After the turn toward a more accessible sound that Rockin' All Over the World supposed, the British band returned to its hard rock approach on its next work. If You Can't Stand the Heat isn't so hard and heavy as Quo or Blue for You, but it incorporates subjects -- the electric guitars filling everywhere again, the groovy boogie spirit -- that recover the rocking essence they seem to have lost only one year before. One of the best examples is the infectious "Again and Again," the first single from the record, but also the sweaty "Gonna Teach You to Love Me" and the danceable "Long Legged Linda," borrowed from keyboardist Andy Bown's previous solo album. Status Quo keeps on worrying here about a clean production that enriches the different textures within the songs. The job is endorsed to Pip Williams for the second time, after the successful results in Rockin' All Over the World. Parallel to the groovy approach, the band also tries to experiment with its sound, without giving its roots up. Surprises are specially relevant in "Accident Prone" -- filled with disco synths, and one of the most singular and effective songs in the record -- or in the gospel choirs found in "Oh! What a Night!" Accurate and precise performances in the rest of the album, in which also stand out the catchy "Stones" and "Let Me Fly" and the gorgeous ballad "Someone Show Me Home," made of the 12th record by Status Quo one of their most unfairly underrated efforts from their discography from the second half of the '70s. [The 2005 reissue comes along with improved, remastered sound and the single, reduced version of "Accident Prone."]
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