Album Notes

Ron Romanovsky and Paul Phillips present a smorgasbord of satiric and touching songs on this their third album, Emotional Rollercoaster. The duo combines the down-to-earth personality of I Thought You'd Be Taller! with the slickness and broad musical variety of Trouble in Paradise, their first and second albums, respectively.

"Straightening Up The House" is a delightful Dixieland tune which comments quite humorously on the dilemma of going back into the closet during a parental visit. The title track, which makes you want to jump up and do the Twist, is a rollicking 60s number about the ups and downs of relationships. "Give Me A Homosexual" is a show stopper about the absurdity of gay men who lust after [so-called] straight men. The compassionate "Living With AIDS", perhaps the best song on the album, is a compelling ballad, that, unlike other songs about AIDS, puts the emphasis back on living, where it should be, while the scathing, techno-pop "Sodomy Song" summarizes the gay rights movement in two minutes and twenty-five seconds with the immortal line, "Only an asshole would care what goes into our assholes and who puts it there." On the lighter side is a hilarious parody of the spiritually correct entitled, "Waltz for the New Age" which pokes fun at a laundry-list of new age fads from rebirthing to crystals to Shirley MacLaine, while the Brazilian-flavored "Family of Lovers" is a poignant ode from one generation of gay men to another, declaring, "I'm not the first one to suffer and I'm probably not the last, but I'm here to change the future 'cause I can't forget the past." Other highlights include "The Woman Next Door", a powerful song about a battered wife performed with a sensitive balance of frustration and fear, and the ragtime-flavored "My Mother's Clothes" which reminisces about childhood drag experiences, concluding that "drag is something each of us does every single day."

Romanovsky and Phillips employ an impressive variety of musical styles from different eras--and invent a few new ones. Each is chosen to showcase their provocative lyrics and to convey a particular mood. Their songs are consistently powerful, entertaining and thoughtful. Sometimes serious, sometimes flamboyant, R&P are always FUN!

The album was arranged and produced by Marcy Dicterow-Vaj, a Los Angeles string player who assembled and directed a first-rate cast of studio musicians to showcase the breadth of R&P's song writing abilities, and succeeded on every count.