Jump the Gun

Jump the Gun was released by CBS on April 20, 1990, the third studio album, produced by Deep Purple's bassist Roger Glover. Ricky Marx had come in on guitar. Its twelve songs are tidier than the two records before it, and the first stretch — "Lethal Heroes," "Don't Settle For Less," "Rock The House" — keeps the vocal line clearly drawn. "Savage Heart" would be revisited on Stripped three years later, while "Young Blood" and "Partners In Crime" carry the middle on push and release. The closing run through "Hang Tough," "Over And Out" and "Dream On" covers a wide tempo range. What followed was near-collapse: only the founders, Ken Hammer and Ronnie Atkins, remained. The momentum that had carried the band from Future World in 1987 to the Monsters of Rock stage stopped here, and Sin-Decade was made by a line-up assembled from scratch.