Wrong Decade, Wrong Closet, Wrong Building: Enuff Z'Nuff, Strength, and the 1991 Album That Was a Power-Pop Classic Disguised as Hair Metal
Their 1989 debut sold half a million copies and produced two MTV hits. Their guitarist was a virtuoso who would die of an overdose at 37. Their lead singer was a Beatles-obsessed songwriter who would spend the next three decades fighting addiction while continuing to make some of the most accomplished power-pop records of his generation. Their manager was the same one who built Journey. Rolling Stone called them the Hot Band of 1991. The album that should have made them stars peaked at number 143 on the Billboard 200, sold a fraction of what its predecessor had sold, and was eventually parodied on Beavis and Butthead. A Long Play on Strength, the album doomed by the band's own visual presentation.
By Deep Cuts · Issue 04 · · 13 min read