Leading off with the 1981 number six U.K. hit single "Night Games,"
Line Up is a journeyman, early-'80s cross between hard rock and AOR. It's neither pop nor heavy metal, but somewhere in between. Though it may be far less metal than the group he'd just left (
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow), it was also far less catchy than, say, the post-
Keith Moon-era
Who. It was just the sound of a guy belting out mediocre songs with a lot of lung-power in the waning days of '70s-style hard rock popularity, with
Cozy Powell's thumping drums doing more than anyone else to bring it into the 1980s production-wise. Some debts to old-time rock & roll are also heard in the cover of "Be My Baby"; a pretty lousy, ponderous pass at
the Kinks' "Set Me Free"; and an-out-of-place-sounding run through
Chuck Berry's "Anthony Boy." Also on hand is his low-charting, synth-heavy cover of
Argent's "Liar," with other songs bearing some faint traces of the likes of
Supertramp and
the Police.
–
Richie Unterberger, Rovi