Reflecting Pool: Green Day - Kerplunk!

One of best selling Indie records would pave the way for superstardom



Green Day - Kerplunk! - 1992 (iTunes - Amazon)

You know what you notice on Kerplunk? Mike Dirnt. Yeah, I forgot about him completely on the band's first album. But, he's right there, all prominent and shit on 2000 Light Years Away, the opening track.
One for the Razorbacks follows and I'm trying to keep in mind that I haven't heard Dookie yet in 1992. It hasn't been written or recorded yet. It's hard, you know, to not compare this record to the monster that would follow, but, from the first two tracks it might as well be the same one. And then, wham, there's the original version of Welcome to Paradise and what I realize is that the band is the same, it's that they were in need of a producer to flesh out the sound and an engineer to help broaden the pallette. Because the song is almost exactly the same.
The songs here are more melodic, as in Christie Road and Light Years, these are kids who have been playing since they were little kids. Tre Cool was drumming for The Lookouts since he was 12. Armstrong and Dirnt have been playing together since they were at least 15. Here they are all about 22. And they sound like accomplished musicians.
Private Ave is more a harbinger to the collection of songs on Insomniac than what was around the corner. And the ridiculous twang punk, more reminiscent of a Bloodhound Gang song, is funnier than that band has ever been and is a memory before it wears out its welcome. With this and "All by Myself" I can't help but wonder what a Tre Cool album might sound like. I imagine it would be goofy and fun but a trifle. Perhaps he's best left to the brilliance of skin pounding.
I can't help but feel there is a certain freshness to this sound even though it's 20 years old, for all intents and purposes and this album, released in 1992, came just 9 years after...Thriller. I don't even know what that means.
For a record made for 2 grand, it's pretty good.
As a bonus, the Kerplunk! CD comes with the Sweet Children ep. Sweet Children was Green Day's original name.
The eponymous track, "Sweet Children", is a punk trifle that in no way points toward what their future might be.
There is also a cover of My Generation. It isn't all that exciting or great. But it does show where, if you pulled the covers back, Billie Joe's head was at. He may be punk, but only in the same way that Townshend was. No wonder they just covered "A Quick One While He's Away". I gotta pick that up....

Grade B
A Side: Welcome to Paradise, 2000 Light Years Away
BlindSide: Christie Road, Private Ave, One of my Lies
DownSide: No One Knows (While I want to love the attempt at something grand, it just falls flat.)

Reflecting Pool: Green Day - 1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours

Right in the middle of the Reflecting Pool, we jump in the wayback machine to cast a glance at the earliest GD had to offer.



Green Day - 1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours - 1990 (iTunes - Amazon)

So this is early Green Day. Before Tre Cool. When John Kiffmeyer (who wrote the terrific Husker Du-ish "I Was There") was the drummer.
The first thing you notice, after 7 Green Day albums from Dookie to Foxboro HotTubs, is that, well, these guys were really a great band from the start.
It's weird to think of this as an 18 year old record. It predates, barely, Nevermind. But, no one was writing about the boys from Berkeley. Who have been a band for 20 years!
A lot of the tracks could be rewritten, rearranged and sound like they fell off Dookie. But let's not forget what this is: This is a small band, barely in their 20s, trying to kick down doors with a calling card. This is a first record. An amateur outing and it's much better than a lot of the crap you pick up at small gigs for bands just starting out.

The first 10 tracks are the album 39/Smooth. It's a stronger attempt at relevance than I have heard on many other small punk bands' albums of the time. And when I was reviewing for Home Theater I was deluged by tons of bands like Kiss the Clown, et al. Nothing was as strong as this. The "ballad", Rest, with it's multi-tracked harmonies, notwithstanding. I see what they were trying, but it doesn't really work. It would, with a better producer. That much is obvious.

The next four tracks are from the Slappy EP. From 1990. wow. Really.
Paper Lanterns features some of the strongest vocals from Bille Joe so far. He isn't just a feature of a punk band. He's carrying the melody and he's secure with it. "Why Do You Want Him" is actually the first song Armstrong wrote, when he was 14. It sounds like a boy was listening to a LOT of Husker Du. But, that's fine, I mean, he's fucking 14, right? In 86 punks SHOULD have been listening to a lot of Du. Candy Apple Grey, Zen Arcade, Warehouse around the corner....maybe that should be a Reflecting Pool.....I digress.
According to the Wiki, the song is written about his stepfather. Putting into motion the father issues that would pervade much of Billie Joe's work (moms and Brads are away....). The Operation Ivy cover, "Knowledge" feels a little out of place. It would probably fit better years later on Warning.

The bottom four tracks in this set are from the ep "1000 Hours" recorded 20 years ago. Good for them. They were on to something and didn't give up. In fact, I prefer the production on this ep to the rest of the album. I can hear the band moving into their own and they've only just begun. Dry Ice is much better than it deserves to be. And while, "Only of You" may be by the numbers, it features a guitar solo, that, if it is Billie Joe, makes me wish he had done more

What's crazy is how prominent the drum fills are, I thought that was an obsession brought in with Tre Cool. I was mistaken. It has been an integral part of the Green Day since the beginning.

Grade B+ (I'm always a little forgiving with debuts. But when the players are 16 and this good, yeah, they deserve it)
A Side: I Was There, At the Library, Paper Lanterns, 1000 Hours
BlindSide: Road to Acceptance, Dry Ice
DownSide: Green Day (A pot song that is superfluous at best. But it did give them that name....), Rest, Knowledge

Reflecting Pool: Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop and Roll!!!

Hey, is that Green Day....?



Green Day as Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop And Roll! - 2008 (iTunes - Amazon)

The old axiom goes: bands spend their whole loves writing and performing their first album and then they have on year to write another one. That's why the sophomore slump is almost always dead on. With Green Day, there doesn't seem to ever be this problem. The problem is, it seems, what to do with all the extra songs that Billie Joe writes that don't end up on Green Day albums or on B-Sides? The guy just seems to be a writing machine.
Sure, GD's output has been limited to 8 studio albums in 19 years, but there has also been Shenanigans, the b-side collection, The Network, Green Day as angular New Wave retro band and The Foxboro Hot Tubs. At that rate, they have been pretty much releasing an album's worth of music every 2 years.
I took Foxboro Hot Tubs to be a smart move on GD's part. After all, how do you top the biggest record of your career (American Idiot) which was a smash success AND a political manifesto. Surely your fans, the rock community, the world, would be looking at your next release with baited breath.
In stead of slapping that target on themselves too soon, the boys released Stop, Drop & Roll as Foxboro Hot Tubs (which is Green Day under pseudonyms with the addition of the two players who joined them for The Network).
This album is a decidedly better offering than the new wave Money Money 2020. From the artwork on the cover and the retro title, you know what to expect.
Garage Rock.
The Zombies, the Kinks, The Yardbirds, The Who. These are the forefathers of Stop Drop and Roll.
So, if you like that kind of music and you like Billie Joe Armstrong's songwriting, you will enjoy this record. It goes without saying, right?
You would be right.
This is a tasty little confection, from the congas on Broadway, to the Jam-like Mother Mary and the organ festooned Zombies-esque track, Ruby Room. There isn't a false note on the record. They are at once true to the form and true to themselves.
You will hear elements of a dozen or so other songs in these, but these aren't ripoffs as much as they are homages and launching pads.
An excellent record.

Grade A
A Side: Mother Mary, Ruby Room, Stop Drop and Roll, Dark Side of Night, Pieces of Truth
BlindSide: She's a Saint Not a Celebrity, Alligator (which owes so much to "You Really Got Me" they should pay royalties), 27th Ave Shuffle,
DownSide: Truly, there isn't a bad track on this spinner.

Listening Post: Meco - The Wizard of Oz

A guest Listening Post by SamuraiFrog, revolving around Meco Monardo, the guy who disco-ized movie scores.



Meco - The Wizard of Oz - 1978 (not available)

Albums like this sounded so much more interesting before the digital age. I have this record on mp3s, so the whole album plays continuously straight through. Now, Meco intended this album, like Encounters of Every Kind, to be a non-stop piece of music, but knew eventually the record was going to have to get flipped over. So he faded out at the end of side A and then built up again at the start of side B. It's understandable, obviously, but listening to it on my iTunes it's nearly fatal to the momentum. It's a sudden lull in the middle of the experience, and one it takes a while to recover from.

Meco assembled the same team for this third fantasy disco album, and this one improves immeasurably on the first two. It helps that he's using the score to the 1939 MGM version of The Wizard of Oz, so the base he's working from is solid. It starts right off with a big, bold, horn-heavy dance version of "Over the Rainbow," and just leads out from there. The first side is a pleasure to listen to. It only lasts about 14 minutes or so, and takes Dorothy from Kansas to "We're Off to See the Wizard," and features sound effects and a chorus singing a lot of the Munchkin parts. The entire A side, taken as one composition, is probably the strongest thing Meco's done in his first three albums (even including "Star Wars"). The whole piece just doesn't stop; even when it slows down (as in "The Cyclone," which features a dreamy section with a synthesizer playing a plaintive recapitulation of "Over the Rainbow"), the arrangements are so tight and the theme so focused and the beat so steady that it never once becomes boring or overwhelming.

The second side, then, takes a while to get started, and the whole thing just isn't quite as good. It starts off with "Poppies" and "The Spell," so it's kind of slower, anyway, and the woman singing/exclaiming for the Wicked Witch of the West gets kind of irritating. The second side is only good in fits and starts. "The Haunted Forest" is nicely funky, though. "If I Were King of the Forest" has little to do with the music from The Wizard of Oz, but has a majestic theme I wanted to hear more of (this section is only 57 seconds long). The real pleasure of side B is the final track, "The Reprise," which starts with a brief bar of "There's No Place Like Home" and then features what amounts to an orchestral overture of the music. It's really nice as an exit piece. Kind of jaunty, too.

Grade A-
A Side: I'd say the entire first side taken as one piece, which it really is (the single version, "Themes from The Wizard of Oz," isn't the same thing)
BlindSide: "The Reprise"
DownSides: "The Poppies," "The Spell"

Reflecting Pool: Green Day - American Idiot

After Liz died I couldn't listen to this record, let alone any other Green Day, since it was her favorite band. Time heals a lot. Let's see if it's as good as I recall...



Green Day - American Idiot - 2004 (iTunes - Amazon)

"...while the moms and Brads are away."
I think, with that lyric, Billie Joe shows just how strong a songwriter he is. Evoking contempt for and a callous, shallow acceptance of, divorce that pervades generation X's lives, he steps up his game, the band's and we are all the beneficiaries of it.
American Idiot is the Screed Political Punk Rock Opera as fully realized art form. It's angry as hell and there's a story in there somewhere and it resonates as a bully retort against a government gone awry.
It's also hummable as hell.
Now, I'm a big fan of suites. My band used to make fun of me because I would try to write songs that would link together and make them learn them that way. I loved the way songs would flow together on brilliant albums like XTC's Skylarking or Queen 2. Even if they weren't supposed to be interlocking, it made for a listening experience that much grander. It's a meaty listen when it's done right and it's done SO right on Idiot.
Legend has it that the band had recorded Cigarettes & Valentines only to come to the studio one day and discover the masters stolen. And rather than rerecord that album they decided to start from scratch. Whatever they were working on would be prelude to this. Someone find the thief and shake his hand.
Much ballyhoo is made of the 9+ minute epic "Jesus of Suburbia", a song which could also, like the second side of Abbey Road, be a series of unfinished song ideas that have a common thread linking them. On top of creating a piece of music that is a success on all it's pistons like this one, they managed to get this almost-10-minute frankenstein airplay!
But, for my money, it's the OTHER suite, Homecoming that is the unsung hero of the album. Not as poppy, more aggressive andschizophrenic. Almost an equal is size, it never gets it's due. It's a brilliant series of songlets, a denouement to an album of despair and desperation.
There are so many other great moments on Idiot. "We are the Waiting", with it's assured elegiac chorus of "Are we? We are the waiting (unknown)", the voices desperate for leadership followed immediately by the speed punk show of "St. Jimmy" who is the "Patron Saint of the denial, with an angel face and a taste for suicidal."
It's no wonder this is being made into a stage show up in Berkeley. I, for one, will stand in line when it comes to LA.
The characters are some of the most excitingly drawn I've ever heard. They give the Rat and Mary runs for their money. From The Jesus of Suburbia, the son of divorce raised on "Soda Pop and Ritalin" to St. Jimmy, the "punk Rock Freedom Fighter" as Wikipedia describes him (who, might actually be a personality of JoS, the American Idiot) to Whatsername, the rebel chick "extraordinary girl". She is the kind of punk I would have fallen in love with in college. You know the type...army jacket, mini-skirt, jack boots. Ah, college....

[Special mention should be made for the exceptional "American Edit" mashup by the DJ "Dean Grey". You can get it here and I recommend it. Because it's one of the best concept mashups of the decade. Or just google "American Edit"]

While Armstrong has claimed that "Wake Me When September Ends" is actually about his father who died in September in '82, I would hard pressed to believe that he didn't expect the song to be taken as a post-9/11 cry for salvation. Even if he didn't it works too well here and I will take it that way.

Everything comes together on American Idiot; the angry punks of Dookie, the rock-appreciators of Insomniac & Nimrod, the ambitions of Warning, the years of listening to Boomer music (The Beatles, The Who, Queen are all in here), the wide-awake, open eyed clear understanding of the shithole those aforementioned Boomers were leaving in their wake, it's all here. Billie Joe is 32, a father, a punk, a husband, a citizen & taxpayer and he really doesn't like the world he is inheriting.
THIS is the album that defines the Bush administration. Or at least it should be.
I guess I like it after all.

Grade A+
A Side: Jesus of Suburbia, American Idiot, Holiday, Wake me When September Ends
BlindSide: Homecoming, Are We The Waiting, Letterbomb
DownSide: Nothing. If you don't like this album then Rock has nothing for you. Go listen to Belle & Sebastian and get outta the way.

Listening Post: Meco - Encounters of Every Kind

A guest Listening Post by SamuraiFrog, revolving around Meco Monardo, the guy who disco-ized movie scores.



Meco - Encounters of Every Kind - 1977 (not available)

Quick to capitalize on his success with Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk, Meco assembled the same crew for a concept album based partially on the theme of a trip through time and partially on wanting another hit single based on a John Williams theme.

Encounters of Every Kind takes the listener via time machine to various points in history, starting 1 million years in the past and ending in 1979 with a disco version of the theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It's obviously meant to be listened to as a non-stop track of nine compositions linked together by a brief "time travel" theme and with sound effects used to create atmosphere. It's a bold concept, but it starts to wear out its welcome halfway through.

The first side is the strongest, with a looming prehistoric theme. The tracks "Roman Nights" and "Lady Marion" are standouts; "Roman Nights" is short and to the point (1:41), with a strong major theme, and "Lady Marion" is very pretty. But the tracks that follow alternate between stilted and turgid; you just hold on and wait for them to be over--especially "Hot in the Saddle," a cliched Western piece that insists on being nearly five minutes long. (Good spacing on the sound effects, though.)

The second side opens with the second-worst track on the album, "Crazy Rhythm," which starts with a clattering of sound effects and then replicates the sound of a tinny old Victrola. It eventually becomes a full-blown stereo track, but by then it's already been grating and grating and grating. Much better is track "Topsy," which is supposed to evoke the feel of an early fifties jukebox, but which sounds to me like aliens having a dance party. I can totally see these great animated aliens line dancing to this or something, with little fedoras on. Okay, it's better than I just made it sound. It's cool.

The two tracks closing the album, "Meco's Theme/3W.57" and "Theme from Close Encounters," are purposely the most disco-oriented tracks on the album. "Meco's Theme" is super disco; apparently it appears in the movie Thank God It's Friday. Now, I like disco, so I enjoyed "Meco's Theme." You can dance to it, it's got a great beat and is dense with instrumentation without being inaccessible. It's good stuff. "Theme from Close Encounters," though, drowns in a sound effects sequence which stops the whole thing dead in its tracks. I've got the rest of his discography to go through, but so far lightning has only struck once for Meco on John Williams.

Overall, though, the album's central concept and the flow of the music are a fun little sweep. You can listen to it all the way through once or twice; I'm not sorry I listened to it, but I'm mostly just going to stick to a couple of tracks in the future.

Grade B-
A Side: "Topsy," "Meco's Theme/3W.57"
BlindSides: "Roman Nights," "Lady Marion"
DownSides: "Icebound," "Hot in the Saddle," "Crazy Rhythm"

Listening Post: Meco - Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk

A guest Listening Post by SamuraiFrog, revolving around Meco Monardo, the guy who disco-ized movie scores.



Meco - Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk - 1977 (Buy)

Meco's career in theme disco starts with his most famous work, a disco take on John Williams' theme from Star Wars. As an album, it makes a great single.

There are only two tracks on the album (and it really does sound better on vinyl), the first of which is a priceless relic of the much-maligned disco era. People are pretty familiar with the three and a half minute single version, but the "album" version of "Star Wars" runs nearly 16 minutes long, but it doesn't waste any of that time on repetition. Meco basically takes you through the entire story of the movie, starting with the Main Title, going through instantly recognizable themes from the score, and ending with that iconic Throne Room music. But it's not just a medley; he's linked all the pieces dramatically and creatively, with a lot of interesting, enjoyable instrumentation and pretty well-replicated sound effects (to evoke laser blasts, R2-D2, lightsabers, etc.)

Apparently, Meco was impressed with the movie when it came out (he claims to have seen it 5 times in the first two days), but thought the score wasn't commercial. What was commercial was setting the themes to a dance beat and cashing in on the disco craze. And why not, eh? The resulting music is pretty powerful. And surprisingly more funk than disco, I think.

Seriously, you need to hear the main Force theme played on electric guitars.

The B-side of the album is "Other Galactic Funk," which is five high school kids Meco spotted in Central Park playing drums. It made me lose the will to live. What starts off as funk just becomes an endless series of drum exercises with occasional horn intrusions, and it insists on going on for 12 and a half minutes. You can live a longer, happier life if you never listen to it; it's obviously just filler for the B-side. All of the creative work went to the real treasure.

The CD comes with a couple of extra tracks: a 7" version of the single (the radio version, which I've decided is just too darn short), and a 12" version that is indistinguishable from the "album" version.

Grade C+ (A- if you never, ever flip the record over)
A Side: "Star Wars"
BlindSide: none
DownSide: "Other Galactic Funk." Just skip it.

Listening Post: Judas Priest - Nostradamus

The end is nigh. And it's sooooo boring......



Judas Priest - Nostradamus - 2008 (iTunes - Amazon)

I'm not sure what to make of this. The first track of Nostradamus, "Dawn of Creation", opens with strings, pianos, moody wind effects and then a keyboard track that reminds of the soundtrack for Halloween. But that's really just a 2.5 minute overture. When "Prophecy" starts you know you are in some kind of Heavy Metal...something.
"I am Nostradamus, do you believe?" Oh, this is turgid.
Why? I have to ask, why? Who needed a 2 hour rock opera concept album about Nostradamus???? From what I've read, this stuff's been covered already. And even if it hadn't, why now? Why so...pedestrian? And Why? So? Much?????
Ugh.
To be fair, some of the tracks aren't that bad. The lyrics to "Revelations" may be mediocre and on the nose, but the operatic, almost cinematic quality of the production sort of lifts it, while shoving, for some reason, Rob Halford's vocal as deep into the mix as possible and still render it recognizable.
With it's slight interludes that call to mind a pedestrian and pedantic church service of sadness and gloom, Priest really think their making great art here. And I admire them for the attempt.
Thing is, the last thing these guys were known for was wordsmithing and lyrics. It's gotta suck to be Halford in that respect. His voice is admirable and his writing talent has always been suspect. The sound, the fury, the dual guitar attack of Tipton and Downing, the voice and sheer will is what made Priest, is what carved their names into the marble of this musical movement. And, so to hear them attempt such heights and fail so defiantly is sad, comical and, sometimes, as on, say, "War", inspiring a bit. If it does sound a LOT like a Lord of the Rings soundtrack instead of a Metal album.
Except where the lyrics are in Italian and it's a full on Wagnerian Opera. Only in Italian. As on "Pestilence & Plague" What the hell am I listening to, again?
The entire first half seems to be devoted to Nossy's predictions. Now, I don't know about you, but when I predict something it's more along the lines of, "Hmm...I think the Mets are going to tank this year." But in the hands of Halford & Co. it's more like, "Besmirch me not, my lord! The grand Metropolitans of York of Newness shall be vanquished in a spasm of strangulation the likes of which ne'er seen lo these many moon! Oh, fie!"
Or something.
It's fully 45 minutes before anything remotely resembling Priest as we know them shows up in the last song of the firs Act (!!!), a track called Persecution. So, I guess, Nostro has been determined to be some kind of heretic and is going to be locked up. I guess. I don't know. I just see the end in sight...... (For the record, I don't know if this is something to be proud of, in awe of, or what, but the entire first act, all of it, is stitched together as one. long. track. Suck on that, Queen.
End Act One

Act Two (oh, jeez......)
Act Two opens with Nossy exiled.
Great. Got it.
Oh, wait, you need 7 minutes to get that point across, JP? Okay. I'll be back.
Oh, you DON'T really need 7 minutes, it only took you three. The other 4 are needless and sub-par instrumentation. Got it. How badly do you guys want to score the next Underworld Movie??
Only 40 minutes to go. The next 7 will be spent on a song titled, Alone. So, it's gonna take 7 minutes to convey how Nostradamus felt when he was exiled. All right.
While this is playing I'll say this: In the early 80's there was a mini-series on German Television called Berlin Alexanderplatz. It's a 14 part series by Fassbinder. We never saw it, my friends or I. But, whenever we experienced something that was inteminably boring and long we would create a new portmanteau for it. A dull lecture was "Berlin Alexanderlecture". A boring book could be "Berlin Alexandertome". A boring movie would be "Berlin Alexanderplatz". Gotcha!
So, now I can just call a boring book "Nostradabook".
I've decided that this entry should be the longest since I am making myself sit through a near-two irony free, humorless, quasi-concept album.
For you.
FOR YOU! So YOU don't have to do it.
Sure, you might think, one day, "hmmm...I wonder how that last Priest Album was. I mean, Angel of Retribution was pretty good. And I like good metal. I wonder...."
I do this for You! So you can know. So, you can enjoy every moment of your life and not lose an hour and a half that you will never get back!
Shit. Please, fucking end!
30 minutes to go.
Oh, this isn't bad. This Visions track. At least it's...I dunno...a song?
Then there's this elegiac hope message 20 minutes before the end and I'm thinking, "Why am I not drinking? Why am I sitting here when I could be laying in bed, next to my wife, sleeping?"
Ugh. 20 minutes to go. Feels like forever.
What?
It takes us til the penultimate song to get to some real rockin' metal? Nostradamus, the song, is a big thrash metal song that is at once ridiculous and, at the same time, should have just been one track on some other record that didn't include 1.5 hours of turgid, quasi epic balladry.
The album ends, as it probably must, with mankind moving forward but with the gift of Nostradamus's prophecies to guide us. (Props for ending in the proper french, Nossy's native tongue. The guys did their homework)

Okay.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Judas Priest.

Grade D+
A Side: Revelations, Nostradamus,
BlindSide: War, Persecution
DownSide: Sands of Time, Death

Listening Post: Judas Priest - Angel of Retribution

21st Century Priest.



Judas Priest - Angel of Retribution - 2005 (iTunes - Amazon)

Well, this is more like it. From the opening harbinger of doom track Judas Rising, right through the next track Deal with the Devil, we know that we are back in familiar territory. I'm not sure who said, "Hey, remember when we wrote SONGS? Let's do that. Only they'll come in at under 5 minutes and they will sound like...I dunno...Priest?"
By the time we hit Revolution it's clear that, at the very least, the band is playing to its strengths, giving the people what they want and accepting the mantle of Metal Gods once again. Dalliances into RapCore and thrash be damned, Priest is Metal!
There's supposed to be some connection between the Angel on Sad Wings of Destiny and this record. Something about this being a second half to that record. Maybe. I don't know. Sounds like an attempt to cash in and prove that the "old Priest is back!".
There's even a metal ballad, Angel, followed by by the thrash metal, Hellrider, which could fit on most any post-apocalyptic soundtrack.
There are three things immediately noticeable on Angel of Retribution:
1. There are actual songs that keep the wrong excesses in check while playing up the right ones.
2. The band doesn't sound like they are a 10 tentacled beast with no direction.
and 3. Halford is back. I never went into the fact that Ripper Owens was the replacement for Rob on the last two Priest albums, I didn't think it was necessary to rehash what everyone knows. The difference is palpable. Ripper was a hired gun. Halford has a name and cache he brings to the game. He can turn down bad ideas.
Ripper couldn't. He was at the behest of the rest of the band's bad decisions.
Part of what makes this record work for me is that, minus the 14 minute opus about the Loch Ness Monster, this is a reasonably timed record: 41 minutes. Just enough to leave you sated and wanting for more.
If Rick Rubin was called in to produce Priest, I imagine that this is exactly the kind of record he would have come up with. Satisfying the fans of old, sounding fresh and relevant, never once pretending to be anything different than what they are:
Gods of Metal.

Grade B+
A Side: Revolution,, Judas Rising, Deal with the Devil
BlindSide: Hellrider
DownSide: Lochness. For so many reasons. first, it's 14 minutes long. Second, it SCREAMS Spinal Tap. Third, Here are the lyrics:
GREY MIST DRIFTS UPON THE WATER
THE MIRRORED SURFACE MOVES
AWAKENED OF THIS PRESCENCE
DISPELLING LEGENDS PROOF

A BEASTLY HEAD OF ONYX
WITH EYES SET COALS OF FIRE
IT'S LEATHERED HIDE
GLIDES GLISTENING
ASCENDS THE HEATHERED BRIAR

THIS LEGEND LIVES
THROUGH CENTURIES
EVOKING HISTORY'S MEMORIES
PREVAILING IN ETERNITIES ON AND ON AND ON

Chorus:
LOCHNESS CONFESS YOUR TERROR OF THE DEEP
LOCHNESS DISTRESS
MALINGERS WHAT YOU KEEP
LOCHNESS PROTECTS MONSTROSITY
LOCHNESS CONFESS TO ME

SOMEHOW IT HEEDS THE PIPER
FROM BATTLEMENTS THAT CALL
FROM SIDE TO SIDE IT PONDERS
IMPASSIONED IN THE SKULL

THIS HIGHLAND LAIR OF MYSTERY
RETAINS A LOST WORLD'S EMPATHY
RESILIANT TO DISCOVERY ON AND ON AND ON

THIS LEGEND LIVES
THROUGH CENTURIES
EVOKING HISTORY'S MEMORIES
PREVAILING IN ETERNITY
YOUR SECRET LIES SAFE WITH ME

THIS CREATURES PERIL FROM DECEASE
IMPLORES TO MANKIND FOR RELEASE
A LEGACY TO REST IN PEACE AND ON AND ON AND ON

I rest my case.

Listening Post: Judas Priest - Demolition

Rap? Judas Priest and....rap?????



Judas Priest - Demolition - 2001 (iTunes - Amazon)

Okay, yes. There is a nu-metal rapcore song on this album. It is the last. It's called Metal Messiah and it serves to remind me of a terrible time when it seemed that Limp Bizkit would never go away. When this was considered MUSIC.
Sadly, it's also one of the only tracks with a chorus that's catchy. It also proves just how generic this band that is calling itself Judas Priest has become.
Demolition is the kitchen sink album. Since the attempt at relevance on Jugulator was such a dismal failure the band obviously felt it was necessary to try EVERYTHING. So, there's a little Jugulator, a little rapcore, a little hair metal and a LOT of bad tracks.
This is not Priest. This is "generic metal band". The musicianship is fine. There are few "songs" to speak of. And the lyrics are a notch above elementary school.
And I'm serious about that.
This is also a dangerously LOOOOOONG record, clocking in at over an hour with no reason. After a while every song sounds exactly like the others.
This is a painful album to listen to, especially when doing a canon run like I am.

Grade D
A Side: Metal Machine, Subterfuge.
BlindSide: Lost & Found (The closest to glam metal this record gets. And not a bad track at that.)
DownSide: Cyberface & Metal Messiah (The Rap Song!)