After more than a decade, Extreme is back with a brand new album titled Saudades de Rock. Their 1992 release III Sides to Every Story was a well-crafted rock classic so I’ve been looking forward to hearing this new release. Fortunately for fans the band sounds reinvigorated and ready to prove that they can indeed still rock. Songs like “Run” and “Comfortably Dumb” show that Nuno Bettencourt and Gary Cherone can still write great melodic hooks on top of heavy, meaty guitar riffs. The bulk of the tunes on the album kept my interest for the most part but I have to say that the weak link in the band is Cherone’s obnoxious voice. Frankly listening to his voice is like shooting needles into my ears. It wasn’t as noticable back in the early nineties but sadly the tone of his voice has gotten worse with the passage of time. Bettencourt along with bassist Pat Badger and new drummer Kevin Figueiredo sound tight and the instrumental portions of the album are top notched. It’s just Cherone alone that grates on the nerves. The problem is most evident on “Last Hour” where the vocalist carries the first half of the song. The whole time, I’m just begging for Bettencourt to mask Cherone’s horrid sound with a distorted marshall amp turned up to “11″. something, anything but Cherone’s voice. please! and when the rest of the band does kick back in, Cherone starts screaming the words like some poor soul being choked to death. my God! oh the humanity!! The song should be required to come with a warning label. It’s that painful. In fact, here ya go. listen for yourself. Last Hour [excerpt]
And don’t get me started on Cherone’s falsetto. gah. He just had to waste a perfectly decent piano based ballad, “Ghost”, by using his god-awful falsetto all over it. damn! Ghost [excerpt]
You know, I love Bettencourt’s guitar playing but it’s hard to completely enjoy it at times with Cherone in the mix. man, if only there was a way to mute the vocals and simply listen to the band rock out on their own. It’d definitely improve the enjoyment of this record by leaps and bounds.
retroGrade: C
— Extreme – Saudades de Rock Released: August 2008
Record Label: Open E Records
TrackList: 1. Star
2. Comfortably Dumb
3. Learn to Love
4. Take Us Alive
5. Run
6. Last Hour
7. Flower Man
8. King of the Ladies
9. Ghost
10. Slide
11. Interface
12. Sunrise
13. Peace (Saudade)
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Yeah. That did nothing for me. I didn’t hear anything innovative or of instrumental interest going on under the surface, either. Without the singing it could be any of a jillion other generic sounding songs being played out there of late.
And those are the two best songs on the album? How disappointing. What’s “Comfortably Dumb” like? (The parody play sort of pisses me off a little, actually.)
funified – yeah, that’s the beauty of music. everyone’s got their own preferences and tastes. I think there are some great songs here but for some reason, I can’t get past Gary Cherone. must be me.
Carol – those two songs I posted were to illustrate my point about Gary Cherone. So there are better songs on the record especially when the band rocks out.
torasham – I think the album stands up well along side their other albums. If you’re a Extreme fan, you should get it.
I don’t know…I mean, Gary makes me cringe on Last Hour as well – the chorus especially seems to be tearing his vocal chords to shreds. But, on the other hand, the way I see it, his most important contribution to Extreme has always been the lyrics, and they shine on this disc! That’s definitely something I missed on most (but not all) of the records Nuno has released since ‘95.
Funny, I think gary sounds great on this record….ghost is a phenomenal track – best coldplay song they never wrote
Yeah. That did nothing for me. I didn’t hear anything innovative or of instrumental interest going on under the surface, either. Without the singing it could be any of a jillion other generic sounding songs being played out there of late.
And those are the two best songs on the album? How disappointing. What’s “Comfortably Dumb” like? (The parody play sort of pisses me off a little, actually.)
not listen that yet, but i hope this album will good as pornogrfiti…
funified – yeah, that’s the beauty of music. everyone’s got their own preferences and tastes.
I think there are some great songs here but for some reason, I can’t get past Gary Cherone. must be me.
Carol – those two songs I posted were to illustrate my point about Gary Cherone. So there are better songs on the record especially when the band rocks out.
torasham – I think the album stands up well along side their other albums. If you’re a Extreme fan, you should get it.
I don’t know…I mean, Gary makes me cringe on Last Hour as well – the chorus especially seems to be tearing his vocal chords to shreds. But, on the other hand, the way I see it, his most important contribution to Extreme has always been the lyrics, and they shine on this disc! That’s definitely something I missed on most (but not all) of the records Nuno has released since ‘95.