Without any doubt whatsoever, the weakest album in the Angel catalogue. When hearing stuff like LA Lady or I'll Bring The Whole World To Your Door, one can't help but feel this band was put to rest just in time. Hard to think this was the very same band that only a few years earlier recorded Feelin' Right, Mirrors and other classics.

My 2nd favourite in the Angel discography after the pomptastic debut. This is a lot different, a lot more pop metal in it's direction, but nevertheless choc full of great songs, with memorable choruses, that will have you humming them for days later. Should have been a massive band but weren't - where is the justice people???

THEIR BEST LP BY FAR !!

This is a good release and my 2nd fave after 'Helluva Band'...
Too bad they didn't get more kudos....

All are excellent but this is the sweetest of all. One of the most criminally underrated band of all time!!

'Sinful' was a great record- one of the best of '79, but compared to the first two devastating Angel albums- it's pretty weak. How many bands can say the same?

Totally agree Eric.
The first two albums are killer records, but 'Sinful' appears to be the album that gets talked about the most. Perhaps its the iconic image on the cover. But it's really ironic that it wasn't the band's first choice of cover art and, more importantly, they had originally intended to release a live album. Which is why the tracks on side two were sourced from recordings originally recorded live in 1978.
Casablanca nixed the idea. They put out a live record the following year, of course, but by then the band was pretty much finished.

It's not widely known that 'Sinful' was officially reissued on CD in 2005 by Hip-O Select (a reissue branch of Universal Music USA) as a not-numbered limited edition of 5000 housed in a cool mini-LP sleeve reproduction. Straight reissue (no bonus tracks) but newly remastered and still available for purchase on the label's site (but this not for European fans, they have to get it via other famous e-store or e-auction sites...); unfortunately this one is marred by two slight mistakes in the cover art (both on the back sleeve), I'll let you personally discover which ones....

Great album

The album peaked at #159 on THE BILLBOARD 200 Us album sales chart. Believe it or not all the other ANGEL albums, included the live 2LP, charted HIGHER than 'Sinful'.

I recently discovered that a lady called Bobbi Cowan was hired by Neil Bogart as VP of Publicity at Casablanca to fill a gap left by head of publicity Susan Munao's decision to become the manager of Casablanca acts Donna Summer and Brooklyn Dreams.

Prior to joining Casablanca, Munao had worked with Angel manager David Joseph at Toby (aka GTO) and got a credit on the 'On Earth..' album.

Cowan's tenure at Casablanca was brief, but she later worked PR on the 'This Is Spinal Tap' movie and had seemingly been the real-life inspiration for the Polymer PR girl Bobbi Fleckman. So the 'real' Bobbi Fleckman was actually Spinal Tap's real PR!

Anyway, the scene in that movie regarding the 'Smell The Glove' album cover had me thinking....

Maybe "Bobbi Fleckman" had a hand in the 'Bad Publicity' album cover episode...

Fleckman: "Neil doesn't like the cover. He finds it very offensive and not very angelic..."

David Joseph: "Well, what exactly is offensive?"

Fleckman: "David, you had a bunch of guys in a hotel room....on the fourth floor...with girls, a reporter and a dwarf....and Punky putting the neck of a beer bottle towards his lips to drink from it...and you don't find that offensive? You don't find that sinful?..."

Joseph: "No, I don't. This is 1979, Bobbi, c'mon..."

Fleckman: "That's right it's 1979, get out of the sixties, we don't have this mentality anymore!"

Joseph: "Well, you should've seen the cover they wanted to do... that was more than sinful believe me!"

Fleckman: "I don't care what they wanted. Now, see, this is something, David, you're going to have to talk to your boys about".

Joseph: "We're certainly not laying down conditions...."

Fleckman: "And I don't think a sinful cover is the answer for why an album sells or doesn't sell because you tell me... 'The White Album', what was that? There was nothing on that goddam cover...."

Joseph: "'The White Album?'....sinful?...hmmm........."

Sinful was my first Angel LP, I brought, as it is with my copy & always been know that while the original title being 'Bad Publicity' was printed on the centre of the record, did they sort this out on future pressings (if they did them ) and have the correct title on them, being 'Sinful'?

The initial US pressing had 'Bad Publicity' on the label, as the decision to scrap the original cover was made very late in the day (indeed, at the shrink wrap stage in fact). The record company only insisted that the cover should be scrapped due to the expense of repressing the vinyl.
The ensuing pressings were corrected.

Thanks, reyno-roxx!, isn't about time a book was writtern about the history of Angel!

Yeah, Hurry up Dave, before Martin Popoff beats you to it.

My least favorite Angel album...after the first two classic albums each album that followed up was less impressive...agree with Tompa here...this ones not that great IMO.

Great songs, good production (love the drums). Saw them open for Judas Priest at Ag. Hall in Allentown, PA 2/27/79. Amazing show, amazing times !

White Hot and Live Without A Net are still missing from our archives. In the 2013 queue.

Just picked the BGO release up as a sad completist. The sound is, as with all the other Angel reissues by BGO, to a high standard. However, either down to licensing issues or an oversight the two songs from the 'Foxes' soundtrack, that were included on the Mercury CD release, are not featured here.

Despite the slipcase, the packaging is extremely disappointing too. I'll make no comment on the liner notes, but what was the point of putting an illustration of some of the single sleeves from the band's Casablanca period in the booklet and nothing else? There isn't even a photo of the 'Bad Publicity' album cover (again, the Mercury release featured this).

Until the Rock Candy reissue finally arrives at some point down the line (not this year though), the Mercury CD is still the one to grab.