Lita Ford has a lot to prove with her upcoming album Living like a Runaway, due out June 19, 2012. After taking 15 years away from the music biz and moving to the islands to raise a family, Ford made a less than memorable return in 2009.
Wicked Wonderland, created with now ex-husband Jim Gillette of the band Nitro, was a strange, industrial, sex-obsessed mess that left fans wondering what happened to one of the leading voices to carry the torch for women in metal in the 1980s.
If her latest single, “Branded,” is any indication, Living like a Runaway should answer that question. She’s still here, and at age 53, perhaps better than ever. Whether it stems from her divorce or not – and the lyrics seem to indicate that it might – there’s a lot of anger in this song. Pair that with some great guitar riffing from her signature B.C. Rich Warlock, and you end up with a tune that might be the best thing Ford has turned out since her breakthrough album, 1988’s Lita.
“Branded” is raw, rocking and tough. It brings back the bad-ass bitch attitude that she had before she turned up the sex factor in the late ’80s. Though she’s been out of the game for a while, this song is perhaps one of the most energetic of her career — and a great way to grab fans who may have drifted away by the throat and jerk them back in.
It certainly worked for me. Living like a Runaway was barely making a blip on my radar, but after hearing “Branded,” I can’t wait to get my hands on the rest of the record. If the rest of it is even remotely like this one, it should easily qualify as the comeback of the year.
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