After the break-up of Deep Purple, Glenn Hughes had not been prolific in his output. By 1981 he had only produced one solo album; 1977's Play Me Out, an album focused on Hughes’ love for soul and funk. By comparison, guitarist Pat Thrall had worked on several albums with Automatic Man and Pat Travers. Thrall had come to the attention of Hughes while he was trying to write new material in Los Angeles. The two got together and quickly struck up a working partnership. The result was the Hughes/Thrall album. Hughes/Thrall marked a return to hard rock for Hughes. The album itself has a definite AOR sound, but with influences of new wave and post-punk. Thrall made good use of guitar synthesizers and many have cited the album as being quite influential to the direction of rock music in the 80s. It was critically well received upon its release. However, despite the positive reception from critics, the album failed to sell well at the time. It has since, however, become somewhat of a cult album.
