I, Napoleon – S/T (1991)
One of the lesser known bands in my vast CD collection is I, Napoleon. This band’s self titled debut was released towards the end of the hair metal era. Judging from the perfect coiffures the band members have on the back cover of this CD, they were certainly trying to appeal to the hair metal crowd. The music on this CD is so completely random, I don’t think I could truly classify them as one.
When I picked this up in the 90’s on cassette, I remembered not really getting into this very much, but couldn’t remember the tunes at all. I recently replaced this CD, and found that I liked this a lot more than when it was first released.
Singer Steve Napoleon’s voice sounds like a cross between Richard Black from Shark Island, and Steven Shareaux from Kik Tracee but the music is nothing like either one of those bands.
The opening track “Perfect Absolution” kind of sounds like a White Lion tune with a different style of singer. It is an o.k. opener, but there better songs on this CD.
The keyboards on “Go To Pieces” sounds like they should be in a Honeymoon Suite song, than from I, Napoleon. The vocals are pretty cool on this tune.
“Come Back Soon” fires off with a bunch of La, La, La’s. My first reaction was “What the hell is this?”. That part of the tune is kind of annoying, but catchy in an odd way too. The rest of it is pretty good.
“Everytime I See Your Picture” is a keyboard based power ballad that could have had a little bit of hit potential, assuming the band got some radio airplay, of which they received very little. This is a cover song from the Canadian singer Luba, who did have a top 40 hit with this song.
“Whipped Silly” is easily one of my favorite tunes on this CD. You have to love the Cowbell!
“I Am The Idiot” is cool rocker that blasts out a saxophone solo towards the middle of the song. You have to love the classic lyrics “Life’s a bitch and I’m a whore, at least I’m not some goddamn bore”.
“Sweet Cyanide” is a pretty straight forward sleazy rocker, and good tune at that.
“Concerto in D Minor” is a piano instrumental that pretty much adds nothing to this CD at all. Its inclusion here is just weird.
This CD has been out of print for years, but you can still find copies of it, at this link. Back in the 90’s, I didn’t care for this CD, but now I think its kind of cool. The low price makes it a CD worth checking out.
Rating: Out of 10
Track Listing:
- Perfect Absolution
- Go To Pieces
- Don’t Wanna Sleep Alone
- Come Back Soon
- Everytime I See Your Picture
- Love I Hate
- Whipped Silly
- Feels Like Suicide
- I Am The Idiot
- Sweet Cyanide
- Concerto in D Minor
- My Backyard
I, Napoleon is:
Steve Napoleon – Vocals, Keyboards, Backing Vocals, Percussion
Joe Fazio – Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
Dave Imondi – Drums, Percussion Backing Vocals
Doug Stratton – Guitars, Backing Vocals
I can’t say enough about the guitar talent or John Dillabough.
Consider that this naive teenager, travelled down to the LA music scene, recorded his amazing musical skills on this recorded.
Then to be dismissed so blatantly by the lead singer.
So not fair.
This album is part of my childhood and absolutely LOVE IT!!! I find myself, 20+ years later, singing along even though I haven’t heard the songs in a decade or so!
When this album first came out back in 1991 2 of the songs were getting airplay in Buffalo, NY on an AM radio station called 14X Rebel Rock. Perfect Absolution and Go to Pieces. I liked them both so I picked up the CD and fell in love with it immediately. It’s all I listened to in the summer of ’91. I was “have portable CD player will travel”. My friends used to bag on me by asking if I was listening to I, Mussolini or something like that. To this day it is one of my All-time favorite albums. Not that it matters, but song 6 is not called Love I Hate. It is called Love/Hate.
Wish that whoever owns the rights to the album would put it on Apple Music and Spotify.
I remember hearing them once on the radio on 98Rocks in Bossier City, LA. Also it got a good review in Entertainment Weekly magazine. Unfortunately like so many other bands during that time it didn’t sell very well. Good album though. Still holds up well.
Did you know that two Canadians, Steve Batky (later changed name to Napoleion)and an unknown teenage guitar phenom named John Dillabough got the record deal with Geffen. John played all lead and rythum guitars, keyboards, and most of the base guitar on this album. Sometime during the recording session, John announced he was leaving the band after the record was completed. To this day, he has recieved no more credit on this album than being listed under “Additional Musicians”. John was a young talented accomplished musician, and his departure may be the reason the band never recored again. How do I know this? John is my guitar instructor, and I see a small glimpse of his gutitar talent once a week.
That’s awesome!