The Great Eight Battle Battle #2
2 )The Sweet: Desolation Boulevard ( Side 2 )
7 )Screeching Weasel: Television City Dream ( Side A )
2 )The Sweet: Desolation Boulevard ( Side 2 )
The second ranked Sweet (aka The Sweet, and originally The Sweetshop) are a House favorite at RRW HQ. Long considered an underrated gem, this album in particular hangs in my band room wall as a reminder of a kick ass collection. During the regular season, Sweet managed to impress the masses by burning 160 calories over 5 songs and 24 minutes. Let’s see if they can repeat. The Sweet are a British glam rock band that rose to worldwide fame in the 1970s. Best known (more “recently” anyway) for “Ballroom Blitz” ...you know, from Wayne’s World. They seamlessly (in my opinion) blend hard rock riffs with massive harmonies and catchy keyboards. They’re kind of the perfect band, really. All of the glam and showmanship with hardly any missteps. All killer, no filler. They didn’t start that way, however. At first they were very 60s pop oriented sounding more like cartoon band The Archies, but very quickly switched over to a Who influenced hard rock sound. Thank goodness! Actually those early hits aren’t at all bad either. Technically this is their third album (though it’s really a variation for U. S. Release collecting singles and paired with unreleased studio tracks). It’s absolutely the band in their prime. It starts with “Sweet F. A.” Let me tell you, it contains some sweet F*ing metal riffs!! Very ahead of the times if you’re asking me. Catchy hooks and keys to die for. Winding hybrid moments of satisfaction. Pretty darn good lead off batter, but wait...there’s more! “Fox on the Run” is next and a song you might be familiar with. If not, it is my highest recommendation to become so immediately. No single tune has better harmonies than this song. Glass shattering, ear drum piercing velocity. The Darkness had to learn that trick somewhere! Fox has the perfect tempo too, plugs right along. Is it possible to be in LOVE with a song? Exemplary talent and a service to the music buying public if you ask me. “Set Me Free” follows and is back to the brick heavy riffs of power pop punk. Breakneck madness with metal leanings. Certainly a contribution to a band like Van Halen and Guns ‘N’ Roses. As if that were not enough, the showmanship is effectively doubled in “Into The Night”. KISS is called to mind, however, this is pre (-ish) KISS and Boston (pops). The floating solos are like sonic waves of perfection. The last selection is “Solid Gold Brass” which is a slower jam to slam your head to. These guys just have hit after catchy ass hit! I would not say this often, but this stuff really is genius. It’s a little bit of bluesy intrusions with Jazz infusion. God Damn these guys for being so good! Just...WOW! The Hipgnosis cover (an art collective @ the center of coolness in the 70s) certainly doesn’t hurt either.
7 )Screeching Weasel: Television City Dream ( Side A )
Chicago punk legends return from the regular season, Screeching into 7th place. During the regular season they burned 140 calories over 18 minutes for an impressive 7.78 calories burned per minute. Let’s see if their punk pedigree can place them in the pole position (try saying that 5 times fast!). So I talked about how this was sort of a new era in Weasel-ology last time. The band has gone through many line up changes, some good, some bad, but it has lead to some pretty distinctive “eras” of the band (for lack of a better description). I would put this in the new era Weasel category. A reinvention of sorts. There was old school (pre Lookout), classic era (lookout years) and new era (post lookout). This particular album features Mass Giorgini, turning knobs as both a bass player and producer. Also, Dan Lumley on the drumley. A good team for sure. Solid anchors to hold down the swaying ship. I think it’s fair to say Weasel, and Ben in particular, was pretty well jaded by this point. It shows in the music, and specifically the lyrical content. With that, comes an irony as well. A certain maturity from the credentials and sheer time put into the band, but also an immaturity that is inherently present in punk rock. It’s like the best of both worlds. Like him or not, Ben Weasel does add a level of intelligence that is severely lacking in most punk rock bands. Sure it’s Ramones-core 1,2,3,4 but the subjects, and descriptions are colorful and accurate. A lot of the songs really capture your mind. They are little stories. I think that comes from Ben speaking his mind, very personal stuff. Honestly a lot of the records can be construed as personal, but this Weasel album in particular really locks in IMO. It all starts with “Count To Three”. The breaking glass sound effects say it all. Punk rock snot boots and Dan’s percussive blasts drive the beat home. The catchy AF harmonies of “Speed of Mutation” continue the fun and lovely harmonies, too. “Dummy Up” is another staccato hit before getting to some of the bonus tracks. Oh, I may have neglected to mention, this is the 2010 reissued version with extra unreleased tunes, the first of which is “Video”. Look up the incident in question, but it seems to be a response tune. I like to focus on the music, not the controversy so it’s a decent but mediocre tune, and probably the reason it was left off the original release. Side A plugs along with the punky, punky “Your Mortality” and gets followed with “Dirty Needles”. This one is just literally a PSA turned into a song and why Weasel is so creative. It works really well. The man knows how to write a hook. “Punk Rock Explained” Is another outtake And this one borrows from Joe King and The Queers territory (makes sense as they collaborated several times in the past). “Breaking Point” is perhaps autobiographical, while “My Own World” has an emotional tone. Maybe it’s an outtake from their album entitled Emo (#seewhatididthere). It’s actually one of the better bonus tracks. Not sure why it was left off other than perhaps time? Slower and more personal. The last song features a SW classic the one string solo. Weasel is king of the one string. “Outside of You” is the song’s name and you’re going to love it all the same. So generally 10 songs would normally be considered an album by most standards, but this album (one of SW’s most creative and poignant in my opinion) is not standard by any stretch of the definition. I feel like, especially in the later years, Screeching Weasel had become a mockery of itself and was constantly trying to reinvent the band, each time getting a little more Jaded, a little sharper, and a little less friendly pop punk. Television City Dream cemented that process and thus is one of the best “New Era” Weasel studio efforts.
Today it was Sweet desolating boulevards vs. Weasels that Screech in a Television City Dream. Sweet ended up burning 190 calories over 5 songs and 24 minutes. That is 38.0 calories burned per song and 7.92 calories burned per minute. This go around Sweet earned 13 out of 15 possible stars. Screeching Weasel managed to burn 144 calories over 10 songs and 20 minutes. That is 14.40 calories burned per song and 7.20 calories burned per minute. Weasel earned themselves 22 out of 30 possible stars. Looks like Desolation or not, The Sweet earn the Sweetest possible honor and advance to the Vinyl Four!
( The ) Sweet: “Fox On The Run” (seriously, such a great tune!! And I LOVE the air keys, look for it about halfway...)
https://youtu.be/9jNt7ZGCW-o
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