Ain’t Love Grand! release

Despite the overwhelmingly positive critical reception for their first four albums, the band was frustrated by its lack of wider mainstream success. Zoom had also said that he would leave the band unless its next album was more successful. The band decided to change producers in search of a more accessible sound. Their fifth record, Ain’t Love Grand! , was produced by pop metal producer Michael Wagener . It featured a drastic change in sound, especially in the polished and layered production, while the band’s punk roots were little in evidence, replaced by a countrified version of hard rock . The change in production was intended to bring the band more chart success, but although it received more mainstream radio play than their earlier releases, it did not represent a commercial breakthrough. “Burning House of Love”, the album’s first single, was a minor hit on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart, where it peaked at number 27 in September 1985. Zoom left the group shortly thereafter in 1986, the same year in which the feature-length documentary film, X: The Unheard Music , was released.