Hanoi Rocks fans, take note: it would've been easy for Michael Monroe to serve up a rehashed version of Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes on his first U.S. solo album, but if that's what you were expecting, you're apt to be disappointed. If, however, you've been hoping that Hanoi's flashy former frontman had more on his mind than fond memories of the past, Not Fakin' It is all the proof you need.

With the help of Hanoi guitarist Nasty Suicide and a stellar cast of friends, Monroe has crafted the sort of album that embeds itself in the listener's consciousness. Like a rude, boisterous rock & roll poltergeist, Not Fakin' It announces its presence with a good solid thwump and refuses to leave.

The real live wires on the album draw their high voltage from an ingenious pastiche of genre-jumping elements. On "Dead, Jail or Rock & Roll," Monroe takes Fifties-style rhythms, adds some nasty punk vehemence and a healthy dose of metal guitar and tops everything off with ominous vocals and plenty of authoritative blues harp. "While You Were Lookin' at Me," a Little Steven-penned diatribe on hypocrisy, packs a punch with swaggery rhythm guitar. On "Shakedown," a warp-speed track that marries spare shots of guitar with galloping snare drum, Monroe issues a rapid-fire string of three-syllable orders with the air of a drill sergeant.

As for the lyrics, Not Fakin' It is a pessimist's dream. Throughout, Monroe and his co-writers rip on greed, political corruption, soul-stealing bigwigs and the grim outlook for street survival in the Nineties. Even the lower-key, placid arrangements on "Smoke Screen" and "Man With No Eyes" are ridden with disgruntled asides.

Reminders of Monroe's past do creep in occasionally – "All Night With the Lights On" would have been right at home on the 1984 Hanoi Rocks album Two Steps From the Move – but those moments are rare. For the most part, Not Fakin' It finds Monroe running full-tilt boogie from Hanoi's shadow and emerging victorious – if a little breathless – with a sound that is uniquely his. (RS 566)

KIM NEELY