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
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