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Still Climbing (Cinderella album)

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Still Climbing
Studio album by
Cinderella
ReleasedNovember 8, 1994[1]
Recorded1994
Studio
  • Kajem Studios (Gladwyne, Pennsylvania)
  • Devonshire Studios (Los Angeles)
Genre
Length53:27
LabelMercury
ProducerDuane Baron, John Purdell, Tom Keifer
Cinderella chronology
Heartbreak Station
(1990) 		Still Climbing
(1994)

Still Climbing is the fourth and final studio album by the American rock band Cinderella, released on November 8, 1994, by Mercury Records. The release of Still Climbing was delayed due to lead vocalist Tom Keifer losing his voice in 1991.[2][3]

The album peaked at No. 178 on the Billboard 200.[4]

Background

[edit]

Cinderella first performed "Talk Is Cheap" and "Freewheelin" during a show at the Empire Rock Club in Philadelphia in 1985.[5] The version of "Talk Is Cheap" that the band performed in the 1980s is shorter in duration and performed at a faster tempo than the final version the band recorded for Still Climbing.[6] Around 1985, prior to recording their first album Night Songs, the band also recorded a demo of "Talk Is Cheap."[7]

"Hot & Bothered" had first appeared on Wayne's World: Music from the Motion Picture in 1992.[2]

Stylistically, Still Climbing maintained the stripped-down, bluesy sound the band had begun exploring in their prior album Heartbreak Station. Bassist Eric Brittingham stated that he found it "refreshing" when people acknowledged the band's continued shift from glam metal to blues-based rock.[8]

Songwriting and production

[edit]

While the band was writing for and recording the album, Tom Keifer experienced vocal cord paresis, which he cited as an obstacle for his songwriting. The surgery and resultant recovery time forced the band into a two-year hiatus, which Brittingham cited as the reason it took the band so long to release the follow-up to Heartbreak Station.[8][9] Keifer stated in a 2013 interview, "I am writing for the record, and I don't know what voice I am writing for because I don't know if I am going to have a voice." Keifer also stated, "I really didn't ever get to the point where my voice was fully retrained, back and functioning properly, even while we were recording that record."[9]

Keifer explained that Still Climbing was difficult to record due to the band having to balance Keifer's vocal difficulties with pressure from their label to release new music. During the recording process, Keifer had to adopt a different recording technique and vocal technique from what he had grown accustomed to with the band's first three records: "The first three records, I would go in and sing it down on a few tracks, and Andy [Johns, the band's producer] and I would comp from a couple of tracks. Pretty standard procedure. Just sing the song from top to bottom a few times, then go in and edit from the best stuff. On Still Climbing, I was going in and singing one line over and over and over, and trying to get my pipes to work right and get the sounds that I wanted. It was just a weird record to make. It was not an easy record to make, but a lot of the songs, I really like. And you know, it is what it is."[9]

Critical reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Calgary HeraldC[10]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal7/10[11]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[12]
Entertainment WeeklyB[13]
The Indianapolis Star[14]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide[15]

The Encyclopedia of Popular Music called Still Climbing "a strong comeback."[12] AllMusic deemed it "a gritty record that shows them building upon the bluesy hard rock of Heartbreak Station."[1]

The Morning Call described the songs as "glossy blues- and pop-oriented heavy metal."[16]

The Hamilton Spectator wrote: "While the music's hot, the messages are not. Keifer has simply run out of things to say aside from the coming-of-youth wisdom of 'The Road's Still Long'."[17]

The Indianapolis Star wrote that the songs "are 90 percent chorus ('Hot & Bothered' and 'Freewheelin') - and not even particularly creative ones at that; they're just repetitive phrases that might manage to come off well with a concert crowd."[14]

Commercial performance and promotion

[edit]

Still Climbing peaked at No. 178 on the Billboard 200.[4]

In a February 1995 interview for Deseret News, the band's bassist, Eric Brittingham, said that one of the obstacles the band encountered while attempting to promote Still Climbing was the rock industry's shift away from glam metal bands; Brittingham recalled that while the band made plans to release music videos on MTV, MTV contacted the band's marketing director and informed them that "they've stopped playing our style of music."[8]

In 2011, Brittingham stated in an interview that the low sales numbers of the record led to the band being dropped by their label, after which they temporarily disbanded.[18]

Track listing

[edit]

All songs are written by Tom Keifer, except "The Road's Still Long" by Keifer and Andy Johns, and "Hot & Bothered" by Keifer and Eric Brittingham.

No.TitleLength
1."Bad Attitude Shuffle"5:31
2."All Comes Down"5:04
3."Talk Is Cheap"4:00
4."Hard to Find the Words"5:45
5."Blood from a Stone"4:52
6."Still Climbing"5:22
7."Freewheelin"3:06
8."Through the Rain"5:07
9."Easy Come Easy Go"4:33
10."The Road's Still Long"6:05
11."Hot & Bothered"3:57

Personnel

[edit]
Cinderella
Additional musicians
  • Kenny Aronoff – drums
  • Fred Coury – drums on "Hot & Bothered"
  • John Purdell – Hammond B3, piano, percussion, backing vocals
  • Jay Davidson – tenor and baritone saxophones (tracks 2, 9)
  • Steve Jankowski – trumpet and trombonium (track 2)
  • Rosanna McNamara – fiddle/violin (track 4)
  • Gary Corbett – keyboards (track 11)
  • Annette Hardeman, Charlene Holloway – backing vocals (tracks 4 to 6)
  • Luana Norman – backing vocals (track 10)
  • Carla Benson, Evette Benton – backing vocals (track 11)
Production
  • Duane Baron, John Purdell – producers, engineers, mixing at Unique Recording, New York
  • Brian Stover, Eric Gobel – assistant engineers
  • George Marino – mastering at Sterling Sound, New York

Charts

[edit]
Chart (1994) Peak
position
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[19] 34
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[20] 29
UK Albums (OCC)[21] 88
US Billboard 200[22] 178

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Cinderella - Still Climbing review". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Ruhlmann, William. "Cinderella - Artist Biography". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
  3. ^ Philips, William; Cogan, Brian (2009). Encyclopedia of heavy metal music. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-313-34800-6.
  4. ^ a b "Cinderella - Billboard 200". Billboard. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
  5. ^ "Cinderella Setlist at Empire Rock Club, Philadelphia, PA, USA". Setlist.fm. June 20, 1985. Archived from the original on January 22, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  6. ^ "Cinderella - Talk Is Cheap - Live in Japan 1987". YouTube. August 10, 2009. Archived from the original on January 23, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  7. ^ "Cinderella - Freewheelin' (Demo)". YouTube. October 2, 2023. Archived from the original on January 22, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  8. ^ a b c "Cinderella Band Is Geared to Go with the Musical Flow". Deseret News. February 24, 1995. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  9. ^ a b c Crafton, Crash (December 12, 2014). "Cinderella's Tom Keifer discusses 2015 solo tour plans, a possible Blues album, Cinderella hiatus and Still Climbing!". Legendary Rock Interviews. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  10. ^ "Recent Releases". Calgary Herald: F2. November 13, 1994.
  11. ^ Popoff, Martin (August 1, 2007). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-894959-62-9.
  12. ^ a b Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 2. MUZE. p. 369. ISBN 978-0-19-531373-4.
  13. ^ Sinclair, Tom. "Still Climbing". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
  14. ^ a b Pugh, Dorothy (December 9, 1994). "Cinderella "Still Climbing," Mercury Records". The Indianapolis Star: E7.
  15. ^ Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, eds. (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. p. 237. ISBN 978-0-825672-56-9.
  16. ^ "Cinderella Facing Long, Hard Climb". The Morning Call. April 21, 1995. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
  17. ^ Krewen, Nick (December 22, 1994). "Cinderella/Still Climbing". The Hamilton Spectator: 4.
  18. ^ Seastrand, Andrea (August 10, 2011). "Interview with Eric Brittingham from Cinderella: Know What You've Got". The Aquarian. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  19. ^ Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
  20. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Cinderella – Still Climbing". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 30, 2024.
  21. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved June 30, 2024.
  22. ^ "Cinderella Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved June 30, 2024.
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