838. Quiet Riot / Metal Health. 1983. 3/5

If ever the power of MTV in the early to mid-1980's could be proven, it would have to be in the success garnered by Quiet Riot's breakout album Metal Health. Having released two albums, both of which were only initially released in Japan, and then lost members to other projects and in essence having broken up, surely no one could have foreseen the amazing success this album had in the American charts, subsequently becoming the first album of heavy metal origin to get to Number One. And surely all from a couple of music videos.

My initiation of this phenomenon didn't come until a couple of years after the album's release. I knew the single, the Slade cover "Cum on Feel the Noize" because it had been plastered over Australian radio for a short burst back in the last year, but I wasn't overly aware of the music videos for both it and "Metal Health" until the mid-1980's when music video shows began to become more popularised in Australia. But once you saw them you had them ingrained in you. They featured the over-the-top music of the band playing on stage and gallivanting around, mixed in with the story happening throughout, all in vibrant colours, music and action. You can see why it dragged people in - hell, it helped to drag me in! Both of those videos became popular viewing, and thus translated to buying the album and playing it ad nauseum as well.
The question to be posed, both now and retrospectively back to 1983 is this - is this album really very good? I mean, being popular at the time is fine, and drawing in fans through the use of clever music videos is also something that is excellent for the bottom line. But in the long run, whether it be six months down the track or 30+ years in the future, can you really say that this is an album full of good songs, or just an album built on the promise of a couple of tracks?
Let's go with the nostalgia factor first, because that would appear to be the most redeeming feature at this point in time. Now, I may still listen to this album, and I may well sing "METAL HEALTH WILL DRIVE YOU MAD!!!" and "WE'LL GET WILD, WILD WILD!!!" at the top of my voice whenever I hear it and I'm in the mood for that kind of thing. Well, those angles still work, because my pre-teenage kids will sing along with these songs now too, so the residual effect is still there in those tracks. But for me it's the feeling of nostalgia I get from these songs that makes me still like them rather than from any true brilliance of the tracks themselves. Similarly with "Slick Black Cadillac", a re-recording of the same track from Quiet Riot II. I now it and sing along with it, but I'm never really sure if I like it, or whether it is just because I know it so well. So kudos on those three songs.
But what about the rest? "Don't Wanna Let You Go" is a barren track with the clear guitar sound throughout the song and the stark, dead-sounding drum beat all combining to make it feel as though it was recorded in a big empty room. After the energy and bounce that is present in the opening two songs, this is a very strange inclusion. "Love's a Bitch", "Breathless" and "Run For Cover" are all run-of-the-mill, average hard rock tunes done in a Quiet Riot flavour. "Battle Axe" is an guitar instrumental that gives Carlos Cavazo the chance to showcase his wares. "Let's Get Crazy" is a slightly less raucous twin brother of "Metal Health", with a similar riff rock tune and vocal structure in place. "Thunderbird" was written and posthumously dedicated to former Quiet Riot guitarist Randy Rhoads, who had died in the tragic plane crash the previous year. It could have used a bit more grunt or even speed as a fair tribute to him, as it tends to just wail out the end of the album in an ineffective and somewhat less appealing manner.

In attempting to answer the question I posed myself earlier, I have been unable to come up with a definitive response. I find that much of the album to me appears less than stellar, that it is made up of songs that are of a simple hard rock method without enormous redeeming features that would combine to make a great album. And yet, despite this, I can't help but enjoy the album each and every time I put it on to listen to. It's a ridiculous notion, but the pull of great memories seems to outweigh the swing of average pandering. And as it turns out, just like in that famous single, "I don't know why... I don't know why..."

Rating:  "Got no brains, I'm insane".  3/5

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.

334. Quiet Riot / The Collection. 2000. 3.5/5

If we were going to be fair dinkum about this collection, you could pretty much just package together Metal Health and Condition Critical and you’d have a pretty similar result!

For a brief spurt in the 1980’s, Quiet Riot had a couple of hits (some they even wrote themselves) and were popular both in the mainstream and with metal fans. It didn’t last, and they found themselves back in the fold with their old fans soon enough.
This collection brings together their best known hits, such as “Metal Health”, “Cum On Feel The Noize” and “Mama Weer All Crazy Now”, and slaps a couple of live tracks in to keep the other songs company.

Rating: A good retrospective look at a band that probably could have done more. 3.5/5