Harem Scarem united

[kourosofsteel3]

This passed almost all the crash tests!

 

What happens if stay with it in the desert island? (Never get bored with)

What happens if it gets lost/broken/stolen? (Buy/"borrow"/steal another copy)

What happens if I wait to get it later for peanuts? (Patience is a virtue)

[CureTheSane]

Yeah, I'm only getting to this one now.
I had a massive year last year and really didn't have too much time for music, as work required a lot of concentration for the most part.

So I've been ploughing through some of last years' (and older) stuff and here's my song by song review FWIW.
I'll use a letter system.
A = Amazing       B = Great      C = Good, may make best of mix     D = OK, wouldn't make best of mix    E = Average     F = Crappy

United --- C
Here Today Gone Tomorrow --- C
Gravity --- C
Sinking Ship --- A
One Of Life's Mysteries --- A
No Regrets --- A
Bite The Bullet --- B
Things I Know --- B
The Sky Is Falling --- A
Heaven And Earth --- A
Indestructible --- C

I love this album.
It's been reeled back a bit from the more modern edge they had, but still fresh and hooky as hell.
Big surprise. Way better than I had hoped.

7 of the 11 will make my best of folder, which is damn good. Maybe one or two more as well.
Always hard with albums like this.
the tracks I listed as "C" would be B's if they were on an album with a bunch of other filler songs.

[Y&TForever]

HTGT gets a C??? Wow.  

[KarpetRydOFunk]

3 hours ago, Y&TForever said:

HTGT gets a C??? Wow.  

Yeah, I cried when I saw that. 

The whole album is phenomenal. You all know I'm not the biggest JSS fan, but he should sing backing vocals for all HS tracks, from now on. 

[CureTheSane]

Just keep in mind my rating system.
I can't use your 8.25, 9.0128, 7.6, etc scale.
Songs would vary by 10% depending on my mood, so mine is more simplified.

Regardless, songs will always be rated between each other on the same album to a degree.
As I said, if the songs I rated lower were on say Hope, they'd all be real stand outs.

Even then I gave them a C which means they'd be considered for a best of CD.
Just that personally I think many of the others are better on that album.
Of the songs I rated lower, that one is the better one. I could have given it a C+ or B- but I didn't really think it mattered all that much and it gets too ".25  .75" for me

If I were to rate the album overall, it would be an A.
That would be comparing the whole package not only to other HS albums, but to most other hard rock albums.

I'll use my rating system again for some other CD, and it will probably be shamed much more.
I'm a pretty harsh critic.
By definition if a song wouldn't make a best of CD (usually one of 4 to 6 on an album) then it's filler.
Not that filler is always a bad thing. Sometimes an album needs more average songs to make the others stand out.
eg: Midnight City. All the songs were fairly even, and lack of fillers (and production and lack of a unique sound in some of the songs) let it down for me.

[Glen]

a good song is a good song. doesn't need fillers to make them seem better.

On HS, my fav track was Bite The Bullet. So good. 

[CureTheSane]

I think that Poison Apples is far and above the best song off Motley Crue ST.
Some people will say that Hammered is easily the best. Each to their own.

There are a few albums that I consider amazing without fillers.

In fact I'd say that this HS album is one of them.
Hot Action Cop - ST
Rick Springfiled - Rock Of Life
Dangerous Toys - Pissed
Def Lep - Hysteria
Andy Taylor - Thunder
Porbably most Twisted Sister albums
Some Maiden albums

but these are exceptional albums

Most of the time these days I'm pretty happy to find 4 really good songs on an album.
Part of the reason they will stand out is because of the average stuff around them.

 

 

[KarpetRydOFunk]

8 hours ago, CureTheSane said:

Just keep in mind my rating system.
I can't use your 8.25, 9.0128, 7.6, etc scale.
Songs would vary by 10% depending on my mood, so mine is more simplified.

You're confusing me with someone who gives ratings to songs and albums. 

[CureTheSane]

8 hours ago, KarpetRydOFunk said:

You're confusing me with someone who gives ratings to songs and albums. 

Wasn't directed at you.

Or anyone in particular.

[KarpetRydOFunk]

4 hours ago, CureTheSane said:

Wasn't directed at you.

Or anyone in particular.

No, it's OK to point the finger at Geoff.

[CureTheSane]

I think Andrew at Melodic Rock started this rating system.

We all rate songs, even if it's a basic "like it - don't like it" system

I'm happy to give various increments between crap and perfect, but little interest in "that song was nothing like an 8.25, at best it was 8.1254956"

[Geoff]

8 hours ago, KarpetRydOFunk said:

No, it's OK to point the finger at Geoff.

What? What did I do now? Do we need to fight? 

If you gumps are on the rating thing again, I rate my albums how I rate them and would have it no other way - it's serving me perfectly as I try (over the space of the last two years, with at least two more to go ) to sort out all my music. 

But I don't care who rates what in what way... doesn't bother me one bit. 

In regard to this album, I liked it less at the end of the year than I did when it was released. 'One of life's mysteries' was a stand-out, though.  

[CureTheSane]

35 minutes ago, Geoff said:

In regard to this album, I liked it less at the end of the year than I did when it was released. 

Yeah I'm a bit worried about that.
Sometimes happens when an album is instantly great, and I've only given this one a good go in the last couple of weeks.
 

[Geoff]

57 minutes ago, CureTheSane said:

Yeah I'm a bit worried about that.
Sometimes happens when an album is instantly great, and I've only given this one a good go in the last couple of weeks.
 

I love this band dearly, but I think I could possibly say that out of all the album's they've released (aside from the terrible 'Voice of reason') it had the worst replay value. Which surprised me. Unexpected. 

[Glen]

Very harsh comments there. At least half of this album is great imo. A couple I skip, but replay is just fine.

Obviously nowhere near debut, MS and Higher..............

[KarpetRydOFunk]

I haven't been able to skip a single track on this since getting it, because I know I'll be skipping a massive sing-along chorus, if I do. The album has only grown stronger over time. And it's often very tempting to start from the beginning when it's done. Easily my favourite album of 2017. 

[The Rocker]

5 hours ago, Geoff said:

What? What did I do now? Do we need to fight? 

If you gumps are on the rating thing again, I rate my albums how I rate them and would have it no other way - it's serving me perfectly as I try (over the space of the last two years, with at least two more to go ) to sort out all my music. 

But I don't care who rates what in what way... doesn't bother me one bit. 

In regard to this album, I liked it less at the end of the year than I did when it was released. 'One of life's mysteries' was a stand-out, though.  

I think it's a really good album and still "love" the songs I "loved" from the beginning.

[AlphaMale]

8 hours ago, Geoff said:

I love this band dearly, but I think I could possibly say that out of all the album's they've released (aside from the terrible 'Voice of reason') it had the worst replay value. Which surprised me. Unexpected. 

Da fuq?

Killer disc. Many replays later!

[Geoff]

If I had to put down a reason for my thoughts above in a small passage, it'd be guitar and vibe. They're what don't gel with me. Lesperence is one of my all-time favourite guitarists, but I don't love his work here. He's carried in some of those "darker" riffs from weaker Harem Scarem times into this album, and there's a lot of rhythm guitar on this album I just don't really enjoy. Take 'Sinking ship,' for instance. Great playing, technically, and there is a basis to a great riff there, but I end up kind of disliking it. Not the song, just that riff. It irritates me. But there's quite a few examples of it on the album. And it affects my enjoyment of the album. 

And the vibe. I can't explain it, but I just don't love the vibe on the album. I think because some of those elements from their horrific venture into "modern rock" are slightly present on this album. The traditional HS sounding parts are great, but a lot of the greatness is counter-balanced with stuff I don't love. 

Definitely not saying I dislike the album - far from it. But it's not my favourite HS album, that's for sure.

[KarpetRydOFunk]

55 minutes ago, Geoff said:

If I had to put down a reason for my thoughts above in a small passage, it'd be guitar and vibe. They're what don't gel with me. Lesperence is one of my all-time favourite guitarists, but I don't love his work here. He's carried in some of those "darker" riffs from weaker Harem Scarem times into this album, and there's a lot of rhythm guitar on this album I just don't really enjoy. Take 'Sinking ship,' for instance. Great playing, technically, and there is a basis to a great riff there, but I end up kind of disliking it. Not the song, just that riff. It irritates me. But there's quite a few examples of it on the album. And it affects my enjoyment of the album. 

And the vibe. I can't explain it, but I just don't love the vibe on the album. I think because some of those elements from their horrific venture into "modern rock" are slightly present on this album. The traditional HS sounding parts are great, but a lot of the greatness is counter-balanced with stuff I don't love. 

Definitely not saying I dislike the album - far from it. But it's not my favourite HS album, that's for sure.

Thanks for clarifying. I totally understand why you don't love this album. Last Fall I was listening to Voice of Reason, as I had never given it much chance before, and it grew to become one of my favourite Harem Scarem albums. But I love the darker vibes. And this album has those same vibes. 

[lecko]

On 10. 3. 2018 at 10:21 AM, CureTheSane said:

Yeah, I'm only getting to this one now.
I had a massive year last year and really didn't have too much time for music, as work required a lot of concentration for the most part.

So I've been ploughing through some of last years' (and older) stuff and here's my song by song review FWIW.
I'll use a letter system.
A = Amazing       B = Great      C = Good, may make best of mix     D = OK, wouldn't make best of mix    E = Average     F = Crappy

United --- C
Here Today Gone Tomorrow --- C
Gravity --- C
Sinking Ship --- A
One Of Life's Mysteries --- A
No Regrets --- A
Bite The Bullet --- B
Things I Know --- B
The Sky Is Falling --- A
Heaven And Earth --- A
Indestructible --- C

I love this album.
It's been reeled back a bit from the more modern edge they had, but still fresh and hooky as hell.
Big surprise. Way better than I had hoped.

 

7 of the 11 will make my best of folder, which is damn good. Maybe one or two more as well.
Always hard with albums like this.
the tracks I listed as "C" would be B's if they were on an album with a bunch of other filler songs.

Wow.. I would rate the album song by song very similarly.  Only changes - would give Gravity an A, Things I know C, Sky is Falling B and Here Today B. I was lucky enought ot see them play many of those songs live. It was strange gig, in Italy in fornt of maybe 100 fans, but they played full set. 

[KarpetRydOFunk]

1 hour ago, lecko said:

Wow.. I would rate the album song by song very similarly.  Only changes - would give Gravity an A, Things I know C, Sky is Falling B and Here Today B. I was lucky enought ot see them play many of those songs live. It was strange gig, in Italy in fornt of maybe 100 fans, but they played full set. 

Shit! They'll fly across the pond for a crowd of only 100 in Italy, but they won't visit my city, in their own country, to play for all twelve of us HS fans?? Those bastards. ;}

[lecko]

That was the second time they visited Trieste area. Maybe is there living some rich guy sponsoring ? But they mentioned during concert that they reall like the are and food.  They were on a kind of small european tour, but other dates were bretter organised regarding fans, as they were heaslining festival in Nottingham UK, over 1000 fans I guess.  Here some clip from this great concert.   

 

[AlphaMale]

On 5/16/2017 at 8:31 AM, Geoff said:

HOL have been consistently good (bar a couple of recent discs). Harem Scarem have been consistently great (bar 'Voice of Reason').

What's wrong with Voice Of Reason? I love that disc!

[KarpetRydOFunk]

12 minutes ago, AlphaMale said:

What's wrong with Voice Of Reason? I love that disc!

It's one of my favourites.