1. Till You're High
2. The Jimmie Hale Mission
3. Someday I'll Leave It Al
4. Joymaker
5. I Fell From Space
6. Sunny Sunday Afternoon
7. Rollercoaster
8. Touching Down
9. Never Going Back
10. Someone
11. Never Get Enough
12. Universe
13. The Jesus Train


Date: Oct 19, 1999
Label: WEA/SIRE
Category: Rock/Pop

REVIEWS

CDNOW

There's a thin line between catchy hard rock and pop metal, and one slip can mean the difference between humable air guitar playing and hiding your head in shame. Thankfully, Billionaire walks that line well, and on this, its debut, the band sounds like Mötley Crüe circa "Dr. Feelgood" more often than it does Mötley Crüe circa "Without You."
The tunes "Till You're High" and "The Jimmy Hale Mission" open the album with a guitar-heavy one-two punch, and while things taper off sharply after that, becoming more (but not too) pop, the band does continue to strike a Van Halen circa David Lee Roth balance between searing guitars and vocal harmonies. At times, in fact, Billionaire sounds like such college rock bands as Soul Asylum and the Replacements when those guys were living out their own hard rock fantasies.
Admittedly, the lack of good, straight-ahead rock bands these days (Buckcherry not withstanding) does make Billionaire sound a bit better than it would've in a time when such groups roamed free in the wild, but if the band can keep toeing that line, it'll do OK.

Paul Semel