Meat Loaf - Dead Ringer
#403
By Chris Kouzes
September 4 1981
Meatloaf
Dead Ringer
Genre: Rock
Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Chris’ Rating: 1 out of 5
Highlights
The album cover
Sonically sounds great
It’s not one second longer
I think you love and embrace the bombastic, bloated, over-the-top songs of Meatloaf or you don’t. I most certainly do not (and this is coming from someone who LOVES a lot of 70’s Prog Rock). But for the sake of moving out of my comfort zone, I foolishly volunteered to review this album, with the idea that maybe…maybe…my mind would change a bit. I should be open to revisiting past with an open mind, right?
Bat Out of Hell came out in 1977 and it was inescapable, even for a 9-year-old me. But even then I didn’t like anything about it. I was listening and loving to my mom’s Beatles and Stones albums, Top 40 pop on WLS and just starting to wade into the world of FM with whatever WXRT was playing. Zero of what Meatloaf was doing at the time registered with me. Running around with untucked sweat-soaked ruffled shirts waving around a handkerchief was not my idea of good. But millions (billions?) of people definitely did and if you’re in that group, than God bless ya…
So when this album came out, the long-awaited follow-up to Bat Out of Hell, I didn’t waste one second on it. So fresh ears now, right? The opening strains of motorcycles revving. OK. Oh wait, the song is called “Peel Out?” Hhm, pretty on the nose, but still willing to give it fair shot. Six minutes later and NOPE. I’M OUT!! Holy shit, this is t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e. But out of commitment to Allen, I’m trudging on. Listen, if you like the first song, you’re probably going to like the rest, so no need to delve track-by-track. A couple of comments: the track “Nocturnal Pleasure.” First off, there’s no way any song with a name like this is going to be good. Oh, wait, you mean it’s actually a 38 second spoken word piece not by Meatloaf, but his co-conspirator Jim Steinman? Even worse than what I was expecting. The only redeeming quality this has is that it’s less than a minute. And then there’s the title-ish track “Dead Ringer for Love” buried towards the end of the album. I swear on the life of my children that I never thought I’d be so happy to think, “Oh thank God, here comes a track featuring Cher.” Unfortunately her turn in the song sounds nothing remotely like her. Cher sounds a lot more like Little Nell than Cher. Not being a Rocky Horror fan, I also never thought I’d be referencing RH in any way (of course the exception being making fun of a balding man refusing to give up his long hair in back ala Riff Raff).
So is there anything good about the album? Actually, yes. The musicianship is outstanding, which includes the likes of Mick Ronson, Davey Johnstone, Max Weinberg, Roy Bittan, Liberty DeVito, Nicky Hopkins and several others. Even streaming through my car’s stereo system, this album sounds amazing. What I would to have half of the albums I love sound this good.
Johnny Rotten is famous for wearing a “I Hate Pink Floyd” shirt in the early years of The Sex Pistols, certainly symbolizing what the band and punk in general were rebelling against. Had punk been delayed a few years, Rotten undoubtedly would have been wearing a “I Hate Dead Ringer” shirt.
https://open.spotify.com/album/2Y9CaNn1xUX2EJWIiBG45i?si=4BnC6TKbQ-el5mk1ePqwyQ
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