Seminal 90s rockers (Extreme Ii - Pornograffitti - Extreme)

Member Name: nunoidia

Product:	Extreme Ii - Pornograffitti - Extreme
Date:	07/09/09 (16 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Has everything; rock, guitars, romance and much much energy

Disadvantages: This band disappeared for 15 years :(

This is a classic 90s rock / hair metal album, which was barely out of my CD player for a period of about five years! It is a concept album, loosely following the adventures of Francis (the kid on the cover) through a whirlwind tour of sex, depravity, crooked politicians, and a bit of romance and religion thrown in for good measure.

The album contains a mix of songs, most of which are variations on a theme of decadence and sin. The first track, Decadence Dance opens opulently into a hardcore rock pleaser, swiftly followed by L'il Jack Horny, the title says it all really, then onto When I'm President, essentially looking at themes of political depravity. Get the Funk Out, the song which introduced the rock crowd in Britain to this band comes next, with a killer bass line which all rock fans must surely remember!

Then comes the seminal More than Words, the song that catapulted Extreme onto the public radar, a song now covered by the likes of Westlife and BBMak, and the wedding song of countless early nineties couples. No doubt many people buying the album on the strength of this one song were left somewhat disappointed, for the album as a whole is a rock crowd pleaser, with only a couple of lighter moments. Still, it enabled them to tour constantly from 1990 til 1992!

The next song is Money, probably my personal favourite on this album; I love its guitar riff and the loudness of it following More than Words. I distinctly remember turning up my walkman at the end of MTW waiting for this to kick in (it's probably why my hearing is less than good now!).

It's a monster is another stomper, about errr self gratification, closely followed by Pornograffitti, about, well, pornography, a slightly forgettable metal number, following which there is a complete shift of gear into:

When I First Kissed You, a jazz number showing Gary's incredible crooning skills! This completely changes the mood of the album, but not for long, because then we go into the tale of a temptress, Suzi (wants her all day what?!!), probably my second favourite song, because its so head thrashable! Next up we have He-man, which opens with Nuno's incredible reworking of Flight of the Bumblebee, which alone explains why he is considered one of the premier guitarists of that era. He-man itself I find a little dull, it's nothing special or different.

Then things shift down a gear to Song For Love, a typical rock ballad about lost love, which, being a sad sap, I love. The album closes with Hole Hearted, which sounds like a love song, it isn't. It's a song about Gary Cherone's feelings on God, and how without his faith, there's a hole in his heart. Indeed. Say what you will about the subject matter, the acoustic playing on the song is awesome.

This album will forever remind me of being 15, and I still adore it. It's an album, as opposed to being a collection of songs, in that it's completely listenable as an entire unit, and it's cohesive in its arrangement. Some ask why Extreme didn't last. The best explanation I saw was that they were at the wrong time; shortly after this album, grunge happened, and rock in any other form was essentially over for a bit. The fact they liked to lots of different styles also didn't help them - their fourth album was very grungey, but still didn't help them as they were pigeonholed into sad hair metal. But make no mistake, this band is and was awesome, and this album more so.

Summary: Listen to it loud and lots!