Starting Over by Raspberries

Starting Over, the fourth and last Raspberries album, arrived on Capitol in 1974 with Jimmy Ienner producing as he had on all of them, and it finds the Cleveland power-pop kids ditching the matching-suits sweetness for something with a lot more muscle. Drummer Jim Bonfanti and bassist Dave Smalley were gone, so alongside Eric Carmen and Wally Bryson came Michael McBride, who had drummed with those two back in their old band Cyrus Erie, and Scott McCarl on bass and vocals.

The new lineup goes for arena-sized crunch, with the Who, one of their biggest heroes, looming over the loud stuff, while ballads like "Rose Coloured Glasses" and "Cry" keep the melodies aching. It was also their first record with profanity on it. "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" climbed to No. 18 as a single, though the album stalled at No. 143, and Rolling Stone named it its rock album of the year anyway. By 1975 the band was done.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.