Saturday, January 30, 2010

Thinking about Ratt

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I was thinking about Ratt over the last day or two partly due to the new album coming out at some point and partly due to that post I wrote yesterday. My history with Ratt like many people starts in 1984 with "Out of the cellar". I immediately took to it and it is certainly the band's best album and still holds up pretty well today. I heard their 1983 self-titled EP the same year and that one also holds up too for what it is. Along with the likes of Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Judas Priest, Twisted Sister and a few others they were one of the first "current" bands I got into. "Invasion of your privacy" followed with much more hype in 1985 and I bought it right away, but it's still an album that's just decent to me. I tend to play it maybe once a year in hope that it will click, but it's overall decent. I think my interest in Ratt began dropping after this in large part due to moving on to heavier bands like Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Exciter and others. I did hear "Dancing undercover" right around when it came out even though I did not buy it right away. It struck me as having a stronger groove to it than did Invasion so it was one of the few hard rock releases I was spinning in between a strong diet of thrash that I was consuming in the fall/winter of 1986. Time passed and I don't even think I knew about "Reach for the sky" coming out in 1988 until several months after it's release. Again I was deeper into the heavy stuff like thrash, early death metal, hardcore, crossover and whatever other noise was coming down the pike at the moment. I did hear it and thought it was on the level of Invasion with a few stand-outs and few alright songs. By 1990 I was turning back towards some more hard rock and "Detonator" just hit me at the right time because I played the crap out it for months. Looking back it doesn't stand out as well now in fact it's certainly dated even more so than some of the other discs. After that things faded fast for the band. They released a best of and then broke up. I got married and moved back to Maryland in 1999 so with all that going I wasn't listening to a lot of music at the time let alone a band I hadn't been into for almost a decade, but Ratt released their reunion of sorts in the form of another self-titled disc. Consistancy had certainly been their greatest attribute during their first run, but they could not carry that into this album because it's falls flat with a miserable thud. There is maybe one good song, two or three average ones and a bunch of clutter. It's barely worth the buck I paid for it from the bargain bin.
Since that point they have been a mainstay of touring during the summer and releasing nothing. Until now as the new disc is coming soon. So my expectations? Well, they have been touring regularly and Pearcy and DeMartini are in it so that helps plus they were once a very steady band. That's the positives. The downside includes the fact that the last album stunk like a truck full of rotten eggs on a hot day and Stephen Pearcy's voice has always been a question mark although that could compensated for in the production room. I am slightly interested in it, but not enough to pay money for it new and I may be a bit jaded, but I would be surprised if it is better than average.

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4 Comments:

Blogger t-o-n said...

I have a great deal of trouble objectively rating Ratt. They certainly caught lightning with the "Cellar"-"Invasion" albums, and "Dancing...." was enjoyable enough for what it was. They seemed to write a hit just about as well or better than any other band of that time and genre.

But there are few bands I can think of where a single member of the band absolutely precluded me from being a fan. Since I was about 15, the only thing I could think of when I saw Steven Pearcy was "What a total d-bag."

4:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

agreed. out of the cellar is great. if you ever listen to it with headphones you can really hear the whisper tracks they put in to cover pearcey's terrible lisp.

5:10 PM  
Anonymous Metal Misfit said...

I just think Ratt is "in the zone" right now. Many hair bands were confused and just plain lazy throughout most of the '90s, but I think in the past decade they've had a fire lit under them and instead of playing to modern trends, they're more worried about sounding "classic" and playing to the fans that helped them go platinum.

That small sample that is online sounds good, IMO.

I streamed their '99 self-titled two or three years ago and you're right that it is nothing special. Still, I'm tempted to pick it up just to complete my Ratt collection. They're one of my favorite hair bands.

5:45 PM  
Blogger Metal Mark said...

t-o-n-That's funny.

Sean-I have never noticed that although Bobby Blotzer once talked in an interview about Pearcy's vocals needing a lot of help in the studio.

Metal Misfit-I would like to think positive about their new album, but it's been a long time since anyone in Ratt did anything that's worth caring about.

2:01 PM  

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