wampyrii's Full Review: 18 & Life [Single] by Skid Row
The major single release from Skid Row's debut album, cunningly entitled "Skid Row", 18 and Life is perhaps unsurprisingly a ballad. Most rock acts tend to save their more upbeat, rockier tracks for their albums and release the ballads as singles as this tends to get them more airplay and hence sell more records. Normally, I have aproblem with this as it means that the better tracks are overlooked through the prejudices of the media, but not in this case.
18 and Life is an excellent track. Yes its a ballad, but a ballad with teeth instead. Its basically told in story fashion, telling the sad tale of Ricky, a young man who is going down for a murder charge. Its a song about the perils of gun abuse, about teenage lives wasted through senseless acts which result in tragedy - death for some, prison for others. The message here is clear, and at the same time, the music is superb. Seb Bach's vocals are somewhat more 'willowy' than on the following Slave To The Grind album, yet are still powerful enough to blow away most of the so called 'singers' out there on the music scene either then or today. The lyrics are not exactly Dylan, but they are still clever and thought provoking so you can't ask for more than that really.
18 and Life is one of the best Skid Row tracks and deservedly a single release.
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