The second studio album from Montreal's one-man arena-rock band Aldo Nova, released September 30, 1983 on Portrait Records. Where his self-titled debut had ridden the laser-and-leopard-print FM hit "Fantasy" to platinum in 1982, Subject.....Aldo Nova tried something stranger: a loose concept record about drugs, escape, and a paradise just out of reach, with thicker keyboard-and-guitar layers and lyrics that critics at the time called "post-apocalyptic" and "highbrow." It peaked at #56 on the Billboard 200 and was eventually certified Gold by the RIAA in 1994.
Nova plays nearly everything himself again — guitars, keyboards, lead vocals, much of the production — which was unusual for a major-label hard-rock release in 1983.
Cool stuff:
- Aldo Nova played most of the instruments on the record himself — guitars, keys, vocals — a one-man-band approach that anticipated Trent Reznor and Prince's solo albums by a decade
- The album includes a charged-up cover of Coney Hatch's "Hey Operator," a fellow Canadian band Nova was friendly with — his version is a showcase for his guitar chops more than the keyboard textures of his debut
- Lead single "Monkey on Your Back" is a thinly veiled anti-drug anthem; the second single was the power ballad "Always Be Mine"
- Jon Bon Jovi has repeatedly cited Aldo Nova as a major early influence on his sound and songwriting, and Nova would later co-write Bon Jovi's "Blaze of Glory" album track "Dyin' Ain't Much of a Livin'"
- RIAA Gold certification finally landed on December 5, 1994 — eleven years after release, on the strength of catalog sales
Spin it for: the weirder, denser sequel to "Fantasy" — concept-album hard rock with one guy stacking every layer himself.
Standouts: "Monkey on Your Back" · "Always Be Mine" · "Hey Operator" · "Cake Walkin'"
Sources: Wikipedia · AllMusic · Ear of Newt · Discogs