Long Cold Winter
is a transition album for
Cinderella
, mixing
pop-metal
tunes with better hooks than those on
Night Songs
with a newfound penchant for gritty
blues-rock
a la
the Stones
or
Aerosmith
. The
ballads
-- the grandiose
"Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)"
and the excellent, lower-key
"Coming Home"
-- are what made the album
's most commercially successful, but the effective combination of
pop
hooks and tough, swaggering
rock & roll
on songs like
"Gypsy Road"
and
"Fallin' Apart at the Seams"
prevents the album from becoming simply a vehicle for hit singles and keeps it interesting. Not all of the songs are memorable, but most of them are. ~ Steve Huey