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Power Ballad. Two words that when combined together too often conjure up grim images of hirsute, satin-clad US rockers along with a desperate urge to hit the off-switch before the ensuing melodrama seeps into your ears and ruins your day. But not this time. Instead, this passionate cover of ‘Junkman’, a track originally written by Joe Droukas and recorded by Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter and Polish/American singer Genya Raven back in 1979 threatens to restore credibility to the genre. Updated and refreshed for 2011, this time the vocals are handled by Hunter’s daughter Tracie and Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott.

Joe Elliott’s devotion to all thing’s Mott/Hunter is well known and this pairing on ‘Junkman’ is near perfect. The track does everything a power ballad duet needs to do – starts slowly, lets each singer take a verse apiece with lines such as Hunter’s “It’s a sin to taste the love and lose it/hold on baby and don’t let go” and Elliott’s cool response “You’ve been confusing lust with love/I think I’m gonna let you go” before they trade lines and stamp on the pedal marked “soaring guitar solo” followed by climax and coda. The song is a great example of what a power ballad should be, and is sang with both feeling and passion by Hunter and Elliot who are backed up with contributions from Phil Collen (Def Leppard) on guitar, Keith Weir (The Quireboys) on piano, and Tasha Baylis (ex-Hepburn) on drums plus the über-cool Ian Hunter himself on backing vocals.

The original track was deserving of huge success and so to is this one. It is also indescribably catchy and an enticing preview of Tracie Hunter’s forthcoming album ‘Vasilisa’. Junkman is out on Monday, June 27th

Review by David Dunn

Hear more from Tracie Hunter at myspace

(8/10)