Baby Animals: Suze DeMarchi (vocals, guitar); Dave Leslie (guitar); Eddie Parise (bass); Frank Celenza (drums). Hailing from Australia, Baby Animals is a four-piece hard rock/pop band whose self-titled debut was released in 1991. Produced by veteran Mike Chapman (Blondie, Divinyls, Lita Ford), this is pretty standard late '80s/early '90s AOR. Fronted by Suze DeMarchi, a powerful if nondescript singer, the band plows through a set of unchallenging material that, mainly, addresses relationships in a very simplistic and cliched manner. However, the songs do have a way of lodging in your brain. "Painless" features a great singalong chorus, as does the punchy "One Word." Guitarist Dave Leslie manages to cop a few of Angus Young's riffs on several of the tracks, and DeMarchi's vocals show a little more character on the slower songs. On the semi-acoustic ballads "Make It End" and "Break My Heart," she bears a resemblance to Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders. Overall, Baby Animals is a solid effort, long on bravado if a bit short on original ideas. ~ Tom Demalon
Number of discs
1
Reviews
Q (3/92, p.73) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...catchy, guitar-driven rock songs....Suze DeMarchi is never less than impressive....a powerful and adroit trio alongside her....an impressive debut..."