Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

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Streetwalkers

  • Streetwalkers [Mercury, 1975] C+
  • Red Card [Mercury, 1976] B
  • Vicious but Fair [Mercury, 1977] C+

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Streetwalkers [Mercury, 1975]
Roger Chapman, still blessed or cursed with one of those voices that can kill small game at a hundred yards, here combines the best of Family with some Jeff Beck bruisers. Object: Aerosmith for adults. But their urban nastiness doesn't seem to have earned its saturation in blues mythology. C+

Red Card [Mercury, 1976]
In a time of hard rock drought, this will do--the tempos are up, and such songs as "Run for Cover" and "Roll Up, Roll Up" and "Decadence Code" suggest that they're observing our famous wasteland as well as experiencing it. Ominoso with a vengeance. B

Vicious but Fair [Mercury, 1977]
Artistically, this contingent of veterans is a casualty of punk; the stylized menace of their cultish, calibrated art-rock-cum-heavy-metal has been rendered obsolete by the outgoing explosiveness of the real thing. And although I've always been a nominal fan of Roger Chapman, it does serve him right--that's what you get for perfecting arrested-adolescent fantasies of sin and sexual warfare as your hairline recedes and your pot thickens. C+