Rev It Up

Rev It Up is the second album, released in July 1990, on which Vixen honed hard guitars and soaring vocals into stronger melodic-hard drive. Randy Nicklaus produced and Dennis MacKay engineered, recording at A&M Studios and Rumbo Recorders in Los Angeles. It slipped from the debut's No. 41 to No. 52 on the Billboard 200, yet rose from No. 66 to No. 20 in the UK — a record that found wider support in Europe than at home. The lead single “How Much Love” reached No. 44 in the US, No. 11 on Mainstream Rock and No. 35 in the UK, with a Russell Mulcahy video in MTV rotation. “Love Is a Killer” followed at No. 71 in the US and No. 41 in the UK. “Streets in Paradise” was co-written with Autograph's Steve Plunkett. Following the opening “Rev It Up,” the turn at “Hard 16” and the late “Wrecking Ball,” each song's role and temperature is easy to hear. They played Monsters of Rock in Italy in 1990 and toured the US, Europe and Japan into 1991, but with grunge rising EMI let the band go, and this became their last major-label album.