Private Domain - s/t (1987, Chameleon)

I've seen this one kicking around on Ebay and in record stores for ages, but I didn't take the plunge until a few days ago.  Bought it based on the intriguing album jacket more than anything else, which is entirely superficial of me.  Turns out that Private Domain claimed San Diego as their physical domain when this disk lurched onto the racks, courtesy of Chameleon Records, who I believe were more renown for acts like Dramarama, but I digress.  Not the subrosa masterpiece I was hoping for, the album (which was re-released a year later on another label, bearing a vastly different track list) is your proverbial mixed bag.  PD's approximation of white boy rasta on "Turn Out Right," and their apparent signature piece "Absolutely Perfection" are at the very least passable, and in some cases outshine the album's less satisfactory moments (like the pitiful power-ballad misstep "Broken Hearts").  Despite some '80s shtick and period keyboard trickery, Private Domain were at their most effective and assertive when they skewed to a riffier album rock motif, exemplified on "So Comfortable," not to mention the pseudo power pop of "Burn the Torch," which was a hell of a lot more convincing than Cheap Trick's sappy radio hit at the time.

01. People Living in Shadows
02. Spiratual Warfare
03. Don't Need That Much
04. Just Let Me Love You
05. So Comfortable
06. Absolute Perfection
07. Burn the Torch
08. Broken Hearts
09. Turn Out Right
10. Wrong People

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