Mistress Self-Titled Review
Mistress
Self-Titled
FNA Records
2025
Here’s a little taste of the late ’80s Hard Rock/AOR/Radio Rock vibe from Illinois three-piece Mistress. The band was formed in 1987 by brothers Keith and Ron Phelps, with bassist Jim Kates rounding things out. They were immediately up and running, and before long, the band recorded their first demo cassette. According to the press release, Mistress was playing locally sometimes as much as seven nights a week, so you can imagine the kind of local following they were building.
In 1989, Kates left the band and Todd Briscoe stepped in on bass. The band would go on to record their Self-Titled debut in the summer of 1990. In ’91, they signed with a talent agency and spent the next decade playing three to five nights a week before eventually calling it a day. Fast-forward to 2025, and FNA Records has resurrected the Self-Titled album with a remastered edition featuring expanded inlays and photos.
I’m honestly shellshocked that Mistress wasn’t picked up by a major label back in the day. One listen to this album tells you everything you need to know about the band’s musicianship. For a three-piece pumping out radio-friendly Rock with a heavy AOR flavor, think Alias and Bad English but with the musicianship of Y&T, this feels like a pretty damn big miss to me.
And here’s one of the things that really caught my attention: there are no keyboards. None.
That’s a big deal when you’re talking about this kind of AOR-driven sound. So much of that late ’80s/early ’90s Radio Rock was built around layers of keyboards, backing vocals and studio polish. Mistress somehow creates that same big, melodic atmosphere with guitars, bass, drums and vocals alone. That takes some serious songwriting ability, and these guys had it.
The clean vocals - actual singing, works perfectly here. I wouldn’t call them spellbinding, but they fit the songs like a glove. Keith handles the guitars and vocals, and you can tell he knew exactly where his strengths were. He wrote and played within his range, never trying to be something he wasn’t, and that gives the whole thing a natural sense of melody and timing.
These guys were really onto something. I’m sure I would’ve been a huge fan if they had ever made it to my neck of the woods. They remind me quite a bit of Rock Candy, another long-lost band that sits comfortably in this same forgotten corner of late ’80s/early ’90s Hard Rock. Lyrically, Mistress stays firmly on the AOR side of the fence. There’s little to nothing sleazy or cheeky going on here, and honestly, I’m okay with that. Sometimes you don’t need leather pants, bad intentions and a bottle of Jack. Sometimes it’s just nice to put on an album, crank it up and remember when.
And Mistress gives you plenty to remember.
The hooks are here. The melodies are here. The playing is exceptional, and the lead breaks are absolutely out of this world. I’m talking jaw-dropping. These are the kinds of songs where you could hear one playing somewhere and immediately start humming along, convinced you’d heard it twenty years ago. That’s the magic of a great hook; it gets into your head before you even realize it.
And then I start thinking about the history of this band and the questions start piling up. They didn’t get a deal? There’s only one album? Recorded in 1990?
You can’t tell me there isn’t something else sitting in a box somewhere. There’s no way a band this tight and this damn good only had one album’s worth of material. I’m hoping somebody, somewhere has another Mistress tape hiding in a basement, garage or just waiting to sneak attack us.
If you were around in the late ’80s, you know exactly what I mean when I say this record carries a feeling with it. There’s an innocence here that’s almost impossible to recreate today. I can practically smell 1989 all over this thing. It reminds me of a time when you could hear a song on the radio, run down to the record store, buy the cassette and spend the next week wearing it out.
FNA Records still has some of these CDs left, although I’m sure the supply isn’t exactly overflowing. They also have some of the original laminates the band sent over back in the day, which is an even cooler piece of history for those of us who dig this kind of stuff. The reissue also includes a bonus demo track that’s a little rougher around the edges but still holds up remarkably well.
I’d strongly recommend checking out Mistress. Big ups to FNA Records for giving this another shot at being heard. Thirty-five-plus years later, this forgotten little slice of Illinois Hard Rock still has plenty of gas in the tank. I’m feeling it!
Standouts – “Rockin”, “Don’t Be Shy”, “Insatiable” and “She’s Not You”