The Arrows had already shot their bolt by the time their debut album was released, a string of increasingly under-performing 45s prefacing the appearance of both the LP and, odd though it now seems, an eponymous 14-part British TV series that allowed them some prime-time plugging every week for three months. The fact that neither could offer the band even a remote commercial lifeline simply re-emphasizes that fact. They were already yesterday's news, and they'd only just begun. Then again, one really had to question the wisdom of a pop band releasing an LP without a single familiar pop song in sight. Not one of their hits (or even misses) was featured; rather, the Arrows offered a reinvention aimed firmly at the same AOR territory as RAK labelmates Smokey were carving out for themselves -- the title track even boasts a sound-alike husky vocal. The difference was, Smokey still had Chinn Chapman writing their songs. Alan Merrill, Jake Hooker, and Paul Varley, sadly, simply couldn't aspire to the same magic. It's not a wholly lost cause. What Comes Between Us is a nice slower burner, with some tasteful guitar, an anthemic chorus, and a smart steal from I've Been Loving You Too Long over the fade, while both Thanks and Don't Worry 'Bout Love have a hint of Bad Company around the edges. The opening Once Upon a Time, meanwhile, was one of several tracks that were surely modeled after the kind of grand ballad that the recently re-formed Walker Brothers might have considered. For the most part, however, First Hit wanders by in a sea of well-intentioned, well-arranged -- but, ultimately, well-so-what -- balladry, barely a moment of which is worth mentioning in the same breath as the glories that had passed before it. After all, this is the group who so insisted they loved rock roll that they wrote a national anthem about it. Could they really have forgotten quite so quickly? ~ Dave Thompson, Rovi

1		Once Upon a Time
2		First Hit
3		Thanks
4		What's Come Between Us
5		Boogiest Band in Town
6		Don't Worry 'Bout Love
7		Let Me Love You
8		Feelin' This Way
9		Love Child
10		Love Is Easy
11		Gotta Be Near You

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