711. Quiet Riot / Condition Critical. 1984. 2/5

Do you remember that fun album by that band? The one where they seemed to have this mascot? He wore a metal mask that covered his features, and was in a couple of their music videos for songs off that album too. Those singles highlighted the album, but also drove it in along and made it an album worth listening to. You do? Well, this is the album that immediately followed it.
That album’s name was “Metal Health”, and in Season 4 of this podcast there is an episode that tells the story of the lead up to that album being released. And there is no doubt that the success of that particular album was... surprising, to say the least. It came out of nowhere, an album you might say came along in the right place at the right time. It reached number 1 on the US charts and charted all around the world, and on the back of that, the band had high profile support slots on ZZ Top’s tour to promote the “Eliminator” album, along with Black Sabbath’s tour to promote the “Born Again” album.
On the back of this success, there was never any doubt that the band’s management and record company were going to insist that they get back into the studio as soon as possible and record a follow up album at their earliest possible convenience. Number 1 albums don’t come along too often, and when they do, you want to follow it up with another one. However, as has been shown countless times over the last half century or more, following up a successful or critically acclaimed album is just not the easiest thing in the world to do, and it does require the right approach. In the case of Quiet Riot, the question probably had to be asked - with so much to live up to after the phenomenal success of that previous album, and yet given the good vibes that followed it, you should be able to expect some good stuff from the follow-up... right?

The answer to that question is a pretty emphatic 'no, they couldn't'.
That's not to say that “Condition Critical” is a complete loss, and I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who enjoy this album as much as they did with the previous album, given that it has a similar writing and performing style. But to be fair, on the surface it suffers from a lack of originality and a heavy dose of boring and uninteresting songs and lyrics that fail to ignite any great joy or optimism in the result.
"Sign of the Times" is the lead-off track and is perhaps more indicative of Quiet Riot's presence than it was meant to be, and the line in the song "It's the same old story" is probably more the honest conclusion than Kevin DuBrow meant when writing it. As an anthem it doesn't make the grade as they would have hoped. It isn’t the only one here. Take for instance the follow-up Slade cover of “Mama Weer All Crazy Now”. Obviously, the Slade cover from the previous album “Cum on Feel the Noize” had been a huge hit for the band, and had set that album up for the success it had. So if lightning can strike once... then surely it can strike twice? Only in an Iron Maiden song as it turns out, because although this song was proffered at that same altar, the reaction was nowhere near as strong. Another video was filmed for it, but it just wasn’t the same, and indeed felt as though it was just a bold-faced effort to copy and paste a "hey, this worked the first time, let's just do it again!" grab fest for glory.
But that's okay, because this is followed up by a whole bunch of other songs that would like to be labelled as rock anthems that also don't cut it - "Party All Night", "Stomp Your Hands, Clap Your Feet", "Winners Take All", "Scream and Shout", "Bad Boy" and "(We Were) Born to Rock" are shallow, simplified rock beats with lyrics attached that are designed to suggest they are songs of the people, but fall flat in almost every regard. They are harmless rock songs, ones that will appeal to a section of the music listening public out there, who will dance around and sing the lyrics and enjoy everything about it. You only have to look at the song titles to see exactly what the band is trying to create here. And for the mid-1980's perhaps that wasn’t such a bad idea. But beyond that, how well do the songs and therefore the album age? “Winners Take All” for instance wants to be the epic crowd singalong song, but comes across now as a dreary uninspired tune. “Stomp Your Hands, Clap Your Feet” even has the ready made live crowd participation built into the middle of the track. The title track “Condition Critical” is actually the one song here that strays off formula, trying to be the seriously toned heavier track.
So, you can see and hear what Quiet Riot was aiming for here on “Condition Critical”. It’s just that... it seems to be missing something. Actually, it seems to be missing a LOT.

This album came out far too quickly following the success of “Metal Health”. I remember at the time, when the video for “Mama Weer All Crazy Now” came out, that I just assumed it was from the “Metal Health” album too. That could also have been because the songs sounded so similar. And in having listened to this album a fair bit over the past two weeks – probably more than I have in the past 40 years combined to this point – my impression remains that they rushed this. Sure, maybe another six months of refining and collating and rewriting may not have changed the songs or this album in the slightest. Perhaps this is EXACTLY what they wanted the album to sound like. And the bones are probably there, they just needed to be molded and have more substance about them to really get the most out of them. And on paper at least this album isn’t a failure, reaching #15 in the US charts and selling over a million copies worldwide. Nothing to be sneezed at. But the general consensus is that it did not hold a candle to the previous album. Of course, Quiet Riot aren't the first band to have a follow up album fail to live up to one that had done spectacularly well, and they won't be the last. Look at the talent in the four main members of the band however and you would have expected better, if not with the follow-up to “Metal Health”, then surely the album after that? Unfortunately for Quiet Riot, their competitors were coming thick and fast in the form of Motley Crue, Dokken, Ratt, L.A Guns, W.A.S.P. and the like, and they were unable to go with the pace. It probably didn’t help that their lead singer tended to slag off every magazine and music show journalist, which meant that reviews were generally average at best as a result.
My memories of the album have mostly been of disappointment. The brightness and energy of the previous album is not replicated here. Carlos Cavazo barely gets a chance to showcase his guitaring skills, and the rhythm of Rudy Sarzo and Frankie Banali for the most part plods along as required. Perhaps these song sound better live. To be honest, they would have to. Like I said I have listened to this album a lot recently, and it hasn’t even come close to resonating with me. Many hours wasted listening to this when I could have been listening to something good. See the torture I put myself through just for this podcast, to keep you all entertained? I hope you appreciate my sacrifice. It isn’t soul crushingly bad, but it is very very average.