First released on Capitol in 1990 and reissued on Geffen the following year,
Backstreet Symphony is a decent hard rock offering that should have done better. Enjoyable songs ranging from rockers like "Dirty Love," "An Englishman on Holiday" and "She's So Fine" to the power ballad "Love Walked In" showed that while
Thunder wasn't the most original or groundbreaking band in the world, it wasn't lacking when it came to spirit and enthusiasm. Another high point of this CD is an inspired cover of
the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'," which
Thunder changes from blue-eyed soul/rock to straight-up hard rock. Rooted in the '70s,
Thunder's bluesy, unpretentious sound is best described as a mixture of
Bad Company and
Deep Purple. Unfortunately,
Backstreet Symphony didn't do much commercially on either its first or second release. ~ Alex Henderson