Guilty Until Proven Insane [remastered] (1994 Remaster)

Album review

By the release of its fourth album, 1978's cheekily named Guilty Until Proven Insane, Australia's once reliable chart toppers, Skyhooks, were beginning to show cracks in their colorful lamé armor. Having failed to conquer the U.S. and then watched their third album, Straight in a Gay Gay World, stall at number two (oh no!) on the Aussie charts, the group parted ways with longtime guitarist Redmond Symons (replacing him with Bob Spencer), and, possibly anticipating an imminent punk rock backlash, proceeded to abandon their signature glam wardrobe. These "extreme" measures certainly informed the album's uncharacteristically forceful yet typically witty first single, "Women in Uniform" (so did its accompanying music video, showing the entire band clad in black, sans an ounce of makeup), which peaked at a respectable number eight on the Australian charts (and was tellingly covered by New Wave of British Heavy Metal upstarts Iron Maiden a few years later). But with the exception of a few additional road-tested rockers like fan favorite "B-B-B Boogie," "Hotel Hell," and the irreverent "Why Dontcha All Get F**ked" (which had been censored for years), remaining album cuts like "Life in the Modern World," failed second single "Meglomania" [sic], and even the unusually considered soft rocker "Point in the Distance," simply lacked the same energy and excitement that fans had come to expect of Skyhooks. And perhaps it's no coincidence that the majority of these songs also failed to reference the very specific Australian cultural peculiarities that had contributed to Skyhooks' homegrown phenomenon in the first place. All that being said, Guilty Until Proven Insane still climbed all the way up to number six on the domestic charts (a relative "disappointment" for Skyhooks that most other bands would have given their eyeteeth for) but nevertheless precipitated the departure of magnetic singer Graeme "Shirley" Strachan for the solo career he'd been flirting with for some time already. Skyhooks never recovered, falling short of the Top 40 with their next album, and beginning what was once an almost inconceivable descent into historical obscurity outside their homeland. But it sure was good while it lasted.

© Eduardo Rivadavia /TiVo