Gun – Taking On The World (1989) Review

From AC/DC to Dire Straits to Deacon Blue, the rain-soaked streets of Glasgow have produced more than their fair share of rock ’n’ roll heavyweights.

Now they can add another name to that list.

Taking On The World is the assured debut from Gun, a record that sidesteps the excesses dominating late-’80s rock in favour of grounded, blue-collar songwriting built on muscular riffs and memorable melodies. There’s an unmistakable streak of American influence running through it, too – a sound seemingly engineered with one eye firmly fixed on breaking beyond Scottish borders.

Taking On The World

In hindsight, it would have been easy for Gun to follow the late-’80s hard rock template.

Hair metal was at its commercial peak, and record companies were eagerly handing out lucrative contracts to any band capable of delivering a radio-friendly hook and a photogenic frontman.

Yet beneath the surface, the scene was already beginning to fray.

Its biggest stars were buckling under the weight of excess and endless touring, while the arrival of Guns N’ Roses reintroduced a sense of danger which the glam scene had always lacked – a grittier, more relatable portrayal of life on the Sunset Strip that felt raw rather than theatrical.

Across the Atlantic, Gun offered a distinctly British response to that shift.

Shunning flamboyance in favour of hook-laden hard rock, they managed to fuse AC/DC’s direct, driving riffs with the rhythmic swagger of INXS, all underpinned by flashes of Bruce Springsteen-inspired working-man lyricism. The end result was a sound unlike any of their peers, putting Gun in an intriguing middle ground – too riff-driven to be pop, yet too accessible to be hard rock.

"Read a story in the paper last night,
People living in fear,
It's easy saying nothing,
It's easy just to watch things fall."

BETTER DAYS

Somebody’s Lost, Somebody’s Found

Taking On The World lives and dies by its riffs.

From the chugging drive of Shame On You to the blues-tinged hooks of Money (Everybody Loves Her), the album is built on a foundation of muscular guitar work.

But it’s Giuliano Gizzi’s restraint that truly sets him apart.

Where contemporaries like Slash or Mick Mars often seize entire sections to showcase their virtuosity, Gizzi rarely feels the need to dominate. Instead, he locks in with the rhythm section, prioritising momentum over flash and helping to construct the kind of towering, tightly wound groove that powers these songs forward.

Standout singles Better Days and Inside Out further underline the band’s chart potential, pairing sharp storytelling with infectious energy before exploding into choruses that feel tailor-made for mainstream rock radio.

“I know we’re young, but we’ve been working on getting this chance for years. My brother (Dante) and I were playing clubs four years ago, as part of a different band, and the audience stayed with us while we figured out who we were. When we transformed into Gun a lad from A&M Records came to a gig, and although he couldn’t offer us a record deal, he said he could help us cut a few high quality demos. The opportunity was like a shot in the arm for us, and we’ve never left that studio!”

– Giuliano Gizzi

Production And Ambition

Despite initially setting their sights on establishing themselves within the UK rock scene, it’s clear that Gun harboured far greater ambitions.

Everything about Taking On The World – from its polished production to its arena-sized choruses and confident song structures – feels constructed with one eye firmly fixed on the American market.

And yet, for all of their transatlantic ambition, they still sounded unmistakenly Scottish.

The contrast between these two worlds becomes part of the album’s charm, with producer Kenny MacDonald perfectly striking the balance between harnessing the band’s youthful enthusiasm without ever allowing it to spiral into excess. As a result, the record sounds big and purposeful but never overblown – polished enough to travel, yet grounded enough to retain its grit.

This fine attention to detail makes the band’s age all the more remarkable. For at the time of recording, the members were barely out of their teens – bassist and backing vocalist Dante Gizzi just 17 years old – yet they crafted a collection of songs with a level of confidence and control that belied their years.

"Sentimental strangers,
There's rhythm in her dancing feet,
Sleeping in the city streets,
Crying in the rain."

SHAME ON YOU

Where Do We Go?

By 1989, hard rock seemed untouchable.

Stadium tours were routine, and MTV was a never-ending cascade of guitars and pyro.

It appeared that Gun had landed at just the right time.

However, the next eighteen months would see the entire landscape tilt dramatically. The polish and theatricality of 1980s rock/metal would be swept aside by a new wave of stripped back authenticity, as grunge reshaped what mainstream rock sounded – and looked – like for the masses.

The only bands to survive the coming mass cull were those who rapidly reshaped their sound – like Bon Jovi – or those who were already gritty enough to weather the shift without compromise, like Guns N’ Roses.

Gun arguably belonged in the latter camp, yet their timing worked against them. Taking On The World arrived just as the industry was preparing to pivot, feeling less like the start of a takeover and more like a band kicking open the door to a building that was about to be demolished.

Gun: Taking On The World

In a decade crowded with excess and theatrics, Gun delivered something sturdier.

Taking On The World may not have rewritten the rulebook, but it proved that hard rock didn’t need hairspray and spectacle to hit with force.

Decades on, it feels less like a relic of its era and more like a reminder of how powerful honest, hook-driven songwriting can be when it’s played with conviction – big riffs, bigger choruses, no gimmicks.

>> Taking On The World is part of our Gun album review series.

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