★★★★★
Gowan's keyboard playing prowess led to hits in both "You're a Strange Animal" and "A Criminal Mind" in Canada, making excellent use of the synthesizer's ability to create a riff that is pop savvy and straightforward. With both the piano and synthesizer taking precedent on most of the album, the tracks on Strange Animal are built on catchy choruses and melodies that are quirky and to the point...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
Released a couple years after Strange Animal -- the album that really launched Gowan's career, at least in his native Canada --, Great Dirty World establishes a transition: from pop to rock, from a predominantly synthesized sound to something more visceral, from teen years to maturity. It tends to be under-appreciated, mostly because its follow-up Lost Brotherhood contains harder rocking riffs, but Great Dirty World, if anything, proves how good a melodist Gowan can be...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
Just as the humbling title suggests, ...But You Can Call Me Larry is Lawrence Gowan's wholehearted attempt at capturing a mature audience through acoustically based ballads and adult contemporary-styled rock songs. Trading in the synthesizer for a piano and culling his songwriting from overambitious to downright honest, this transformation actually presents Larry Gowan with a formidable album, and is a far cry from the pop/rock-marinated Strange Animal from 1985, which launched his career...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
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