''Step Lively'' is a

reissue In the music industry, a reissue (also re-release, repackage or re-edition) is the release of an album or Single (music), single which has been released at least once before, sometimes with alterations or additions. Reasons for reissue New aud ...

of Hats Off Step Lively, the fifth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons are an Australian blues music, blues and rock music, rock band that features the singer, songwriter and saxophonist Joe Camilleri (aka "Jo Jo Zep"). The band was active in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and had severa ...

. The album was released in North America and Europe in September 1981.

Background and release

released their fifth

'' Hats Off Step Lively'' in Australia in August 1980. The album peaked at number 17 on the Australian

Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July ...

. The band began touring internationally including performances in The Bottom Line club in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, and at the Montreux Jazz & Blues Festival. Increased tensions within the group led to members Gary Young and John Power leaving the band by June 1981. The album was released in September 1981, but with the band no longer together, the album was not promoted and was a commercial failure. In 2007, band member

Joe Camilleri Joseph Vincent Camilleri, (born 21 May 1948) aka Jo Jo Zep or Joey Vincent, is a Maltese Australian singer-songwriter and musician. Camilleri has recorded as a solo artist and as a member of Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons and The Black Sorrows. Jo Jo ...

said "We could have done it if we'd kept punching, but the band actually disintegrated, basically, looking back, because we were too tired. We should have just taken a year off. But what happened was we were right at the end of the period when, in order to flog a record in the States, you were virtually out promoting the one you had out the year before. So it was a totally asynchronous situation. We were having to dig into what we viewed as archives when we went out of the country."''The Drum Media'', p.12 (12 July 2007)

Reception

Carly Darling from Billboard said; "On the group's second US album, ''Step Lively'', the infectious sound staked out on last year's '' Screaming Targets'' is honed and refined." adding "The listener is in for one of the hottest sleeper albums of the year"... "From the heavy metal/funk rave-up of "Sweet Honey Sweet" and the Latin tinge of "Too Hot" to the summer breeze effervesces of "P.T", Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons create their own persona." Darling commented that all of the songs are of the "boy meets girl/boy loves girl" variety, but each are "handled in their own way" but added "for sheer good time grace, nothing on the album beats "Puppet on a String".

Track listing

References

{{Authority control 1981 albums Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons albums Columbia Records albums