POISON - Hollyweird

[shamus]

I can see how this album would be a huge letdown for hardcore fans and a complete waste of time to the casual fan. I'm one of those weirdos who happens to like CC's vocals so my pick would be his version of home although I way preferred everything on Sam 7 to anything from Hollyweird.

[Mad Moe]

To be honest, I think this album had some potential. The songs just didn't seem to be finnished versions. I don't know...the basic ideas are cool enough but they should've spent some more time polishing them off, adding a few more guitar harmonies for instance. Background vocals, stuff like that.

 

It all sounds like a raw versions of something that could have been better. And that goes especially true for the sound of the record which sucks big time. What were they thinking

[Geoff]

Okay, put myself through thi- uh, I mean I listened to this again yesterday and I have to admit I can actually see what a couple (literally) of the guys here are talking about in that there was a glimpse of promise here.

 

All I can say is, I really hope the "producer" on this CD (I forget his name) really got run out of the business and was never allowed to work again. Because there is no doubt he is mostly to blame here. The band is too, for having this shit released, but who actually gets paid to do a job this bad? The fact is, I could rattle of dozens of sets of demos I have that truly, hand-on-heart, have a better produced sound than this CD. So how the f*ck did it get released like this? I just don't get it. It's not a young, take-what-we-can get band grasping at their first shot at a recording... we're talking about a mulit-platinum chart topping band here - how the f*ck did this happen??

 

Anyway, to my point. You take out the DREADFUL CC songs off this disc (seriously, what is he doing behind the mic? Was that a condition of re-joining Poison, that he got to sing on a few songs?)... so you take out those songs and the 'Squeezebox' cover and there are actually a few tracks with potential here. With a good production job, some of these riffs - which actually have some balls when you hear them beneath the muddle - would be highlighted, and if you got some traditional Poison harmonies and backing vocals into tracks like 'Shooting Star', 'Wasteland' or Bret's 'Home' I think you'd have something worthwhile. I think even the likes of 'Devil woman' could have been saved with a decent recording. A lot of the other tunes like 'Hollyweird', 'Wishful thinkin' and 'Get ya some' are by no means Poison's best material, but if you polished these up there's no reason they couldn't have a cool 'Good love'-esque vibe, and be on par with some of the weaker tunes off 'Open Up and say Ah'.

 

Anyway, the point of my post. I might get beaten for this, but if you ask me this CD actually has much better songs than 'Crack a smile' (except for the 2 excellent ballads and 'Sexual thing', I just can't dig that CD). I think you give this CD the same immaculate production job that 'Crack a smile' got, and you'd have a fine Poison album.

 

And there you have it. Now, will they ever try again, and give their fans one last highly polished, glossy Poison CD?

[heaven&hell]

Okay, put myself through thi- uh, I mean I listened to this again yesterday and I have to admit I can actually see what a couple (literally) of the guys here are talking about in that there was a glimpse of promise here.

 

All I can say is, I really hope the "producer" on this CD (I forget his name) really got run out of the business and was never allowed to work again. Because there is no doubt he is mostly to blame here. The band is too, for having this shit released, but who actually gets paid to do a job this bad? The fact is, I could rattle of dozens of sets of demos I have that truly, hand-on-heart, have a better produced sound than this CD. So how the f*ck did it get released like this? I just don't get it. It's not a young, take-what-we-can get band grasping at their first shot at a recording... we're talking about a mulit-platinum chart topping band here - how the f*ck did this happen??

 

Anyway, to my point. You take out the DREADFUL CC songs off this disc (seriously, what is he doing behind the mic? Was that a condition of re-joining Poison, that he got to sing on a few songs?)... so you take out those songs and the 'Squeezebox' cover and there are actually a few tracks with potential here. With a good production job, some of these riffs - which actually have some balls when you hear them beneath the muddle - would be highlighted, and if you got some traditional Poison harmonies and backing vocals into tracks like 'Shooting Star', 'Wasteland' or Bret's 'Home' I think you'd have something worthwhile. I think even the likes of 'Devil woman' could have been saved with a decent recording. A lot of the other tunes like 'Hollyweird', 'Wishful thinkin' and 'Get ya some' are by no means Poison's best material, but if you polished these up there's no reason they couldn't have a cool 'Good love'-esque vibe, and be on par with some of the weaker tunes off 'Open Up and say Ah'.

 

Anyway, the point of my post. I might get beaten for this, but if you ask me this CD actually has much better songs than 'Crack a smile' (except for the 2 excellent ballads and 'Sexual thing', I just can't dig that CD). I think you give this CD the same immaculate production job that 'Crack a smile' got, and you'd have a fine Poison album.

 

And there you have it. Now, will they ever try again, and give their fans one last highly polished, glossy Poison CD?

 

Prepare to be beaten.

 

Serisously cousin are you kidding me? Crack a Smile is awesome IMO and Hollywierd is pretty much shit.

 

Yeah there is a handful of good songs on Hollywierd and yes the production is shit and a good production could of at least made this disc okay and I agree on the CC songs. At best this should of be a decent EP of maybe 5 or 6 songs at best.

[Geoff]

Prepare to be beaten.

 

Serisously cousin are you kidding me? Crack a Smile is awesome IMO and Hollywierd is pretty much shit.

 

Yeah there is a handful of good songs on Hollywierd and yes the production is shit and a good production could of at least made this disc okay and I agree on the CC songs. At best this should of be a decent EP of maybe 5 or 6 songs at best.

I actually think there's at least 7-9 songs with potential on here. It's so hard to tell because of the awful production job () but I have just never been able to really enjoy 'Crack A Smile'.

 

Honestly, it sounds f*cking fantastic. Amazing production job. Blues Sarenceno is a great guitarist, the whole band sound tight, 'Be the one' and 'Lay your body down' are great Poison ballads and 'Sexual thing' is a cool Poison-styled rocker. But what about the rest? I honestly don't mind a few songs like 'Baby Gets Around a Bit' and 'Mr. Smiley' but it's just not Poison. The rest of the stuff on the CD is SO far off what Poison had done before in terms of style. There's not even a remote comparison to 'Native Tongue' which a few people saw as a departure. No matter how I try to love this CD, I just cannot associate these songs with the Poison I know and love.

 

For a groove-filled almost half funky (?) styled rock disc from another band - yeah, maybe. But aside from the two ballads, what the hell on that CD could ever have made it onto radio in any era? Maybe Capitol had a point in shelving it - because they knew they couldn't sell it.

 

And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that for a CD to be good it has to have songs that will fit on radio, but I am saying that Poison's style of music, what made them huge, was a blissful style of commercial rock. And that's what I wanted to hear. A continuation from either 'Swallow this live' or 'Native Tongue'.

 

At least on 'Hollyweird', when you look past the f*cked up production and those nosebleed CC songs, there is some of the "real Poison" in there.

[tobi is an animal]

A few okay songs but nothing that would make my top 20 Poison songs. 

 

1.  Life Loves A Tragedy

2.  Only Time Will Tell

3.  Bring It Home 

4.  Life Goes On

5.  I Won’t Forget You

6.  So Tell Me Why

7.  No More Lookin’ Back

8.  Love On The Rocks

9.  7 Days Over You

10.Body Talk

11.Come Hell Or High Water 

12.Don’t Give Up An Inch

13.Ain’t That The Truth

14.Ball And Chain 

15.Blind Faith

16.Ride Child Ride 

17.Mr. Smiley

18.Want Some, Need Some

19.Tearin’ Down The Walls

20.Strange