Track Listing

1. Larger Than Life
2. What Do Ya Know About Love
3. Shot of Poison
4. Bad Love
5. Playin' with Fire
6. Hellbound Train
7. Black Widow
8. Little Too Early
9. Holy Man
10. Tambourine Dream
11. Little Black Spider [Instrumental]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #287522 in Music
• Released on: 2001-05-08
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued

Album Description
After working with power-pop hero Mike Chapman on Stiletto, Lita Ford switched producers on Dangerous Curves and joined forces with another in-demand studio ace, Tom Werman. The result is a decent collection of slick, commercial hard rock that isn't much different from its predecessor. Glossy pop-metal cuts like 'Black Widow,' 'Hellbound Train' and 'Playin' With Fire' aren't the gems that Ford is quite capable of delivering (anyone familiar with her work with the Runaways knows just how talented she is), but they're fun and spirited. 'Bad Love,' meanwhile, is a noteworthy example of her dramatic ballad style. Ford gets in some nice guitar solos, reminding us that she definitely has solid chops. 11 tracks. 2001 remastered reissue.

Customer Reviews

If Stiletto was a stiletto, Dangerous Curves is a sword!
Or should that be scimitar? Where the diluted Stiletto, Lita Ford's followup to her breakthrough Lita album, only had a few songs to recommend it, such as "Lisa," Dangerous Curves shows Lita Ford back in top form, showing even more teeth than she did on Lita, teeth meaning her ferocious lead guitar and powerful vocals that belts out lyrics in songs like "What Do Ya Know About Love".

The chugging and hard-driving "Larger Than Life" with its visceral 80's drum and pulsing guitar attack demonstrates that she still teeth sharp enough to take on many male metal rockers. This is by far the heaviest song here. And if Cinderella and Britny Fox took heed, they would've come up with something like "What Do Ya Know About Love." Well, maybe not, as Lita's asking the question to the stereotypical macho type in snakeskin boots who's spreading himself all over town at the cost of little girls cryin' out loud.

The single "Shot Of Poison" isn't as hard-driving as "Kiss Me Deadly," with the same synths and guitar combination, only more radio-friendly. With Jim Vallance as co-songwriter and Heart's Howard Leese providing extra guitars, it was sure to make the Top 40.

"Bad Love" is a hauntingly stark and bitter ballad, with tempered keyboards and fiery guitar, even better than "Lisa." It's the end of the road with this song, with "I could never forgive you/and I damn sure won't forget/in heaven or hell every tear that I've cried/will come back to haunt you yet" being a pretty cold way to say "end of story." With the keyboards, I can picture Heart doing this on their 80's Ron Nevison albums.

"Playin' With Fire," also co-written by Jim Vallance, is another slamming tune, that could've been a single with the catchy chorus. "Little Too Early" is another singleworthy tune due to the lighter sound (at least compared to the other songs here).

The chugging rhythm section in the beginning does indeed mimic a train going down the tracks in the Bon Jovi-ish "Hellbound Train," with the wild as all-out protagonist's baggage being a devil in the brain, a fistful of whisky, a suitcase full of sin, and my favourite, "a thousand nasty habits underneath my skin."

"Black Widow," a throwback to harder-edged 80's metal, with the multiple backing vocalists in the chorus, is a chilling look at a seductive human equivalent of that deadly spider. Best lyrics: "Making love on a suicide bed/once you taste that poison darling, you're dead."

"Holy Man" begins with Lita and company singing the chorus a capella a la Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name," but with a melody like Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is A Place On Earth." The similarities end there, and there's a reverse theme going on in the religious motifs. She demands to be lead into temptation, fair enough, but the analogy is completed when "You made the darkest night in my life into Judgment Day," which is a dark equivalent of "you made the brighest night in my life into heaven." She really catches fire for this one--pun intended.

"Tambourine Dream" is a mid-paced song, while the closing "Little Black Spider" is a short quiet electric guitar instrumental.

This album should have been another musical hallmark for Lita Ford, so why was it overshadowed? In looking at its release date, 1991, the answer comes in two words: grunge, Metallica.

Lita's finest hour re-issued !
Does anyone remember when a "rock" album could be a fun listen? That was the great thing about commercial metal, it wasn't that hard to find an album you could "party" to. Try that with yer 90's grunge or more recent grind core stuff. Lita was about having a good time without a lot of pretense. This was her fourth solo album in a career of 15 years by this point and the hard work showed. This one rocked just a little harder than the previous "Stilleto" and was a little more concise in the songwriting. Lita collaborated with Jim Vallance on one track, covered a Rainbow tune and continued her writing with David Ezrin. Hooks galore in radio hits " Shot of Poison" and " Playing with Fire", brutal rippin rock in "Hellbound Train" and "Larger Than Life", a true anthem in "Holy Man", a little experimental on "Tangerine Dream" some great ballad work on "Bad Love" and closed off with a neat instrumental in "Little Black Spider" In other words, variety in a way you don't find a lot anymore and again, great guitar work from the finest woman player in rock. And here's proof that for the late 80's, early 90's, she was the hardest working as well. Get this while it's in print!

A bit dated and too-slick, but Lita's got the grooves
I recently put this on at a party and everyone was groaning, "what year is THAT from?" I guess it does sound like a relic from the Poison/Ratt/Twisted Sister era, but Lita's got some great grooves on this CD, beginning with the sinful "Shot of Poison" on down to the hellacious "Hellbound Train". "Holy Man" and "Tamborine Dream" show off a nice, commercial hard-pop sensibility, and "Little Too Early" is a ferverishly catchy ditty(co-written by one of Lita's heroes, Ritchie Blackmore). But "Black Widow" and "Bad Love" don't measure up as the "slower" songs(not really ballads)and I didn't much care for "Larger Than Life" which is trying too hard for pop single status. B+ overall, and the blurry-blue shots of Lita in the booklet are menacingly sexy.