Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
A long and distinguished career, a time of great musical fortune, and considered to be across the board one of the queens of rock, that is the blessed realisation that the listener finds when looking back at the professional life of America’s Suzi Quatro; but it is in the aftermath of life’s greatest highs that we find the Freedom in just being ourselves, or rightly being understood that the path we were on was always the one that lit up the room, that created liberty for others to follow.
There is no doubting the sheer intelligence and passion behind Ms. Quatro and her music, and that daring, never beaten, always capturing the soul and heartbeat of life lived with meaning, takes another step forward as she releases her latest album, Freedom.
Freedom is exactly what we make of it, stepping beyond the front door sometimes is an act of anarchy we must embrace, often just silently shaking your head when everybody else is vividly nodding theirs is an accomplishment of rebellion, and so it is that we dream of escape from the trudge of expectancy and strike out with fists held high and a sense of chaos in our minds; that is the freedom that awaits as the leather of life returns to offer a jolt of realism to the underprepared and a gloss of cool to the initiated.
Suzi Quatro rocks out with unruffled emotion as she is joined by L.R. Tuckey, Jez Davies, Tim Reyland-Roe, Tim Aves, Kody Edwards, Max Campbell, Tamara Anderson, and the inevitable union of Detroit’s own master of shock and mayhem, Alice Cooper. It is to this blending of musical knowledge and undying affection that tracks such as Little Miss Lovely, Hanging Over Me, Nobody Held My Hand, Woman’s Song, and the bonus fortune of Kick Out The Jams intentionally shout redemption, mutiny, and grace for all who are willing to taste the air on the road to personal freedom.
To have Ms. Quatro return to the frontline once more is not just about regaling in her past, it is listing with intent to her future, the signature bass, the drive of a woman who still retains the truth of existence and how life must be grasped and shaken for all that is worth; in that alone Freedom is always worth fighting for.
Ian D. Hall