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MONSTER BALLADS XMAS
Various Artists – Monster Ballads Xmas (2007, Razor & Tie Direct)
Track Listing:
1. “Jingle Bells” – Skid Row … 3:02
2. “Happy Christmas (War Is Over)” – Winger … 4:06
3. “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” – Jani Lane … 3:35
4. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” – Twisted Sister (w/ Lita Ford) … 4:09
5. “White Christmas” – Queensryche … 2:28
6. “Run Rudolph Run” – L.A. Guns … 3:10
7. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” – FireHouse … 3:07
8. “Naughty Naughty Christmas” – Danger Danger … 4:56
9. “Blue Christmas” – Tom Keifer … 4:15
10. “Jingle Bell Rock” – Nelson … 2:52
11. “Silent Night” – Faster Pussycat … 4:13
12. “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” – Dokken … 4:01
13. “Happy Holidays” – Enuff Z’Nuff … 4:23
14. “Winter Wonderland” – Stryper … 3:34
15. “Christmas Love” – Billy Idol … 3:57
Produced by: Michael Anderson & Beka Callaway
Another album in the long-running Monster series from Razor & Tie, this time with a Christmas theme, although calling it “Monster Ballads Xmas” doesn’t make much since because most of these songs are not ballads. Why not just “Monster Xmas“? Or get really old school with “Monsters of Rock Xmas“?
Anyway, I picked the year of it’s release at Target, of all places. It’s a decent release, though it pales in comparison to 2008′s excellent We Wish You a Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year from Armoury Records.
I don’t have to tell you that Faster Pussycat, as always with compilations and cover albums, sticks out like a sore thumb here with their more recent and improved industrial sound. Just an awful rendition of “Silent Night”. What is it with “Silent Night” getting so screwed up on these metal Xmas compilations? Queensryche does a pretty bad version of “White Christmas” as well. Geoff Tate’s voice sounds horrible here. Like someone trying to sound like Edguy’s Tobias Sammett but totally failing.
Dokken’s version of “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” is actually pretty funny to me because of the fact that it sounds EXACTLY like a Dokken song. They totally made it their own and you’d swear Don wrote the song himself.
Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French, certainly inspired by the Christmas spirit after the success of A Twisted Christmas, executive produced.
Highlights: “Happy Christmas (War is Over)”, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”, “Naught Naughty Christmas”, “Blue Christmas”, “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”, “Happy Holiday”
WINGER – Winger
Winger – Winger (1988, Atlantic Records)
Track Listing:
1. “Madalaine” … 3:41
2. “Hungry” … 3:58
3. “Seventeen” … 4:04
4. “Without the Night” … 5:02
5. “Purple Haze” … 3:37
6. “State of Emergency” … 3:35
7. “Time to Surrender” … 4:09
8. “Poison Angel” … 3:27
9. “Hangin On” … 3:34
10. “Headed for a Heartbreak” … 5:10
11. “Higher and Higher” [CD Bonus Track] … 3:18
Band:
Kip Winger – Vocals, Bass
Reb Beach – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Rod Morgenstein – Drums, Backing Vocals
Paul Taylor – Keyboard, Backing Vocals
Additional Musicians:
Dweezil Zappa – Guitar
Beau Hill – Backing Vocals
Ira McLaughlin – Backing Vocals
Sandra Park – Strings
Rebecca Young – Strings
Hae Young Ham – Strings
Maria Kitsopoulos – Strings
Produced by: Beau Hill
Kip Winger got his big break writing “Bang Bang (Balls of Fire)” for KIX’s Midnite Dynamite album and as the bassist for Alice Cooper during the Constrictor and Raise Your First and Yell albums, but then decided to form his own band bring along the very accomplished Reb Beach.
This debut is certainly the work of a hair band (“Seventeen” proves that), but Winger has always been a bit more progressive and melodic as well. It’s a great debut and I’ve always thought Kip had one of the better voices in the genre. That said, I do have ONE gripe about the album… “Purple Haze”. I’m not a Hendrix fan at all, so I don’t even like the original, but their cover of it is horrible!
“Higher and Higher” was an exclusive release for the CD pressing for the album. I’ve never understood why bands/labels did that, I guess they were just trying to turn people onto CDs and get’em away from cassettes. Oh well. It’s a pretty good song.
Lowlight: All is good but “Purple Haze”
www.wingertheband.com
www.myspace.com/wingertheband
VH1: The Big 80′s Power Ballads
VH1: The Big 80′s Power Ballads (1999, Rhino Records)
Track Listing:
1. “Fly to the Angels” – Slaughter … (5:08)
2. “Something to Believe In” – Poison … (5:30)
3. “Amanda” – Boston … (4:17)
4. “I Want to Know What Love Is” – Foreigner 5:01
5. “Alone Again” – Dokken … (4:22)
6. “House of Pain” – Faster Pussycat … (5:47)
7. “The Search Is Over” – Survivor … (4:13)
8. “Is This Love” – Whitesnake … (4:43)
9. “We Belong” – Pat Benatar … (3:39)
10. “Don’t Close Your Eyes” – Kix … (4:19)
11. “What Does It Take” – Honeymoon Suite … (4:16)
12. “Missing You” – John Waite … (4:29)
13. “Miles Away” – Winger … (4:12)
14. “When the Children Cry” – White Lion … (4:07)
15. “Goodbye” – Night Ranger … (4:21)
16. “Fly High Michelle” – Enuff Z’nuff … (4:17)
The late 1990s and early 2000s were a time of 80s nostalgia. Clothes, movies, music. One of the biggest flagwavers of 80s retro was VH1, who scored with the popular Behind The Music show, Pop Up Videos, and tons of 1980s-centric specials.
Not surprisingly, they also released their own compilations of 80′s tunes in a series called The Big 80′s. The Monster series of hair metal compilations from Razor & Tie Records proved popular and one of their most popular entries was Monster Ballads, so it only made sense for VH1 to release their own CD of hair ballads and tie it all in with the Big 80′s series.
There are TONS of other power ballad comps out there on the market, but this one and Monster Ballads are the absolute best and the bonus is that the people at Rhino & VH1 must’ve been paying attention because there’s only three songs that appear on both compilations (“Something to Believe In”, “Is This Love” and “Don’t Close Your Eyes”).
YOUTH GONE WILD: Heavy Metal Hits of the 80′s, Volume 2
YOUTH GONE WILD: HEAVY METAL HITS OF THE 80′S, VOLUME 2 (1996, Rhino Records)
Track Listing:
1. “Rock Me” – Great White (7:18)
2. “Heaven Tonight” – Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force (4:07)
3. “The Final Countdown” – Europe (5:10)
4. “Over My Head” – King’s X (4:49)
5. “Goin’ Crazy!” – David Lee Roth (3:09)
6. “It’s Not Love” – Dokken (5:01)
7. “Seventeen” – Winger (4:06)
8. “Poison Ivy” – Faster Pussycat (4:27)
9. “Gotta Let Go” – Lita Ford (4:40)
10. “I Want Out” – Helloween (4:41)
11. “I’m On to You” – Hurricane (3:59)
12. “Edge of a Broken Heart” – Vixen (4:24)
13. “Dreams in the Dark” – Badlands (3:30)
14. “Wild Thing” – Sam Kinison (4:29)
Rhino’s Youth Gone Wild compilation series essentially peaked with Volume 1, which was loaded with big names and big hits. It’s curious as to how they decided the track placement for the first three volumes because they were all released on the same day, yet Vol. 2 & 3 suffer with a lack of names & hits. Perhaps they figured since people would probably start with Volume 1 they should load the deck for that particular album?
That’s not to say this is a bad album, in fact, it’s very good and it’s the Youth Gone Wild album that I’m most familiar with. A friend of mine owned this and I borrowed it for many months playing it nonstop back in ’97 or so.
The album gets off to a great start with the hair metal classic “Rock Me” by Great White. The song is a slow burn rocker which then explodes about halfway through. Diamond Dave makes an appearance with the infectious “Goin’ Crazy!”, and Vixen, Winger and Europe bring their biggest hits to the table. “Poison Ivy” by Faster Pussycat is just pure sleaze rock ‘n’ roll fun and turned me into a huge FP fan.
Here, the artist selection starts to get a bit weird and that theme continues for the following albums. King’s X & Helloween seem somewhat out of place here (although both turn in decent rockers). Sam Kinison’s “Wild Thing” also feels strangely out of place. It may have the metal cred (many 80s rock/metal superstars appeared on the track and/or in the video), but I can’t help but think that’s one more track that could’ve been devoted to an actual band.
Volume 2 doesn’t compare to Volume 1, but it’s certainly worth a listen.
Highlights: “Rock Me”, “The Final Countdown”, “Goin’ Crazy!”, “It’s Not Love”, “Seventeen”, “Poison Ivy”, “I Want Out”, “I’m On to You”, “Edge of a Broken Heart”, “Dreams in the Dark”
Lowlights: “Wild Thing”
