Search - Pat Benatar :: Tropico

A darn good underrated album by Pat

Da Man | Pekin, IL | 01/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Pat Benatar's fifth studio album in as many years, Tropico, was released in late 1984.



At the time Pat was pregnant, and this album showed a more settle down Pat. Gone were the hard rockers of the first three albums and the new wave sensibility of Get Nervous, but instead a more Adult Contemporary side of Pat.



The album doesn't have the instant gratification that her albums to the point had. But once you let the grooves sink in, this is a GREAT album.



"Diamond Field" is a good opening track, but too filler for an opening track.



"We Belong" is the big hit here. A beautiful love song that had great production. Everything about the song is right, and it's not hard to see why this was the biggest hit of Pat's career.



"Painted Desert" is another great ballad. While it didn't top the charts or anything, it is a very moody song, and even in the middle of winter, you can feel the heat of the desert as she's singing about.



"Temporary Heroes" is the big synth-drum machine song of the record. Perhaps more catchy for it's beat than the music. It's not a surprise it was released as a 12 Inch single.



"Love In The Ice Age" is certainly one of the best tracks on the album and should've been the second single from the albums.



"Ooh Ooh Song" made the top 40 in early 1985, but it is probably the weakest of all of her songs. Basically Pat singing "Ooooooh ooooooh ooooh oooooh" for 4 minutes. It's catchy at first but goes on a tad too long. The music is still rather fun to listen to.



"Outlaw Blues" picks the pace back up. Another great song.



"Surburban King" is an acoustic piece about a man who is laid off while his wife earns the dough. It's good but it is so short that the song is over before you realize it.



"A Crazy World Like This" is another song that should've been a single. Probably the track on this that would've been most fitting on "Get Nervous".



"Takin' It Back" shows that Pat is willing to let the album go out with a rocker.



Tropico got off to a good start with "We Belong" as the leadoff single, but poor followup choices (I mean, "Ooh Ooh Song" instead of "A Crazy World Like This" or "Love In The Ice Age" as a single???) caused the album to fade from the charts fast. Which is a shame, because while the album isn't as consistantly great as Crimes Of Passion, Precious Time and Get Nervous, it is still a great effort.



The album has been out of print domestically for a decade (maybe they will rerelease it since Pat remasters are coming sometime soon). Don't bother with the "Tropico/Seven The Hard Way" 2-fer because both albums have edited tracks to make way for "Love Is A Battlefield"."

A Change of Direction

Neptunian Spirit | Dayton, OH USA | 01/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You know I honestly adore this record. There is something romantically disarming about this album, you can tell that Pat & her husband Neil put a lot of their personal experiences into this record.



Becoming a hardcore Pat fan not long ago, I realize there was a lot of controversy with fans when this album was released. Many had thought she had 'sold out' to commercial Top 40 radio. But anyone can see this isn't the case. One of the things I really like about Pat is that she isn't afraid to experiment with her music, & luckily she is able to pull off many styles at once.



This is evidenced on the haunting, yet lush track "Painted Desert" which isn't just a ballad, but something far greater. The desperation in which she sings makes the song so vulnerable. This is also the same case with the most notable hit from this set "We Belong."



Other highlights from this song include the playful, rock/blues romp of the "Ooh Ooh Song" which to me marked her first foray into that genre. With it's rough opening yet smooth finish, the "Ooh Ooh Song" rocks & pops all at once.



"Love In The Ice Age" is another highlight, lyrically, even if its production is slightly dated by today's recording standards. I've never let that stop me from enjoying any music though.



What I'm saying is that if you are thinking about purchasing this album, buy the album & not the combo pack w/ "Seven the Hard Way". It would be better to purcahse BOTH albums separately since they edit the tracks for time.



A highly enjoyable outing from Pat & Co."

The Sound Changes

Bradley Jacobson | 04/10/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Between Get Nervous and Tropico Pat Benatar released the live album called Live From Earth which contained 8 songs from a few live shows over the 82-83 tour, also on the album were two new studio tracks, more synthesized pop that what she had done before, the two songs "Lipstick Lies" and a little ditty named "Love Is A Battlefield" showed Pat heading into a different direction. As her "Love" single took over the airwaves and MTV in late 1983, Pat started recording a new album. She also found out she was pregnant, so the whole process took on new meaning for the girl. Gone were the crunch hard rock attitudes of albums like In The Heat Of The Night and Crimes Of Passion, and even the new wave pop of Get Nervous was replaced by a sound a tad more organic. Going with the vein brought out in "Love Is A Battlefield" there were more acoustic instruments and ironically (perhaps) more drum machines. The hard pumping was gone and replaced with melody. Not necassarily a great seller compared to her other albums Tropico still launched some top 40 singles including "Ooh Ooh Song" the only pseudo rocker on the album and "We Belong" which became her second biggest selling single of all time. If you're familiar with either of the songs you can get an idea of what Tropico is really about. Even though Pat slows the rock down a tad, this isn't her playing an old Grandma either, the album opens with the crunching sounds of "Diamond Field" before moving into the hit single then a calming Spanish styled influence of "Painted Desert" which could be boring if Pat's voice wasn't so wonderful in it, then the 80's push their way in with the drum machine in full balance on both "Temporary Heroes" and "Love In The Ice Age", the thing is both of these songs are really good, no matter how 80's they may sound. The combination of subtle drum machines and the keyboards make it all the more interesting to me. "Ooh Ooh Song" opens what was once the second side before going into the chug a chug backbeat and Spaghetti Western guitars of "The Outlaw Blues" which is probably one of the best cuts on Tropico. A little story of a Jesse James' type of hero, it puts a whole gold mine feeling to the album, and since the title actually comes from the name of an old gold mine you have to wonder if Pat and Neil were trying to come up with a new take on the old West. "The Outlaw Blues" shows up again in 1989 on the CD Version of Pat's first best of set Best Shots in a just as cool remixed version. The only real dud on the album is "Suburban King" set to just a small drum and some guitar the story of a laid off and pissed off suburban dad who's bitter over his wife working, I see the idea, and I see the reasoning but when the album came out everyone I know made me skip over the song. Now it appeals to me a tad more and with my new found idea that this could've been a sort of concept album in disguise, I like the suburban cowboy idea, the final two tracks go back to the 80's drum machine keyboard pop of earlier tracks, this time a Tom Kelly/Billy Steinberg (they helped or wrote on 'Fire & Ice', 'Precious Time', 'I'm Gonna Follow You' and 'Like A Virgin') "A Crazy World Like This" reminds us to forget about the little things life throws at us and remember to appreciate those we love, a fitting song for Pat and Niel as they were going in the family way and even more fitting for them is the song they co-wrote together "Takin' It Back" a sort of attack on the music business that put so much pressure on our poor girl in the early days. Eventually anyone with success in the music biz makes a song like this so I guess after 5 albums it was time for Pat to take her swing.

"