Track Listing

1. More Things Change
2. Love's Got Me Doin' Time
3. Shelter Me
4. Heartbreak Station
5. Sick for the Cure
6. One for Rock and Roll
7. Dead Man's Road
8. Make Your Own Way
9. Electric Love
10. Love Gone Bad
11. Winds of Change

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61251 in Music
• Published on: 1990
• Released on: 1994-01-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
If any album set Cinderella apart from the legions of good-time pop metal bands that cluttered the rock landscape in the late '80s, this one was it. Giving full weight to the blues-inflected hard rock of the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith, they turned out what was probably their finest effort, with catchy songs like "The More Things Change" (the video featured appearances by personalities as diverse as Little Richard and Shelley Duvall) and "Shelter Me." While Tom Keifer's screeching, nails-on-blackboard voice doesn't appeal to all tastes, it doesn't overshadow the quality of the material or the band's overall performance. --Genevieve Williams

Customer Reviews

What a Great Album
Not so long ago, rock bands made albums that contained musical muscle, healthy diversity, good lyrics, creativity, high emotional content, a big dose of asskicking, AND the ability to sell. It should be noted that such albums then got satired, forgotten, and essentially crapped on by the public just a few short years later.
"Heartbreak Station" fulfills the critera to count as such an album. This is the only album I ever bought used, as I never happened to catch Cinderella on the radio or MTV, and I just wanted to make sure I WOULD NOT like them and I wouldn't have to waste my time with their catalog (giving them a chance had much to due with my love for Bon Jovi). I put the cd on and even before the first chorus, I new this band would immediately jump into my "top 20" and I felt embarrassed for not knowing them earlier.
Today, the music industry has gotten so hollow, many albums only have a song or two that are even marketable, let alone musically viable. By sharp contrast, "Heartbreak Station" had (and still has!) the elements that were helping to make rock music taken more seriously as an art form. While maintaining all of the raw and gritty adrenalizing elements of soulful rock and roll, this album contains songs that speak the truth in a most musically motivating manner ("Shelter Me" and "Sick for the Cure"), a nod to funk ("Love's Got Me Doing Time"), a soft, tender title track that even my father of 60 years can verify as aesthetically pleasing, a short and simple nod to what really matters in life ("One for Rock And Roll"), a respectable answer to 'Blaze of Glory' ("Dead Man's Road"), and one of the most emotionally gutwrenching songs ever ("Winds of Change"). Oh, right, and heart-stomping kickass rock and roll ("The More Things Change" and "Make Your Own Way"). This is one of the more solid albums in existence.
The ways in which a) this band should be taken seriously and b) this band has subsequently been laughed out, could not be more opposite, except for maybe occasionally in the case of Poison. "Heartbreak Station" is a very strong album that makes me embarrassed for ever predicting otherwise. It got me into the band, made me buy the rest of their albums, and helped me learn that had they not been stopped dead in their tracks by shallower musical trends, each new studio release was proving Cinderella to be one of the best bands in rock history in terms of musical evolution. Though still alive and kicking, I mourn this band's creative spurt. At least we have this music, and it can be listened to forever. If you think that purchasing this album will uncomfortably stick you in "hair band land", take it from me; the music is real, the songwriting is of a very high level, and the album speaks for itself once you've heard it. Everyone should check this out.

2.5 stars, didn't get them to the next level, but interesting stuff.
Another solid effort by Cinderella that once again failed to raise them to the level of their buddies Bon Jovi. And that is in some ways unfair as their debut and it's follow up had more honest grit than just about all of Bon Jovis albums combined. Not that they were great by any means but they were from a beer swillin' heavy rocker headspace, even if the image was that of a shameless hair metal band in search of cash and girls.

Heartbreak Station sees a considerable shift for the boys (now looking more like boys with each album) and this is portrayed upfront with The More Things Change. In with the blues, in with a less hysterical image, in with some slide guitar and honky tonk stylings. Each track feels totally as if it came from a different band to that which gave us the first two Cinderalla albums with the possible exception of the aforementioned track. A lot of jangly guitars, a more rustic feel and year another simplistic production job aid the band in this, what amounted to an effort by the band to be taken more seriously. The same trick was tried, with varying degrees of success, by a number of bands in the late 80's/early90's and given their musical track record Cinderella were perhaps more deserving of success. What shouldn't be forgotten is that this shift to more blues/country songs with open structures happened prior to grung. It came out in 1990 so this album deserves credit for NOT being a change in direction due to panic at impending oblivion.

Of course that doesn't make the music great. Whether you but into the new Cinderella will depend on how receptive you are to an ex-glam/hair rawk rock band suddenly "getting" a more laid back style of the blues and going into a studio where the radio was glued onto an alt-country station. And then a few months later coming out with this album.

This album scored OK with a bunch of critics at the time (Kerrang magazine etc) but the bands fan base either weren't up to the change in direction or had grown up and gotten jobs by 1990. Which is a pity as the band pulled off the change fairly well, even if by halfway through the album your hankering after a numbskull rocker like Hell on Wheels or Somebody Save Me. Which is probably why the album stiffed so badly - fans of their previous genre are more likely to slit their wrists listening to this maudlin stuff than tell their friends to go out and buy it.

Sadly Forgotten
As an attempt to get recognition as a serious and mature musical entity, Cinderella shifts direction on this recording trying to make a big departure from the cheap corporate tones, artificiality and over exploited gimmick that made hair metal so hateful on its final stages in the late 80's and early 90's.
On Heartbreak Station, the band brings to its sound deep influences from traditional North American musical styles such as blues, country, folk and gospel as well as the British Invasion tones of the Rolling Stones and The Faces, all this in order to validate its roots as authentic rock musicians. This blend of influences creates an atmosphere of honesty, celebration, introspection and musical craft and poise. The novelty, however, its not only on the sonic department; lyrics have been traded for a reflexive and intelligent ironic mood, instead of the hedonistic and party celebratory vibe of the past.
It's been almost 13 years since the first time I listened to Heartbreak Station and still makes me wonder, what would've happened if Tom Keifer and the boys had reached the recognition and success that this risky and honest album deserved?.
Highlights: "Shelter Me", Sick For the Cure" and "One For Rock 'n' Roll" a dylanesque, evocative and beautiful song.