The Contrarians Presents: Albums That Redeem a Band After "Selling Out"
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2024
- Comeback albums that redeem a band.
The Contrarians is a show where one of us jumps in the hot seat picks a dark horse album from a band as that band's best album. The guest host will argue against them with facts, stats and all around truth, subjective and objective!
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What are your favorite redemption albums??
The Razors Edge. Ac/DC had a string of weak albums post BIB. 1990 was a generous year.
Counterparts by Rush had better songwriting and a harder sound than many albums previous. Fans like me thought they redeemed themselves.
@@BenDowdytotally agreed it was their best album for a long time.
The Living Infinite by Soilwork
Metallica- Death Magnetic
Megadeth- United Abominations
1. Thin Lizzy - Thunder & Lightning (after the sub-Dire Straits disappointment of Renegade)
2. The Doors - Morrison Hotel (after the string and horn supplemented pop-pap of The Soft Parade)
3. Killing Joke - Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions (guitars and killer drums return after the wishy washy synths-emulating-an-orchestra experiment of Outside The Gate).
4. Lou Reed - New York (a career high after the bad 80s production, drum machines and an attempt at rapping on Mistrial)
5. Blue Oyster Cult - Cultosaurus Erectus (after AOR soft rock on Mirrors (aside from The Vigil and The Great Sun Jester which almost save that album)).
Best song on Mirrors is I Am The Storm. Thanks Joe!
U2’s “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” is considered a back to basics/redemption album after the excess of the PopMart Tour. I don’t think it was a better direction but it did seem a bit calculated to win back old fans.
Off the top of my head...
Brave New World - Iron Maiden
Tattoo You - The Rolling Stones
Presto - Rush (I know a lot of people slag this album, but for me it was the beginning of the comeback)
Abominog - Uriah Heap
Perfect Strangers - Deep Purple
Some great choices. Particularly Abominog which is fantastic.
@@parishofrock2963 Yeah it was a breath of fresh air.
@@esteeb67 it certainly was.
@@esteeb67 Abominog and Brave New World were pretty awesome!
Interesting episode, gentlemen. I have been waiting 37 years for Aerosmith to release their redemption album.
Aside from that, Judas Priest -Painkiller and KISS - Revenge,
@@TheBerndude What, since Permanent Vacation?
The only thing that comes to mind doesn't exactly fit the topic. He never 'sold out', but rather took artistic detours I never cared for in the slightest. So each time Elvis Costello returned to sounding like his classic self ("When I Was Cruel", "Momofuku", "The Boy Named If"), it was nice to remember why I was a fan.
Totally agree. I love EC’s more commercial music but less so his more avant garde albums.
“From Elvis In Memphis” (after his 1968 Comeback Special which that in itself was a redemption) and then “Back In Memphis” But the Col. Tom sold him out again afterwards…
Forbidden - Distortion (1994) is an example of a thrash band going grunge and it worked very well. Some of the songs are a mix of nu-metal and grunge but it is a great album and very heavy. Sure beats Testament's attempt at grunge - Low.
Well all things considered Eric’s drumming on the elder was nothing to scoff at. The oath was pretty heavy and what he did on that song was cool. Deicide Scars of the Crucifix from 2004 comes to mind after doing two albums to get off Roadrunner. Pretty brutal album as well as the two that came after. Also the newest Deicide is probably the best one since Til Death Do Us Part after going through another slump for the last three albums. Gary Numan’s 1994 album comes to mind after a string of poorly received albums which while still in the electronic genre went in more of a pop direction.
Cheap Trick 97 is Great It's just as good as their 70's Albums. C P 97 & Dream Police both tied for #1 favorites
97 is a great album
Accept - Blood Of The Nations
Butch going first?! The world really IS upside down! 😉 And then he picked the first album that popped into my monkey brain? Whoa 😮.
Butch is the man!
He certainly is
Another fine show you groovy, Music Swamis.* Now that I’ve finally seen the whole episode l thought of another one.
For those fans of Kansas as a progressive-rock act, l highly recommend the 2000 CD entitled Somewhere to Elsewhere. Never heard of it? Perhaps that’s because it was released by an excellent boutique independent label, from upstate New York, called Magna Carta Records. The band’s core 1974 to 1980 lineup reconvened to record an awesome batch of Kerry Livgren tunes and the results are stellar! Forget the fact that Dave Hope only plays bass on two tunes - the rest of the low end duties are handled by longstanding member Billy Greer - and that Steve Walsh’s voice is a tad weather beaten at this point; it’s about the outstanding musicianship and the SONGS, man.
“Icarus II,” a sequel of sorts to 1975’s “Icarus - Borne on Wings of Steel” begins the album in fine form. Livgren’s lush piano work, Steinhardt’s soaring violin lines - and check out the heavy, monster stomp riff after Robby roars, “Here they come!” - all add up to make this song a rousing opening number. “When the World Was Young” follows and is a classic Kansas hard rock anthem. The band even briefly quote an earlier song from their oeuvre in the tune, which features all six of the classic lineup. Other highlights include the mini-epic Prog song “Myriad,” the equally adept “Distant Vision” and “Look at the Time.” The latter number features Billy Greer on lead vocals and Dave Hope on bass. It’s very Beatlesque in its sound, with some great call & response vocals and that magical Kansas fairy dust. A few stately ballads are also on tap here. Livgren’s production work marks the album as prime Kansas and he manages to wrangle the best out of Steve Walsh’s vocals. The guitars by Kerry Livgren and Rich Williams are beefy when they need to be and laid back when the music dictates. Phil Ehart is an amazing drummer and always turns in a magnificent performance. Robby Steinhardt is the group’s secret weapon on violin, viola AND vocals, too. The elongated instrumental section in “Distant Vision” is phenomenal and when Robby takes the lead vocals it’s absolutely majestic. You can hear me wax on about this CD in an upcoming episode on Tim’s Vinyl Confessions channel, featuring your fellow Contrarian, author Tim Durling.
Keep up the ace work, lads!
Cheers from The Big Apple.
Rock Out, Prog On and Pogo!
Your clone and mine,
~ The Deacon Doppelgänger of Davey Cretin, from CRETIN CLASSICS.
*™️ Martin Popoff.
Man, I didn’t see Levitation coming. But it’s a great call!
This may be a contrarian POV, but an hour seems too short when a good discussion is being had.
Maybe I've got confused by the title, but I always considered a "sellout" as an attempt by a band to change their musical style and go into a more commercial direction. How did Anthrax sell out in the 90's?! They released some garbage material, then got kicked out of the label, and the band almost didn't exist by the end of that decade.
I take your point.Tbf Reed’s explanation at the beginning, was a better description of the brief
Clockwork Angels by Rush. It was a very long wait from Moving Pictures
AC/DC Black Ice is the only other one that comes to mind
Black Ice is a great shout.
Thin Lizzy, Thunder and Lightning
Angel Witch, As Above,so Below
Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell
Thunder & Lightning is a controversial choice🤣There’s a lot of people who like Renegade & Chinatown, but I’m with you. Imo T&L was their best album since Black Rose.
Definitely Heaven and Hell - despite attempts by youngsters to reappraise it, Never Say Die was awful! Technical Ecstasy wasn't much cop either. With you on Thunder and Lightning too. Renegade was mostly insipid and even though Chinatown had some better tracks, it wasn't consistent and Phil's vocals sound strained on it. Thunder & Lightning is actually exciting, like John Sykes has given them a shot in the arm.
Helmet - Monochrome
Metallica - Death Magnetic
In regard to Savatage, I couldn't agree with you more Butch. I was front row for them opening for Dio with Megadeth sandwiched between them and Savatage laid waste to Megadeth. They made Dio look a little tame as well. Dio looked like a scripted musical after the death defying performance Savatage put on! Jon was banging his head on the drum riser to enterain us at one point. So freaking intense! Criss was clearly the best guitarist in the building that night!! I don't share your distaste for the Zak Stevens albums though. It was an adjustment, but Fight for the Crock (of $h!t) as we called it, is unforgivable. We got turned on to them on the radio show "Metal Shop" with the song City Beneath the Surface so, to hear them out in the streets fighting for that crock and crying for love was humiliating. We hated that thing so bad!!.!!.!!.!!
Don’t agree about Hawkwind. I agree that Levitation is fantastic, of course, (and nobody mentioned that the drummer on that album is none other than Ginger Baker) but I also think that PXR5 and Quark, Strangeness and Charm are great. I love the Calvert era but that is probably because I am a big fan of the punk/ post punk vibes that lineup gives off. All three of the albums mentioned above make my top 10 Hawkwind albums easily (which doesn’t seem like a big compliment but considering the size of their catalogue it actually is)
& I thought I was the only one that liked the Quark album.
@@parishofrock2963 I love the title track, and Psy Power from that period is cool, but it’s my least favorite era.
@@grumqa maybe it’s because I saw them live a few times around this period but I like these albums.
Me too. I prefer that 'new wave' Hawkwind era to the 80s 'metal' era. Even the Hawklords 25 Years On album mas it's merits (and it's quite interesting to hear how that line-up rearranges the classics and brings them up to date). High Rise from PXRS is an absolute classic and there is a cool dystopian theme running through a lot of the lyrics in that era that mirrors the pessimistic zeigeist of those times.
Plus of course, Robert Calvert was a more dramatic/engaging vocalist and lyricist (though Dave Brock does a cool take on Spirit of the Age on the Live 79 album).
The thing with Hawkwind is, they've been going so long and changing their style so many times that there are other potetential career lows and rebirths (I quite liked the more electronic directions on Electric Teepee after the late 80s albums).
@@DarkSideOfTheMoule yeah totally. I am actually on board with most of their eras. Onward has a lot of great stuff on it and the last two albums have been really good too. For a band that has been constantly putting out stuff for multiple decades they have been remarkably consistent. It has always been interesting at least.
Killing Joke Outside the Gate was disappointing. The next record Extremities, Dirt, and Various Repressed Emotions was a return to form for one of my favorite bands.
With you 100%. They were back to being a full band (even if it was Martin Atkins in the drummer's chair, not Big Paul!).
Sorry not sorry but i love the songs The Flame and Ghost Town by Cheap Trick. 😁
i love The Flame 😏🤣
So do I. It was great to see Cheap Trick being successful again.
Metallica: Death Magnetic
Aerosmith: Permanent Vacation
Kiss: Creatures of the night
Great choices. Whilst I like Dynasty, Unmasked & The Elder there’s no no denying COTN is on another level.
Whew "Dude looks like a lady" though. Man that is to me the beginning of "new Aerosmith" and uncomfortable for 70s Aerosmith fans 😂
Aerosmith Pump , and then right back into the toilet ;)
@@Matias-music-71 good one
Pump is a great album, although I do like PV.
Ummmm, NOBODY cares about Slade in the US, for good reason.
🤣🤣I suspect your right, but as the channel is called the Contrarians I standby by my contrarian choice.
@@vitus33 The only thing I know of Slade is that their songs are more famous than they are.
Funny though…I do recall a cover of one of their songs becoming the first metal song to ever hit #1 in the US.
Yes you had kiss instead.I hear many similar.Without their marketing strategy they would never be big.
@@Rollusify Of course Kiss were big Slade fans, but tbf Slade were big fans of Kiss. Rightly so in my opinion as I love both bands!
Fight For The Rock is actually pretty damn awesome compared to the crap that came in the 90’s. Hyde is one of the best damn songs they ever wrote. The album is worth it for that one song if nothing else though there are some other good songs. Songs like She’s only rock and roll,Edge of Midnight, and the title song all good songs imo