SHY "Excess All Areas" (1987)
by Dana Brittingham
Cover: 4 Tubes of Cream Bleach out of 10
It's a photo of the band, sitting under a spotlight. Most notable is the one guy with the big mane of platinum blonde hair, the sort of color that's found nowhere in nature. That's Shy's singer, Tony Mills! The rest of the band, though well dressed in 80's attire, looks pretty bored.

Booklet: 6 Packets of Lightening Activator out of 10
More pictures of the band members from the same photo shoot, the lyrics, credits, blah blah blah. It's a slightly more sophisticated layout than hard rock bands were putting out at the time.

Songs: 7 Bottles of Silver Toner out of 10
If you're into highly polished AOR songs then you'll probably dig this CD. Shy prided themselves on crafting radio-friendly melodic rock and they certainly did it well. Tony Mills has quite a distinct voice - he can hit all those high notes and doesn't sound like he's trying, which is perfect for these kind of songs. It just wouldn't work if he sounded like Lemmy. Shy is also embellished by a wicked guitar player named Steve Harris - no, not the bass player from Iron Maiden, you goof. Different guy altogether. He smokes but totally plays for the song, so he shows off his chops sparingly. And then there's keyboards. Lots and lots of keyboards. There's a few ballads, a few radio-oriented rock songs, a cover of the Cliff Richard tune "Devil Woman" (you'd know it if you heard it), and the album's single, "Break Down The Walls," co-written with Don Dokken. In itself, "Walls" is not a bad song. I'm just wondering if Don threw any temper tantrums during that writing session.

Comments: Shy was formed in the early 80's in Birmingham, England, a city known for its contributions to the hard rock world in the likes of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, but which also spawned Duran Duran. At times, it seems like "Excess All Areas" has more to do with the latter than the former. The keyboards and slick production give it a very commercial feel, but again, if you're into that sort of music, this is done extremely well. Shy had put out a few albums prior to this, and continued on for a few years afterwards including their 1989 follow up, "Mispent Youth," in which they remonikered themselves as "Shy England" for the stateside market. Guess they didn't want to get confused with the R&B act of the same name. Tony Mills left the band in the early 90's to front another band called Siam, while Shy got another singer and tried to make it a few more years before they called it quits. In 1999, Shy released a few albums' worth of previously unheard material and got together and started playing again. They have just released their first brand new full-length album in well over a decade, entitled "Unfinished Business," which sounds just like Shy always has. Gone is Tony Mill's platinum blonde crown (he looks more like Bob Seger now) but he can still hit those notes.