Don’t Say No

At a safe distance from the context of its spandex-clad era, Shout! Factory's 2010 reissue allows listeners to hear Billy Squier's 1981 breakout album Don't Say No on its own considerable merits at last. Squier took the tough, Cheap Trick-esque power-pop of his '70s band Piper to its logical conclusion, mating monster hooks with hard-rock riffs, keeping everything lean enough to operate in the New Wave-informed milieu of early-'80s AOR. He'd already become a beatmeister – his 1980 debut yielded "The Big Beat," a staple sample of early hip-hop -- and Don't Say No followed suit with the whomping, backwards drumbeat of megahit "The Stroke," later appropriated by everyone from Nas to Company Flow. German superproducer Mack, who oversaw Queen's killer The Game, helped Squier craft the ultimate arena-rock masterpiece, mixing carefully applied synth swoops, mountainous John Bonham-style drums, and weapons-grade guitar riffs with Squier's sharp songwriting and not un-Freddie Mercury-like pipes. Even if the album hadn’t become an '80s-rock milestone, it would still stand as an unassailable classic, front-loaded with an overwhelmingly infectious onslaught of singles like "In the Dark," "My Kinda Lover," and the aforementioned smash. The reissue's live 2009 bonus cuts offer further proof of Don’t Say No's staying power.