Similar to the first Rapid Fire post, I'll be briefly discussing three albums (this time, all from the 90s!) and giving my verdict on each of them. I may consider doing similar posts to this where I link the three albums via genre or decade...or I'll keep on doing three random albums that I've listened to, who knows.
1. Ten - Pearl Jam
I listened to this album a while ago and wasn't hugely impressed. I'd heard it was widely regarded as their best work (even though it is their first album) and contains at least three of their signature songs along with fan favourites in the form of filler tracks. In reality, it's good but if anything it's more responsible for shaping the sound of Alternative Rock, particularly from the Seattle region. A combination of Eddie Vedder's vocals and a variety of soft and heavy riffing from Mike McCready made it easily accessible to 90s listeners and revisiting it, it still holds up today.
I can't say I'm totally down with that, as I'm a bigger fan of the Riff Based Rock of the 70s, and whilst this album features plenty of epic riffs, they're all located in the three lead singles (hence my indifference to most of the filler tracks). In my eyes, it's definitely a solid album but much like a summer blockbuster with all the impressive CGI-filled action scenes in the trailers, Ten suffers from being arguably too reliant on mainstream Alternative singles. "Even Flow", "Jeremy" and "Alive" are fantastic tracks but once you've heard them, there's not really a good reason to stick with the album unless you're a fan of more soulful Rock.
Luckily, this album doesn't make the same mistake Aerosmith made in the 90s, having the band members decide that they're actually more sensitive than the Rock N Roll rebels who sung about getting sucked off in a lift. Even the softer tracks have an abrasive side, making this a good Rock album and a great Rock debut, although it's no Boston or On Through The Night.
1. Once
2. Even Flow
3. Alive
4. Why Go
5. Black
6. Jeremy
7. Oceans
8. Porch
9. Garden
10. Deep
11. Release
ALBUM RATING - 6/10
2. Smash - The Offspring
Another notable album from the 90s in the form of Pop Punk outfit, The Offspring. Say what you want about this particular genre of music but The Offspring know how to make a fun album, unlike some of their peers. Sure, most of the tracks sound the same apart from the token Ska Punk track ("What Happened To You?") and sometimes Dexter Holland's vocals grate a little bit ("Bad Habit") but much like Disturbed and Motorhead, if you like their general sound then you'd be wise to give their albums a proper listen.
Much like the previous album on this post, singles released from Smash stray from that sound into more chart friendly territory ("Come Out And Play" and "Self Esteem") but these songs are still great in their own way. As for the filler tracks, they've got more energy than a toddler on Red Bull and speed, boasting frenzied guitar work and frantic drumming perfect for as many fisheye lens Jackass montages and Tony Hawks Pro Skater soundtracks as you could ever dream of.
This album will probably lose its appeal quickly if you like the kind of variety Prog Rock or Indie/Alternative bands tend to offer but if you're prone to the occasional bout of Pop Punk, this is a good album to dig into. I would argue that it's as good as Ixnay On The Hombre, their less successful follow up album that's more or less the same release only without the chart friendly mainstream Rock tracks.
1. Time To Relax
2. Nitro (Youth Energy)
3. Bad Habit
4. Gotta Get Away
5. Genocide
6. Something To Believe In
7. Come Out And Play
8. Self Esteem
9. It'll Be A Long Time
10. Killboy Powerhead
11. What Happened To You?
12. So Alone
13. Not The One
14. Smash
ALBUM RATING - 7/10
3. Metallica - Metallica
I'd been putting off listening to this album for so long due to the negative reaction in the Metal community. Now I've finally listened to it start to finish, I have one question to ask: why the fuck do people hate this album? It may not be as Thrash as Ride The Lightning or ...And Justice For All but it's a decent Metal album! This is a good example of a band trying something new and creating something that doesn't suck, unlike every band that "experiments" and always ends up creating something that everyone fucking hates because it's half arsing two genres.
Keeping in line with the mainstream Rock theme, this album saw Metallica bringing Metal to MTV with "Enter Sandman", a song with an epic riff that everyone shits on even though it's probably the heaviest and most awesome song about sleep you'll ever hear. It also gave us a power ballad in the form of "Nothing Else Matters", a song that sounds a shitload better if you speed it up 25% (as first proven in this handy blog post here!), and a bunch of Heavy Metal singles inspired by Westerns ("The Unforgiven") and even some of their old material ("Sad But True" essentially being the "Blaze Of Glory" to "Harvester Of Sorrow"'s "Wanted Dead Or Alive"...you still with me?).
However, if you judge the album entirely on those tracks, you'll probably think it's fairly mediocre. Nobody ever seems to talk about the filler tracks though, as those are easily the album highlights. "Holier Than Thou" and "The Struggle Within" could easily belong on previous albums but I guess it's easy to ignore them when you're too busy getting pissed off about a band not releasing Master Of Puppets 2. Bottom line is you should give this a fair try before dismissing it, as I feel like all the naysayers are responsible for me holding out on The Black Album for so long. Not only is it a solid collection of great tracks but the tracklist has been arranged in the optimal way, making each track flow well into the next...again, another point that's never mentioned in the "LARS SUCKS!!!!!" forum threads.
1. Enter Sandman
2. Sad But True
3. Holier Than Thou
4. The Unforgiven
5. Wherever I May Roam
6. Don't Tread On Me
7. Through The Never
8. Nothing Else Matters
9. Of Wolf And Man
10. The God That Failed
11. My Friend Of Misery
12. The Struggle Within
ALBUM RATING - 7/10
I may get a second post up this week but if not, I'll get one up next week. Also, check out the Showdown post before this as I've been updating that with even more tracks recently.
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