So, what have I been doing since June 4th, the date of my last review?  A few days after that I headed out for vacation to Texas and Colorado.  I saw a lot of family and friends (yay!) and got to see two Iron Maiden shows (YAY!!!!).  I caught the opening night of the tour in Dallas and then a few days later in Denver.  I also saw the closing night of the tour in late July in Washington DC.  It was really cool to be able to see opening and closing nights of the tour and of course, any time I can see Maiden play live I’m always happy.  The Denver show was the best of the three.  While it’s cool to see opening and closing nights of the tour, opening night there are some jitters and closing night the band is inevitably kinda tired.  Dream Theater, the opener on this tour, was phenomenal on these shows and got better with each successive show.  They totally out-played Maiden at the DC show.  Still, seeing 3 shows of Iron Maiden is a fantastic experience and I had a blast at all 3 shows.  They played 2 songs on opening night that didn’t show up much more in the tour, and in Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, they only played it that night and never again.

Maiden released their new album, The Final Frontier, last week and it’s absolutely stellar.  Probably the best one since the return of Bruce and Adrian, and thus the best one since 7th Son.  I listened to it constantly all of last week.  It’s truly a classic Maiden album that shows the fire has done anything but died out.

Other kick ass concerts I’ve seen the past few months - Lyle Lovett, Mike Keneally, Phish, Star Wars Live, Victor Wooten, Rev. Horton Heat and Jonathan Richman.  And of course, there’s Rush coming up in a few weeks.  I love that I’ve seen so many of my favorite bands this summer!  It’s hard to say what has been my favorite: Maiden because seeing my favorite band is always a great experience, Keneally because his band is possibly the best band touring right now, Phish because they still put on a great show even after all of the hiatuses and drug problems, Rev. Horton Heat because he’s a fantastic guitarist, Jonathan Richman because of his unpredictability, Victor Wooten because he’s simply the best bass player on the planet, and Lyle Lovett because of amazing songs and breathtaking versatility of his music.  It’s honestly either Keneally or Lovett for top honors.

So I’ve been busy with music (not so much my own, unfortunately), work’s been kicking my ass and I think most importantly my time has happily been spent with two new people in my life - my new puppy Leela and my wonderful girlfriend Danielle.  Danielle’s certainly awoken that long-dormant part of my life: writing music.  She’s given me a wonderful dose of inspiration and when we’re not going out to see shows like Lyle Lovett or staying in and watching Arrested Development the music is always in my mind and on my fingertips.  Yeah, the new puppy is taking up a LOT of my energy, but I definitely have a new-found sense of inspiration that I am excited to see what it will bring out.  I’ve already started working on my first song for Danielle and so far she loves it.  I’m happy with what I have; it’ll be good to finish it.

So that’s where I am.  I’m gonna get back to this thing and hopefully do some of the concert reviews along with the album reviews that I like to do so much.  It’s been a good summer so far and the fall is also going to be a good one.  Football starts in 8 days!!!!!  Off-season is so long.

Cheers to everyone.  Go drink some good beer and crank up your favorite tunes.

***

Music for tonight’s typing: Ricky Martin - La Copa de la Vida > Shaolin Death Squad - Lizard > Shaolin Death Squad - Escaping the Absynthe > Shaolin Death Squad - Waiting to Disintegrate > Stereolab - Des Etoiles Electroniques > Stereolab - International Colouring Contest > Tess Wiley - This Shadow > Thunderstone - Drawn to the Flame > Tony Joe White - Polk Salad Annie (UNGH!)

Recorded: 1990, Released: 2010
Tracks: John Lennon Song; New Zoo Review; Sunflowers; When the Night Comes
Best track: John Lennon Song
Track to skip: none

There are four great songs here, with one of them, John Lennon Song, being an absolute classic.  This one is definitely the best song on here and paints a wonderful picture of being a kid when one of your idols dies.  It’s a great look at how people grow and change, and how sometimes your outlook can get a bit jaded as you get older.  It’s still one of Davíd Garza’s best compositions.  New Zoo Review is a wonderfully fun song with this excellent elongated groove throughout.  I have to point it out here, but the sound and production here are SO good!  With Twang there’s no BS – just guitar, bass & percussion.  The production is spacious and everything can be heard crystal clear.  The drums/percussion sound especially good on this EP.

Sunflowers is probably the weakest song of the bunch, but it’s something I definitely still enjoy.  I like the progression of the lyrics in the verses, how Davíd goes from singing about the silly (a desk lamp) to something a bit more serious (marriage, family) all while using the same callback to the metaphor of the Sunflowers.  When the Night Comes is the only slow song here and it’s a great way to end this all-too-short release.  Man!  I absolutely LOVE the chord progression and the change for the bridge in this song.  Just flat-out stellar.  I get goose bumps when I hear that change.

As a whole, yeah, this is really good.  It builds on the material Twang had before (see the excellent Me So Twangy) and you can see the progression of this band through their short time together.  With Twanger it’s like you can see the band taking that next step in playing and in Garza’s compositions…but unfortunately it was cut short.  Well, unfortunately for Twang, but fortunate for the listeners and fans because when Davíd Garza went solo he really took a big leap forward.  I’m so happy this Twanger material has finally seen the light of day and can be enjoyed by everyone.

Rating: 91

Released: 1969
Tracks: Cirrus Minor; The Nile Song; Crying Song; Up the Khyber; Green is the Colour; Cymbaline; Party Sequence; Main Theme; Ibiza Bar; More Blues; Quicksilver; A Spanish Piece; Dramatic Theme
Best track: Crying Song
Tracks to skip: Nile Song, Up the Khyber, Party Sequence, More Blues, Quicksilver, A Spanish Piece, Dramatic Theme

Rating: 51

Released: 1967
Tracks: Astronomy Domine; Lucifer Sam; Matilda Mother; Flaming; Pow R. Toc H.; Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk; Interstellar Overdrive; The Gnome; Chapter 24; The Scarecrow; Bike
Best track: Astronomy Domine
Tracks to skip: Bike especially.  I don’t care for The Gnome either

In comparing the mono vs. stereo mixes, I greatly prefer the stereo.  I think by 1967 engineers and musicians had figured out what to do with stereo and made the most of the technology.  While the mono mix of this album sounds a lot more jumbled and chaotic, the stereo features a cleaner sound that esp. comes through with headphones.  I did notice that the mono mix of Flaming had some extra cool effects that aren’t in the stereo version.  Reminds me of a lot of the sounds that are spread throughout The Beatles’ Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.  This doesn’t surprise me one bit, because producer Norman Smith was the Beatles engineer up through Rubber Soul and both bands were recording at Abbey Road at the same time (Piper for Floyd and Sgt. Pepper for The Beatles).  There are about 20 extra seconds of music on the mono version, but that doesn’t matter to me.  It’s no contest which I like listening to better – stereo all the way.

I think it’s very interesting how this is clearly Syd Barrett’s band, but once Syd was gone Roger Waters stepped up and became the leader and primary songwriter.  Waters’ contributions here songwriting-wise are pretty uninspiring.  Only Take Up Thy Stethoscope is a sole Waters composition and it’s a pretty weak song, lyrically especially.  I think Waters does a good job with his bass playing on this album, so that’s a nice thing about it.  Besides Waters’ 1 song and 2 by the whole band (Interstellar Overdrive & Pow R Toc H), all of these are written by Syd Barrett.  I really like some of these songs, while a few just don’t cut it.  My favorites on this disc are Astronomy Domine, Lucifer Sam, Chapter 24 and Scarecrow.  Astronomy is the perfect choice for the opening track and the best song here.  I like that it’s Space Rock without all of the childish lyrics like most of the others have.  Barrett was most definitely an unconventional songwriter and that’s one of the main things I really love about his work here.  It’s unpredictable and between that and the balls-out attitude the whole band possess here it makes the album an enjoyable listen.  I really like the arrangement of Scarecrow – very unconventional.

Obviously one of the main tenants of Psychedelic music is the use of child-like lyrics.  Barrett’s stuff is no exception – he seems to thrive on those kinds of lyrics.  While I think they can be amusing, it gets old after a while.  Songs like The Gnome and Bike especially just annoy the hell out of me.  OK, I do admit, on Bike the utter stupidity and childishness of it do make it fun at times, but mostly it annoys me.   I also have to say that Interstellar Overdrive gets really tedious after a while.  However, I do like the blues guitar licks thrown in the middle of this otherwise psychedelic madness.  While some of this album I don’t care for, there is quite a bit (Astronomy Domine & Rick Wright’s cool keyboard solo on Matilda Mother) that I really do like and *that’s* what brings me back to this album.  I think it’s a good start for the band, very imperfect, but enjoyable and set the stage for their later greatness.

Rating: 79

Released: 1995
Tracks: Core; Grab; Basilica; Succinct; Your New Man; Last Kiss; Maria; Emotional Grind; Sigh Bye Sigh; Come On; Go Full Circle; I’m Only 4; Fairgrounds (hidden track)
Best track: either Your New Man, Go Full Circle or Maria
Track to skip: none

Blind Hips was Davíd’s first album without a keyboardist (though there are a few tucked in here and there, I’m sure that Davíd played them himself) and pared down the band to guitar, bass & drums.  It’s too bad bassist Clay Pendergrass left the band after recording this album, because I would’ve loved to hear what he’d do to these bass parts in a live setting.  After taking that initial step on Conmigo, Davíd decided to go all out with the guitar overdubs & production here.  It’s really amazing how much within the span of two albums the sound changed.  I mean, this sounds nothing like the poppy and clean sounding stuff from 1992/1993.  Like a completely different band.  Most of the songs here feature a lot of electric guitar, but there are a few acoustic songs in the mix.  Your New Man is very sparse on production (stands out on this album otherwise drenched in it); there’s only one guitar, one voice and percussion courtesy of Mike Hale and Clay Pendergrass.  It’s definitely a highlight of this disc on one of his best-written songs.  Basilica has an acoustic base with electric stuff on top while I’m Only 4 is a mostly acoustic instrumental.

The rest of the album is beautifully saturated with layered guitars and deep grooves.  Core starts us off with many layers of feedbacked guitars.  I love what Davíd did with the sonic sculpture on this song.  It’s a wonderful song.  Both Grab and Come On are similar songs in their grooviness, although Come On has that awesome 6/4 groove that I just love.  Man, that groove on Sigh Bye Sigh is just super slinky!  If your butt doesn’t move when that song comes on then there’s no hope for you.  Succinct is the weakest song of the album.  It has a good groove, but as a composition it’s only decent.  I consider this song to be basically a hypnotic rhythm with heavy percussion.  Not much else is there.  The album closes with another instrumental, the hidden track Fairgrounds.  It’s a really meditative, ambient piece – just Davíd playing an effect-drenched guitar riff for 5 minutes.  It’s actually a cool wind-down after the frenzy of the rest of the album.

I have to make a special mention to possibly my favorite song on the disc, Maria.  It’s such a fantastic song.  Beautifully composed and Juliana Sheffield’s voice on here is amazingly melting.  I could listen to her sing the “Maaariiiiaaaaaa” part continuously for the rest of my life.  She’s always amazing in what she does, but her work on this song is by far the greatest thing she’s ever done.  So gorgeous!

I hope all my comments about this album being “guitars and grooves” aren’t taken to mean I dislike this in any way.  Those are two of my favorite things in music and to have this album be so steeped in them is heaven.  Davíd Garza certainly has never made an album like this one since then.  It really is a feast for your ears and a feast for your hips.  He’s never really approached the dense production like this album since then either.  It certainly stands out in his catalog.  This stretch in the early-mid 90’s for Davíd was such a great one: Eyes Wide Open, Culture Vulture, Conmigo & Blind Hips in Motion are the defining albums of his career for me.  I’m certainly not discounting This Euphoria, his major label debut.  That’s a definitely a great album.  For my ears, though, this is the core of his material and (so far) he’s never had a stretch quite like it.

Rating: 96

Released: 1994
Tracks: Conmigo; Baptiste; Who is Sylvia; Almost There; Long Walk Home; Slave; You’re Not the One; Blue Green; 19¢ Expatriots; I’d Rather Be Lost; Lady of Guadalupe; Little Star (hidden track)
Best track: 19¢ Expatriots, Who is Sylvia, Slave, Long Walk Home, I’d Rather Be Lost…
Track to skip: nothing at all

In listening today I noticed the production of this album, and how there are many more guitars (overdubs) than on previous albums.  More guitars and more drums, with less emphasis on keyboards.  While Culture Vulture was the culmination and perfection of the prior four years, Conmigo really was the first instance of Davíd stepping out of his comfort zone.  True, it’s not something WAY out there like 2002’s Summer Songs 4, but it still shows him being restless and doing something he hadn’t really done before.  There’s a stronger connection to the electric guitar here, his classic red Gretsch, and he’s definitely exploring the sonic possibilities that a non-clean tone can bring.  Songs like Who is Sylvia, Slave, Baptiste and Blue Green really show this in particular.  Some of the other quieter songs, like Almost There & 19¢ Expatriots (yes, it’s misspelled) also feature a few layers of guitar work that makes for such a beautiful sound palette on this album.

There are no bad songs on this album, not even any “decent” ones.  Everything is top-notch, and that’s not something most bands can ever hit upon.  If I have to pick a favorite, I’d say 19¢ Expats (which was renamed Maybe This a few years later).  It’s a very simple song, but it’s such a beautiful composition.  It has the perfect mix of bass, percussion & delicate guitars, with a very subtle organ in the background.  It’s definitely one of his best compositions.  Who is Sylvia features some excellent thunderous percussion courtesy of Chris Searles, while Slave is an infectious reggae that’s become Garza’s most popular song.  This is the original version of the song, which I prefer due to the more authentic reggae-ness and the production.  This album features a couple of live tracks that show off how hot the band was in the 90’s – Long Walk Home & I’d Rather Be Lost.  This album was very nearly a live album, but only these two songs made the cut onto the final disc.  Both are powerful songs and instant ass-shakers; two of my favorites.

Some other brilliant moments from the album: DG’s Gretsch tone on Almost There is beautiful; Juliana Sheffield’s voice on this You’re Not the One gives me shivers & the guitars here are a feast for the ears; Lady of Guadalupe has haunting organs and an awesome bossa nova feel, while Conmigo busts out some hard core Latin grooves; I love Clay Pendergrass’ bass part underneath the guitar solo in Blue Green – 1 note!  But it’s such a great groove that it becomes the perfect rhythmic bed.  The hidden track on the disc (this was the early-mid 90’s after all) is called Little Star and starts about 2 minutes after Lady of Guadalupe.  It’s a really nice solo piece and a great way to end the album.

Conmigo is a phenomenal album.  I really like that Davíd took some sonic and compositional chances with this album.  He likes to do it every few years, so it’s cool to witness the first one within his solo career.  Every note of this album is wonderful and I highly recommend it.  It’s really hard to find a copy of this, but you might get lucky somewhere.  Depending on my mood, this is the best thing Davíd Garza has ever done.

Rating: 97

Released: 1977
Tracks: Spaceman; People; I Would Find You; Here We Are; Hustler; Next; Nickel and Dime; Karma
Best track: Nickel and Dime
Tracks to skip: Here We Are, Hustler, Karma

This album’s a mess.  Really, it is.  It starts off in a good direction, with the first two tracks pointing more towards the fusion feel of the first album, though with more of an emphasis on vocals.  It’s definitely a lot less heavy than Look into the Future and features much more keyboards.  Spaceman’s a pretty decent track with some nice guitar work.  It’s obvious up front that the production is much more involved on this album, so that’s a bright spot.  There’s certainly a much wider sonic palette in the music; the acoustic guitars throughout are a nice touch.  People is a pretty cool track with some nice proggy bits in there and while Neal Schon’s lyrics for I Would Find You are really weak, the song has quite a few cool moments.  I think this song is where they start to lose it, though.  It’s a good track, but it just goes on way too long and I honestly got bored after a while.  Then it kept going and going.  Then we get to Here We Are with its HORRIBLE keyboard intro and it doesn’t get much better.  This is a tremendously boring and plodding song.  I don’t get it, Side 1 of this album starts off pretty strong, but it just fades down into this boring, slow mess.

Side two starts off with loud guitars, but even the rockin’ Hustler can’t save this thing.  Wow, another crappy song with awful lyrics.  Ugh, bad song.  Between Here We Are & Hustler (back to back, no less) we have what are probably the two worst songs the band has ever written.  I couldn’t wait to make it through these two, just torture.  The title track continues on with the rock and while it has a VERY strong Who influence and some good moments, it also has a lot of weak ones that tend to obscure the good parts.  The chorus in particular is pretty bad.  Nickel and Dime is the true saving grace of this album.  The band’s first instrumental since the first album and, shock, it’s a wonderful jazz fusion track!  This is a really cool song and one of my favorite of Journey’s instrumentals.  Great song.  The “Dime” part of the song was later stolen by Rush for the middle of Tom Sawyer (they just changed the time signature from 10 to 7).  This song really reminds me of the Mahavishnu Orchestra.  Great tune.  The album ends with another Schon-sung tune, Karma.  It’s very Hendrix-influenced, certainly, but ultimately it’s a boring song and pretty useless.  And it never ends!  Ugh, painful.

While Spaceman & People are pretty good tracks, the highlight is definitely Nickel and Dime.  A few enjoyable moments are scattered around, but mostly this album is really disappointing.  It’s quite bad in places.  I mean, for me there are 3 of 8 tracks that are just outright bad.  That never bodes well for an album.  My biggest problem with Next is that so much of it is just boring and it sounds like the band is completely lost.  Really, thank goodness they brought in Steve Perry.  He’s not only an amazing singer, but he’s a great songwriter and that’s also what the band needed.  Granted, it took a while before they became *really* good with Perry up front, but it’s at least a big step forward from this album.

Rating: 72

Released: 1976
Tracks: On a Saturday Night; It’s All Too Much; Anyway; She Makes Me (Feel Alright); You’re On Your Own; Look Into the Future; Midnight Dreamer; I’m Gonna Leave You
Best track: Look Into the Future
Tracks to skip: You’re On Your Own, Midnight Dreamer

I don’t think this album helped the band reach a bigger audience, though.  I mean, there’s a reason that in another year the band specifically wanted to hire a Lead Vocalist who wasn’t trapped behind the keyboards.  They wanted a focal point after this experiment with Greg Rollie as the primary singer didn’t really translate to success.  Steve Perry, as well as a WAY more toned-down presentation, was that catalyst.  The band also tends to ignore these first three pre-Perry albums, another obvious sign this early stuff didn’t help them reach the audience they wanted.

As for the songs here, and the album itself, I generally like it.  Certainly I miss the fusion stuff, but this is a fairly solid album.  It’s very safe, but it’s solid.  I really like the inclusion of The Beatles’ It’s All Too Much on here.  It’s a great song anyway and they do such a fantastic arrangement here.  They make it sound like a Journey song, and a damn good one at that.  Neal Schon busts out with some great guitar tone on the solo here.  It would be my favorite on the album if it wasn’t for the title cut.  Look Into the Future is really the only “proggy” moment on here and has a nice Pink Floyd influence.  It’s a great mood piece with excellent riffs/changes and a ton of excellent guitar work.  The song Anyway was one I didn’t care for too much before, but in listening to it this time I have a new appreciation for the piece.  It’s not my favorite song by the band, but I definitely don’t dislike it anymore.  There are some cool chords throughout the song, esp. in the verses.

It’s not all perfect though.  I actively dislike both You’re on Your Own and Midnight Dreamer.  Midnight Dreamer really reminds me of Hendrix’s Band of Gypsies stuff and contains a middle section that’s a total ripoff of Third Stone from the Sun.  As for You’re on Your Own, it’s one thing to pay tribute to a band (in this case it’s the Beatles’ I Want You (She’s So Heavy)), but it’s something totally different when you blatantly rip it off.  It really sounds like they took the song and just re-wrote it.  I mean, it rocks, sure, but it’s a pretty poor composition.  The ripoff factor totally pisses me off.  She Makes Me Feel Alright isn’t that swell of a song either.  It’s decent, but doesn’t compare to the good tracks here.

The album closes with a song that totally sounds like the old theme music to the “World’s Most Dangerous Band” (David Letterman’s band in the 80’s and early 90’s).  I’m Gonna Leave You is a solid song, but when I hear this I’m completely reminded of Kansas’ Carry on My Wayward Son.  Many of the riffs and sections on Carry On are almost identical to stuff found here.  I’m not outright saying that Kansas ripped Journey off, but this album came out in January ’76 and Carry On didn’t arrive until October ’76.  While Journey wasn’t very popular in the charts, they certainly were with other bands during this time.  It’s WAY too similar for me, but you can make your own decision.

Overall I like this album.  It’s difficult to rate because some of the first album is so excellent, but some is just standard blues-rock stuff.  They tone a lot down here on the second album so it’s definitely more uniform.  I think it makes a better listen as an “album” because it’s a lot more consistent sounding.  The crap songs and ripoffs kinda drag it down a bit, but I definitely like that this is a more guitar-driven album than the first.  OK, I think overall it’s slightly less-good, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of good stuff here.

Rating: 79

Released: 1995
Tracks: [Alive in Studio A] Cyclops; Shoot All the Clowns; Son of a Gun; Tears of the Dragon; 1000 Points of Light; Sacred Cowboys; Tattooed Millionaire; Born in ’58; Fire; Change of Heart; Hell No; Laughing in the Hiding Bush; [Alive at the Marquee] Cyclops; 1000 Points of Light; Born in ’58; Gods of War; Change of Heart; Laughing in the Hiding Bush; Hell No; Tears of the Dragon; Shoot All the Clowns; Sacred Cowboys; Son of a Gun; Tattooed Millionaire
Best track: Marquee Tears of the Dragon
Track to skip: nothing

Disc 1 of the set is live in the studio and disc 2 is recorded in front of an audience.  Between the two discs we get all of the songs from Balls to Picasso (with quite a few repeats, which is fine because the band’s so good) and a trio of songs from Bruce’s first solo album, Tattooed Millionaire.  The band completely breathes new fire into these songs and I’ve frankly never heard them sound this alive.  The songs from Studio A are excellent, but of course the band steps it up even further once they’re in front of an audience.  I particularly love the Marquee version of Tears of the Dragon.  Holy crap is this song ripping!  Best version of this song by far.  Alex Dickson is such a great guitar player and he brings out so much of his own style in these songs.  It’s a huge step up from Roy Z’s playing of this material on Picasso.  One that stood out (besides Tears of the Dragon) was Dickson’s extra bits & solo at the end of Cyclops.  Alessandro Elena also adds his own excellent touch to these songs and his drumming is fantastic in Hell No particularly.

I enjoy both discs equally, to be honest.  All of these songs sound good when performed by this band and once Maiden hangs it up I hope Bruce goes back to these guys to make more music.  As a live unit, they’re absolutely on fire.

Rating: 93

*****

In 2005 Bruce Dickinson released Expanded Editions of all of his solo albums.  This double-disc set was merged with 1999’s Scream For Me Brazil into a 3CD set called “Alive”.  It’s usually cheaper to buy them together in this new set.  No extra material, but there are some new liner notes.

Released: 1985
Tracks: Last Rites/Loved to Death; Killing is My Business…And Business is Good!; The Skull Beneath the Skin; Rattlehead; Chosen Ones; Looking Down the Cross; Mechanix; These Boots (censored); Last Rites/Loved to Death (demo); Mechanix (demo); The Skull Beneath the Skin (demo); (These Boots)
Best track: Skull Beneath the Skin
Track to skip: nothing really

This album came out in ’85 and 2 albums had already been put out by Metallica.  Yes, Dave Mustaine and Megadeth will always be compared to Metallica.  It’s too easy, sure, but I think if a dude is kicked out of a band and then forms a new band that’s the exact same style of music as the old one, they should be compared.  I mean, they were usually right near each other in the record/CD bins (with Merciful Fate in between) that it’s hard not to compare them.  Anyway, even though the band had been playing lots of shows the previous two years, this was Dave Mustaine’s first recorded output after being ousted from Metallica.  I’ll always think, overall, Metallica was the better band, and while Kill ‘Em All certainly rages, Mustaine certainly upped the ante with this album.  It’s definitely faster than Metallica and while Met was comfortable being in the “thrash” area, Mustaine headed for the “speed metal” area.  There’s a slight difference, but really it’s about the fast playing, both in rhythm and guitar solos.

For me, it’s not even a contest that Dave Mustaine was faster and definitely better than Kirk Hammett.  It’s no contest, sure, but for those of us who were fans of both bands, we always compared the two.  Mustaine wins, hands down.  Chris Poland (guitar) and Gar Samuelson (drums) also sound great on here, as they do on Peace Sells.  David Ellefson is his usual rumbling self, always making the bass sound wonderfully menacing.  From the beginning and until today, Megadeth is Mustaine’s band and he’s great here.  The guitar playing isn’t as precise everywhere on this album as it is in later albums, but it’s still damn good.  I think the guitar playing at the beginning of Skull Beneath My Skin is actually a bit sloppy, but the rest of the song more than makes up for it.  It’s an excellent song and one that I wish I had known and loved all these years.  I was excited to finally hear Mustaine’s Mechanix, which is his version of Metallica’s Four Horsemen.  While I think this is a great song, Dave seems to squeeze too many words into the melody lines.  It’s very cool, but Four Horsemen is better as a full composition.  OK, the last Mega/Met comparison comes into Rattlehead.  Kinda cheesy, this one is the same subject matter as Metallica’s Whiplash.  Both songs are about how the respective band, in this case Megadeth, will rock your socks off at live shows.  It’s not a bad song, but the subject matter is LAME.  Stick to the death/satanic/political stuff, Dave.

Overall, this album is solid, but the songwriting chops aren’t as great as they’d be even on the next album.  Still, the good songs (Skull Beneath the Skin, Mechanix, Loved to Death, the title cut) make this an essential listen for fans.  The other songs are all decent enough.  Nothing amazing, but nothing really crappy.  I have the 2002 remix version of this album so that’s what I based my listening from.  It sounds SO MUCH better than the original mix.  Except for the cover of These Boots.  Seems that after 10 years of receiving royalties on this song, songwriter Lee Hazlewood didn’t like how Mustaine changed the lyrics (nothing too bad) so in order to keep the song on the album, Dave bleeped the changed lyrics.  So, yeah, there are a lot of bleeps on this song.  There are no curse words on the song (as I have the original tacked on to the end of my version), so it can either be amusing or annoying depending on my mood.  I think it’s lame that Hazlewood wouldn’t let him keep the uncensored version for this remix.  The new version also features 3 demos which are enjoyable, even though the quality isn’t the greatest.  Nice to hear though.

Rating: 82