overnight Sensation."  He was present for part of the recording of the Starting Over LP and, although not credited on the LP, is rumored to have assisted with the mix, including "Overnight Sensation."

Critic Mark Deming of AllMusic praised the album as "a fine farewell from one of the best American pop bands of their era, though they didn't know it would be their last album when they were making it."

This album was re-released on CD as part of Power Pop Volume 2, which also contains their album Side 3.

Songs
Music journalist Ken Sharp rated the title track as the Raspberries' 9th best song, describing it as "Raspberries do Elton, with sublime vocals."  Classic Rock History critic Brian Kachejian rated it as the band's 4th best song, noting that the piano riff has some similarities to Elton John's "Tiny Dancer". This was also Axl Rose's favorite Raspberries song. Carmen said that he wrote it as a song about a relationship but it could be taken as a reference to the revised band and a new beginning for it. Carmen also said that it had the best ending of any song he had written.

Both Ultimate Classic Rock critic Dave Swanson and Kachejian rated "I Don't Know What I Want" as being among the Raspberries' Top 10 songs. Swanson said it was "probably the band's heaviest moment" with lyrics that "perfectly capture youthful frustration." Kachejian noted some similarity to  the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again", especially in the intro. Old Time Music critic Joseph L. Hollen also rated it among the Raspberries' top 10 songs but said it "is a decent enough song but has far too much pretense about it."

Guitarist Wally Bryson wrote the song "Party's Over" and said that he included a veiled reference to Smalley and Bonfanti leaving. He said that "I had to. I didn't want to. It really broke my heart."  Carmen called "Party's Over" "Wally's autobiographical three-chord rocker."

McCarl rated "Play On", which he co-wrote with Eric Carmen, as the 5th greatest power pop song.  He said that "Eric and I wrote this one nose to nose. All I had was the title, the opening riff and a couple of lines to kick it off, and look at it now! It's everything I'd hoped to bring to the new band. I give it the goose-bump test from time to time, and it still passes!" Sharp rated it as the Raspberries' 8th best song, calling it "the perfect caustic marriage of Scott McCarl's caustic Lennon to Eric's sugar-sweet McCartney, and what a bridge!"

Track listing
 "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" (Carmen)  – 5:34 / Lead vocal: Carmen
 "Play On" (Carmen, McCarl)  – 3:01 / Lead vocal: McCarl
 "Party's Over" (Bryson)  – 3:14 / Lead vocal: Bryson
 "I Don't Know What I Want" (Carmen)  – 4:13 / Lead vocal: Carmen
 "Rose Coloured Glasses" (McCarl)  – 3:38 / Lead vocal: McCarl
 "All Through the Night" (Carmen, McBride)  – 4:30 / Lead vocal: Carmen
 "Cruisin Music" (Carmen)  – 3:09 / Lead vocal: Carmen
 "I Can Hardly Believe You're Mine" (Carmen, McCarl)  – 3:34 / Lead vocal: Carmen
 "Cry" (Carmen, McCarl)  – 2:41 / Lead vocal: McCarl
 "Hands on You" (Bryson, McCarl)  – 2:22 / Lead vocal: Bryson and McCarl
 "Starting Over" (Carmen)  – 4:10 / Lead vocal: Carmen

Timings and credits taken from the original Capitol issue (ST-11329).

Charts

Band members
Eric Carmen — vocals, rhythm guitar, piano
Wally Bryson — vocals, lead guitar
Scott McCarl — vocals, bass
Michael McBride — drums

References

Raspberries (band) albums
1974 albums
Albums produced by Jimmy Ienner
Albums recorded at Record Plant (New York City)
Capitol Records albums