Ranked: Lita Ford Albums “Best To Worst”

Starting out as a teenager alongside fellow rocker Joan Jett in the now legendary band “The Runaways”, Lita Ford would go on to pursue a solo career that would see her reach new heights and lay claim to her place in history as one of the most influential women in hard rock history. 

# 9 Wicked Wonderland (2009)

Almost every rock artist has made that one album that they wished they hadn’t done. In Lita Ford’s case, Wicked Wonderland was an experiment too far.  Like many artists, Lita strayed from the formula that made her great and went for a modern rock sound that just didn’t seem to work on any level. Fortunately, Lita realized that this album wasn’t what her fans wanted to hear and it stands alone as the only really bad album in her career. I give her credit for trying something new but like Alice In Wonderland tripped down the rabbit hole, Lita made the trip with Wicked Wonderland only once. She completely redeemed everything that was wrong with Wicked Wonderland in her 2012 album “Living Like A Runaway” and aside from this album has created some really great songs throughout her career.

# 8 Time Capsule (2016)

Time Capsule was released as re-worked found songs that had been on a dusty studio shelf, so to speak. In most cases, when songs don’t make it on an album, there’s a good reason. But, if you want to call these songs B-Rated, they’re really surprisingly good for the most part. The good news is that these songs all sound like what we’ve come to know and love and Lita’s signature sound and doesn’t go into strange territory as The Wicked Wonderland album did. There are some genuinely good songs on this album that still has to tide her fans over until she releases a new album.

# 7 Black (1995)

After a four-year wait, Lita released the album “Black” to follow up “Dangerous Curves”. While Black is a decent album, the production leans more towards a heavier, grungier, more abrasive sound at times. It doesn’t kill the songs or the album like Wicked Wonderland did, but it’s also not up to par with her best material either. There are some good songs on “Black” and fans of Lita Ford’s music will still enjoy it, but it feels like an early attempt to try to reinvent herself, which is and was absolutely unnecessary. Jump ahead to “Living Like A Runaway” if you want to Lita do what she does best.

# 6 Out for Blood (1983)

Out For Blood was Lita Ford’s first solo album after the demise of her former band “The Runaways”. Right from the start, you get the idea that Lita’s got something to prove and she’s out to show the world that she can rock with the best of them, girls or guys alike. For the most part, she does that with an album that shows off her guitar playing ability throughout. Lita was still working out exactly what her sound as a solo artist was on this album, so it’s a good starting point. I don’t think she was as confident as a vocalist yet, but she would really start to hit her stride on the follow-up album “Dancin’ On The Edge”.

# 5 Dangerous Curves (1991)

Dangerous Curves was Lita’s third album in a four-year span that followed up the albums “Lita” and “Stilleto” Dangerous Curves is the weakest of those three albums, but definitely not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination. It has some pretty good songs like “Larger Than Life”, “Shot Of Poison” and “Playin’ With Fire”, and “Holy Man, but it seems to kind of lose some of its luster with some of the tracks feeling a little bit plain. Overall, the really good material shines above the lesser songs and still makes it a solid album. Commercially, it wasn’t as successful as the two previous albums, but the changing music scene was to blame more than anything as artists like Lita Ford began to see record labels heavily promoting alternative rock and grunge bands over the 80’s hard rock and metal sound.

# 4 Living Like A Runaway (2012)

Just three years after Lita released what can only be described as the worst album of her career with “Wicked Wonderland”, she returned with “Living Like A Runaway” and totally blew everyone away. This album has Lita Ford’s signature sound and hooks written all over it and it really is one of the best of her solo career. Opening the album with the song “Branded” was brilliant and you know right away that this album is something special. Lita shows that she can still rock harder and better than most with great songs like “Hate”, “Living Like A Runaway”, “Love 2 Hate U”, “Mask” and “A Song To Slit Your Wrists By”. It was honestly a tough choice to decide to place “Living Like A Runaway” outside of the top 3 albums because of how impressive it is.

# 3 Stiletto (1990)

Lita Ford was still flying high from the success of her self-titled “Lita” album when she released “Stilleto” just two years later. The albums “Lita”, “Stilleto” and “Dangerous Curves” almost feel like a trilogy. And all three have a nice flow that could almost make them almost part of one big album. Lita continues on with great songs like “Stilleto”, “Lisa” (which is dedicated to Lita’s mother), “Hungry” and “Aces And Eights” that makes “Stilleto” a memorable album that showed that she had staying power in a hard rock scene that was mostly male-dominated.

# 2 Dancin’ On The Edge (1984)

When the first notes of “Gotta Let Go” ring out through your speakers, you know it has “hit single” written all over it. The album not only charted Lita on the Billboard charts but also earned a Grammy nomination for “Best Female Rock Vocal Performance”.  While she was still trying to get her feet wet as a solo artist with the album “Out For Blood”, “Dancin’ On The Edge” has Lita sounding confident and has some great fiery rock songs that are memorable and in your face. Standout tracks like “Dressed To Kill”, “Dancin’ On The Edge”, “Don’t Let Me Down Tonight” and the energetic “Run With The Money” make this one of her best albums. While Lita would go on to create the most commercially successful album of her career four years later, “Dancin’ On The Edge” saw her come into her own as a capable solo artist and a force to be reckoned with.

#1 Lita (1988)

Lita Ford made a huge splash with her album “Dancin’ on The Edge” in 1984, she sort of dropped out of sight for four long years. But, when she did return, it was all well worth the wait. Lita’s self-titled album exploded overnight when it was released featuring such great and classic songs like “Close My Eyes Forever” (duet with Ozzy Osbourne) and her biggest single “Kiss Me Deadly”, she was the darling of both rock radio and MTV at the time. If Lita Ford has an album that’s perfect from beginning to end, it’s this one. Every song on this album is catchy, memorable, and simply outstanding. “Lita” is a platinum-selling album that still resonates with listeners today. This album cemented her place in rock n’ roll history as both a great vocalist and guitarist that proved that women can rock as hard or maybe even harder than many men can. It’s completely appropriate to consider Lita Ford as a trailblazer, role model, and influence on many of today’s hottest female rockers.

About The Author

Bobby Caughron

Bobby Caughron is a music journalist and Editor-In-Chief for XS ROCK. He began a life-long fan of hard rock and metal music after hearing KISS as a kid. He is still an avid fan of the 80s metal scene and continues to discover and write about new music in all rock genres today.

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