1254. Ratt / Ratt. 1999. 3.5/5

The 1990’s was a tough old time for hair and glam metal bands that dared to venture out of their comfortable decade, and try to play with the big boys of grunge, alternative and industrial rock and metal in the 1990’s. Most of those that took it on either died by the sword of remaining true to their roots, or died by the sword of trying to make a change to their sound to try and remain relevant in the changing marketplace. One band that made the decision to lay down their guns and move away to separate and differing battlefield was Ratt, who through five albums in the 1980’s and into the year 1990 had managed to attain a high level of success and popularity with their party style and glam metal tunes.
In February 1992, lead vocalist Stephen Pearcy announced that he was stepping away from Ratt to follow other pursuits, and while it was never officially announced if Ratt was going on a hiatus, or whether the band had actually split, all five members of the band went out and pursued other interests. It wasn’t until five years later, with the grunge phenomenon having finally worn down and the industrial metal side of things ramping up, that the members of Ratt moved to come together once again. With a new project looking to be in the works, guitarist Robbin Crosby was sidelined due to the ravages he was suffering after having been diagnosed as being HIV positive back in 1994, while bass guitarist Juan Croucier also decided not to participate. Robbie Crane was brought in as his replacement, and the compilation album “Collage” was released late that year. With a new worldwide record deal secured following this release, the rejuvenated four piece went about the task of writing and recording their first album with wholly new material since 1990’s “Detonator” album. After a break of nine years, and with the music industry having been through a great deal of upheaval over that period of time, it was always going to be interesting to hear just what the band would come up with for what could essentially be regarded as their comeback album. To throw more confusion into the mix, the band decided that the album title would be “Ratt”, which while being the band’s name, was also the name of their first EP back in 1984. The dual naming was not to be the only confusion part of the new album when it finally reached the shop shelves.

One thing that was obvious was that we were not going to get a glam or hair metal album from Ratt in 1999. Given the length of time since their previous new material release, it would have been something that would never have worked at that time. However, that does not reign in the surprise Ratt fans may have experienced when they first put this album on. Because, from the outset, what we are met with is a very blues rock-oriented track list, stylised completely from the vocals through to the guitar riffs throughout, and with a mid-tempo that rarely gets itself out of second gear. Producer Richard Zito brought in several guests to help co-compose some songs on the album, which does add to the style of the album. Jack Russell from Great White and Jack Blades from Night Ranger contribute, along with several others with a production and soft rock background. There is little doubt that this is a deliberate move to craft the sound that this album obviates to the listener.
“Over the Edge” taps into this immediately, perhaps only missing the true blues twang of Warren de Martini’s guitar to complete the full picture. The vocals from Stephen Pearcy are the immediate noticeable change to the albums we have heard in the past, the pulling back of his natural energy when singing makes this a less energetic sounding Ratt than we have had in the past. “Live for Today” has De Martini pushing a fuller complement of solo for his guitar, while the song actually sounds more like a latter day Def Leppard song than anything Ratt has produced before. It’s an interesting mix from the outset, with both of the opening tracks setting the platform for the layout of the album to come. Then we have “Gave Up Givin’ Up”, which is even more surprising because both vocally and with a certain guitar riff leading into the bridge and chorus, this has all the sounds that come from a Dream Theater song. Not the intensity and overplayed encompassment of the instruments, but just the sonic sounds of the track itself. The solo by de Martini lifts the song above the average once again, but the mix of tracks here and the incorporation of sounds does make this an interesting journey. Further troubles arrive with “We Don’t Belong” which is basically a country and western song, no doubt coming from the influence of one of the co-writers brought in for the album. Now we’ve already discussed that this album is different from what the band has issued before, but a C&W ballad?! Come on lads, this just won’t do.
“Breakout” returns to the blues formula from earlier in the album, and along with “Tug of War” and “Dead Reckoning” pick up the middle part of the album from the slower manifest that had come immediately prior to it. Then we have “Luv Sick” (spelled LUV) which it probably the closest the band comes to writing a song from their halcyon days, at the least lyrically if not necessarily musically. “It Ain’t Easy” is an interesting piece as well, as Pearcy actually sounds more like Axl Rose on this song than he does his normal self. Basing itself on an acoustic rock sound, it seems like a strange choice, but again appears to be at the whim of the co-writer on the track, which this time is the producer of the album. Possibly the best two songs on the album are left until last. “All the Way” is the best sounding song, best tempo-ed track, and most enjoyable of everything on this album. I think it would have been a better album overall if they had stuck to this formula more than they did. And the album closer “So Good, So Fine” rocks more than everything before it as well. It seems like an oversight to leave both of these songs until the end, when they may well have picked up the interest of the album if they had been utilised earlier in the track list.

I initially found Ratt the band through my heavy metal music dealer in high school and loved them from the outset with their first two albums, “Out of the Cellar” and “Invasion of Your Privacy”. They were hair metal gold, one of the best of that genre coming through and I played those albums to death over a number of years.
I didn’t pick up this album until about three years after its release, mainly because I wasn’t even sure the band was still together at that time, or that they released another album after all those years. So when I first got the album I was looking forward to what it contained. To say I was underwhelmed and disappointed would be accurate. As I have mentioned throughout this review, the music is of a different genre than what I had enjoyed back in the glory days, and while I did understand why that was the case, it didn’t make it any more palatable. Given the progression of metal music over the previous decade before this was released, I guess I expected the on-the-verge-of-the-millennium Ratt to be a more tuned down and aggressive style, harping on those characteristics that were most prevalent. Instead, we get what is basically a refined blues rock album, with a tempo and style that is not in the top five of my own favourite musical genres. The songs are composed well, and performed well. Pearcy’s vocals are not anything like what I expected from their original material, and there is not enough Warren de Martini magic on the guitar to help save these songs either.
Over the past week, I have listened to this album again, ten times in total, to correlate what I thought of the album at the time, and what I think of it now. My mind hasn’t been swayed from my reactions 20 years ago. I know when I first got the album I listened to it, found it was nothing like what I was listening to at that time, and shelved it. I can say with full confidence that now I have finished this podcast episode, it will return to my shelves without any qualms, where it can rest until the next time I have to do something similar to this. Which is probably never.
It would be another 11 years before Ratt released another studio album, which was also to be their last. But unlike this one, the band listened to their hearts and pulled out an amazing album. But that is for another day, a long way down the road.

871. Ratt / Out of the Cellar. 1984. 4/5

Even though Ratt as a band did not first come together as a recording entity until 1983, the individuals that formed that first group had had plenty of experience in the music business prior to this occurring. Lead vocalist Stephen Pearcy had been in his first band all the way back in 1973, a band called Firedome that once it broke up saw the formation of Crystal Pystal. Yes, that’s a real name. This name was eventually changed to Mickey Ratt, and was soon shortened to the more recognisable Ratt in 1977. The band went through countless member changes, with one of those being future Ozzy Osbourne and Badlands guitarist Jake E. Lee. Guitarist Robbin Crosby in those same years had been a member of several bands that had played in and around LA.
In 1980, to increase their chances of landing a recording contract with a major label, Ratt recorded a single which was given to fans at their early Los Angeles club shows. Crosby played with the band later in that year as another of the revolving cast. Guitarist Warren DeMartini, recommended by Lee, was recruited by the band in January 1982. Other members were in and out before the eventual arrival of drummer Bobby Blotzer and bass guitarist Juan Croucier who arrived having been playing in Dokken. Warren DeMartini was only 18 years old when he was called up to Los Angeles to join Ratt. At the time he was attending college in San Diego and though he was reluctant to drop out to join a band that had, to that point in time not exactly set the world on fire, he did eventually return in time for the recording of their first EP. Released in 1983, the band's self-titled EP sold over 100,000 records, and the band’s popularity grew on the L.A. club circuit, selling out multiple shows on weekends. This led to the band being signed by Atlantic Records, and the stage was set for Ratt to write and record their debut album, to be titled “Out of the Cellar”.

What I think I enjoy most about this album is that it surprises you with how it lulls you in, every time. The opening track, "Wanted Man", is like gentle waves rolling onto the beach. It doesn't come at you hard and fast, loud or blazing. It is subtle, starting with the riff and drums, but then just quietly beckoning you in with the clear guitar and Pearcy's opening vocals, before slowly building up over the opening three minutes. Even Warren de Martini and Robbin Crosby's opening solo break almost feels as though it is gently in the background, so as not to frighten anyone off. The final minute is the payoff, the song coming to a crashing conclusion with everyone turned up to ten. Juan Croucier's bass and Bobby Blotzer's drums take the reigns to start the next song, before everything comes together for "You're in Trouble" to showcase the band building to its zenith. That comes quickly with "Round and Round", the opening single from the album and arguably still the song that Ratt is most renown for. And it has everything, a great drum track from Blotzer, rumbling bass work from Croucier, exhilarating dual guitar harmonies from de Martini and Crosby and great vocals from Pearcy. It's still a treasure.
"In Your Direction" might be just your average rock song, but when you hear the brilliant lead break by both guitarists in the middle anything that may be average is completely forgiven. Quite superb. The faster and harder "She Wants Money" is another great example of a standard bearer Ratt song, that is only let down slightly by the simplified chorus of repeated versions of the title of the song. "Lack of Communication" is also highlighted by the marked guitar riff that runs through the song while Pearcy bullies his way through the vocals over the top. Tough sounding hair metal? Possibly an oxymoron. But in this case I think it describes it perfectly.
"Back For More" could be paired up with "Round and Round" as a sister-song. It is a re-recorded version of the same song that appeared on the band’s self-titled EP, given more attitude than the original, and still sounds great all these years later. Brilliant guitar solo breaks again dominate "The Morning After" and create the focal point of that track. The final two songs "I'm Insane" and "Scene of the Crime" were written by Robbin Crosby before he joined Ratt, and performed in his band Mac Meda (which had future Riverdogs vocalist Rob Lamothe). Both have a faster, more guitar-oriented sound to them, while also feeling more carefree in style and substance, and the versions here are more energetic than the originals. They act as an excellent conclusion to a terrific debut album.

My first introduction to Ratt was through my heavy metal music dealer, who furnished me with a C-90 cassette with the band’s follow up album to this one, “Invasion of Your Privacy” on one side, and Motley Crue’s “Shout at the Devil” on the other. A winning combination if ever there was one. And I listened to it a lot, so much so that it was necessary for me to then get a copy of this album. It came on a C-90 cassette with Motley Crue’s “Theater of Pain” on the other side, which wasn’t such a great pairing. However, the obvious comparison between Ratt’s two first albums always caused me trouble. Because many rate “Out of the Cellar” as the superior album. And there is enough here to back that assertion up. The opening tracks are terrific, and certainly “Round and Round” was a popular item both as a single and the music video that accompanied it. And the final four tracks I think are all excellent, with “Back for More” being the radio friendly track, followed by the heavier and guitar laden tracks “The Morning After”, “I’m Insane” and arguably my favourite “Scene of the Crime”. It’s a closing track that insists you must listen to the whole album again, tracks that a gold plated if you can create one.
Though I missed this when it was released back in 1984, as at the time I was yet to discover any form of metal music, I still felt the same excitement for this album and the band when I was first introduced to them a couple of years later. The first time I heard Stephen Pearcy's vocals I'm pretty sure I was hooked. And those guitars from Robbin Crosby and Warren de Martini are just superb, and given the great energy and musicianship on “Out of the Cellar”, there is little doubt that whenever I had first heard this album I would have found a kinship with it.
After 40 years, and having spent the last couple of weeks sampling its wares once again, I believe it still holds up despite the genre and age it was recorded in. The excellence of all five members of the band to me are the standout, and help make this album still great to listen to whenever I pull it off the shelves.

779. Ratt / Reach for the Sky. 1988. 3/5

On the back of two stellar albums to start their recording career, both based in the growing glam/hair metal market that was coming out of the west coast of the USA, Ratt had captured the imagination of the music listening public, through great albums, catchy singles and watchable music videos that gained traction on MTV and other music programs. Following on from this had come the band’s third album, 1986’s “Dancing Undercover”, an album that had produced a heavier sound overall and an almost complete lack of the ballad-type songs that many bands of their era formulated in order to gain commercial success. It was an unexpected move but one that was met by a solid reaction from the fans. On the other hand, the critics were less enamoured and felt that Ratt had moved away from the sound that had made them such a terrific band. Thus, moving into the preparation phase for their fourth studio album, this is something that could well have proven a catalyst for what was to come on “Reach for the Sky”. It's a long way to fall when you start off your music career with a bang, and release not just an album that makes people stand up and notice, but follow it up with another one. The challenge is always to maintain that level of excellence, and continue to find a way to keep the fans interest in wat you are producing, while also retaining your own ideas of what that creative output should sound like. Not an easy thing to do. In fact, sometimes what you come up with sounds just a little bit routine, lacking in the hooks or inspiration that have come before, and leaves the fans feeling a little bit blasé about it all. And with the increasing interest in bands of this genre in the back half of the 1980’s decade, pulling the right rein would also have been a difficult task. In many people’s ears, this is the challenge that “Reach for the Sky” faced, and its success in this regard has a mixed opinion.

This is Ratt's fourth album, and while the band was one of the frontrunners of the glam metal explosion during the early to mid-1980's, much of this feels tired and lacking in what made their early releases so great. Where has the energy and motivation gone? There's a real sameness about the material here, and not in a good way. On previous albums the songs may well have retained a similar tempo all the way through, but there was still a furiousness about them, fired by the guitars and their solos or the harder hitting drums or simply the vocals taking centre stage and finding that intensity that made you listen and love them. Here on “Reach for the Sky” a lot of that seems to have washed away, leaving just that interior core of the same drum beat through each song, the guitar riffs that can seem to just drift from song to song, and Pearcy's vocals that try to exude some toughness but eventually move very little from the same register throughout most of the album.
Take the two singles that came from this album. "Way Cool Jr." was the first released, and garnered heavy airplay (in the places that played this kind of music) and was well received generally. For me though it was always just irritating, one of the songs that seems formula written for the commercial market, and given its head to do just that. It was an obvious single I guess, and for me at the time I was rebelling against that kind of track from any artist. But even now it just doesn’t grab me. The second single was "I Want a Woman", which apart from a heavier feel and some good guitars from both Warren de Martini and Robbin Crosby, again seems purpose written for a single release. It feels as though they just put a few clichés together in both lyrics and music and thought 'number one single!' Which wasn’t quite the outcome, but it still did reasonably well in the US.
Beyond these two songs though there is a bit more attitude and desire to create a heavier song selection. The opening track “City to City” is a solid hard rock song, “Chain Reaction” comes out of the blocks hard and fast and brings a great attitude to the second half of the album, while “No Surprise” and “Bite the Hand That Feeds” both have great vocals from Stephen Pearcy as well as excellent guitar lead breaks pieced into the song. “Bottom Line” draws from that early Ratt era in style and substance, and this bleeds into both “What’s it Gonna Be” and “What I’m After”, making the second half of the album a better balanced series of tracks than perhaps the first half offers.
The mix of styles – between a commercial bent of the two singles and then the rest of the album – is perhaps what does pull the album between a fan’s love and a critical assessment of its qualities. This album doesn't work at all in that kind of way that perhaps some wanted it to. It feels more like that it is caught in a trap, a conveyor belt of songs where the similarities far outweigh any individuality in the music. In many ways there is an unfair comparison of this album to others of the era. Bon Jovi's “New Jersey”, L.A. Guns' eponymously titled debut album, Poison's “Open Up and Say... Ahh!”. All of them saw terrific commercial success, where this didn’t gain that same attention.
This ignores the great aspects of the band and its individuals on this album. Stephen Pearcy on vocals is still terrific, Bobby Blotzer on drums and Juan Croucier on bass continue to provide a wonderful rhythm section throughout, and Robbin Crosby and especially Warren de Martini on guitars are still the highlights. The quality of the musicians is not in question here, just perhaps the writing.

When I first got around to reviewing this album for my blog – which still exists for anyone who is interested in reading it – I gave this album a fair panning. I was quite critical of its content, something that offended one of my oldest friends who felt that my criticism was unfair, though considering he loved the album that was probably always going to be the case. That reaction was actually uppermost in my mind when it came to this album’s anniversary popping up again, and requiring me to revisit this album, probably for the first time since I had written that scathing review a decade or so ago.
On this occasion, I made sure that I gave this album a thorough chance to prove itself, and allow it the chance to find its redemption. That previous review had been some time after I had first gotten this album, around about the time of its release. And it is fair to say that the differentiation between this album and those first two brilliant albums should have AGREED with me rather than pushed me away, as this is realistically a heavier album than those first two albums and should have gelled with what I was listening to at the time.
In retrospect, and having listened to this album a lot over the last few weeks again, my belief is that I was always listening to “Reach for the Sky” and wanting it to be a copy of both “Out of the Cellar” and “Invasion of your Privacy”, and that was what was stopping me from getting the most from this album. I never considered it to be a terrible album, but I also gave it short shrift most of the time. The past couple of weeks have had me enjoying the album for what it is, which to me is a reasonable collection of songs that makes a reasonable album. It is interesting that this ended up being a speed hump for the band, with the tour to promote the album stalling after a short period. It was perhaps a wake up call to the band that they couldn't release an album such as this and just expect their fans to embrace it without question. And as a fan I was as guilty of that as anyone else. To me, it still stands in limbo from a true glam metal album to a real modern metal album, much like they did with the quite amazing “Infestation” album a lot further down the track. But that is certainly a story for another day.

572. Ratt / Invasion of Your Privacy. 1985. 4/5

Ratt had grown out of the Los Angeles club scene, and on the back of their self-titled EP released in 1983 had seen their popularity rise on the back of those album sales. This had led to increased shows being played around the club circuit and the band’s profile continuing to rise. Through this success, the band was signed by Atlantic Records, and they immediately started writing and recording their first full-length album. That album, “Out of the Cellar” was released in March 1984 to rave reviews from both fans and critics alike. The singles released from the album, “Back for More” and “Round and Round” made a huge hit on MTV as well as the US singles charts. The tour to promote the album took the band through North America, Europe and the UK, and cemented their position as one of the up and coming bands of the hair glam metal genre.
Given this success, what would the band have been looking for as they began their construction of their second full length album? The basis of their first album was two big singles, and a collection of tracks that followed in the same scenario without getting in the way of the other tracks. Ratt was certainly blessed to have a terrific line up, headlined by the exciting lead guitarist Warren de Martini and his erstwhile partner in Robbin Crosby. Bass guitarist Juan Croucier and drummer Bobby Blotzer took care of the rhythm section of the band, while lead vocalist Stephen Pearcy was a frontman who was a drawcard for everyone. Ratt had other bands of their ilk such as Motley Crue and W.A.S.P. and Night Ranger who were all releasing new albums at this time, and looking to boost themselves into a bigger market on the back of it. Ratt was no doubt looking to produce something similar with the release of their sophomore album in June of 1985, titled “Invasion of Your Privacy”.

When you work your way through this album, as with the band’s debut release, a lot of how you will end up feeling about this album will come down to your own personal preferences, and your ability to take some things on face value. Because what becomes reasonably obvious when you’ve listened to this album a few times is that is of a very similar structure as was done with “Out of the Cellar”. That album had great success on the back of the two singles that were released from the album, both as a single and gaining radio airplay, and through the music video getting airplay especially on MTV. As with that previous album, the first single here is the third track on the album, “Lay it Down”, which reached #40 on the US charts, and was the band’s second and final single to chart that high. It leans heavily on De Martini’s opening riff and Pearcy’s tantalising vocals to draw out the enjoyment of the track, alongside the solid rhythm throughout. The other single from the album is the opening track, “You’re in Love”, a song typical of the era in both music and lyrically amusing language. These are the two songs that were used to promote the album on its release.
As to the remainder of the album, and indeed these two singles as well, if you were to critique this album correctly, you need to address the overall similarity of all of the tracks here. The rhythm sits in a mid tempo for most of the album, each song different in its own way and yet not giving the listener a great deal to jump around to. There are no fast paced songs on this album, ones that ramp up into a faster tempo. On the other hand, apart from perhaps “Closer to My Heart” which slips back into the slow-mid-tempo, there is no change into the slower ranks either. The case can be made that the structure and basis of the majority of the tracks here barely changes, that they are like a conveyor belt where the basic basis of each song is rolled off the assembly line, and then has a different solo attached and different lyrics sung, and then on to the next one. Even though this is not a perfect analogy in the case of this album, it does highlight how the album can feel if you are not overly familiar with it. Is it fair to suggest that there is a bit of a plod about the album in the middle with songs such as “Closer to My Heart”, “Between the Eyes” and “What You Give Is What You Get”? The band has found a groove and it isn’t getting out of it in a hurry. In fact, if you start to smash together some of the choruses of the final songs of the album, you get to the point that you think that they could be interchangeable, given that the rhythm of each songs almost seems to blend into the other.
“It’s so easy to forget, What you give is what you get... Got me on the line, ready for the night... You should know by now, you should know by now... Dangerous but worth the risk...”
The metronome seems to be in perfect sync throughout, and changing the lyrics of these songs doesn't seem like such a stretch.
All of this of course is something that can be seen to be a furphy from the fans who swear by the album. Using these same characteristics that might be used against the album, they can also be used to explain why this album works, because the songs all fit together in perfect harmony, built on the platform set by Croucier and Blotzer on bass and drums. With their foundation in place, it offers the guitar riffs from De Martini and Crosby the opportunity to set the scene for each song, while Pearcy spouts the lyrical content that this band does so well. It isn’t as suggestive as Motley Crue but is the knowing beckoning from the band for everyone to come along and have a good time. And in the long run, isn’t that what listening to music is all about?

Ratt came around surprisingly early in my heavy metal music conversion, in the early months of 1986. As I related recently on an episode for my Patreon subscribers, where I am painstakingly telling the story of how I discovered the bands of my youth, Ratt came the way of an exchange student from America who stopped by our school for a couple of months in early 1986. He had brought with him cassettes of his favourite bands, and Ratt was one of them, and he had both of their first studio albums. Thus, this album became my first experience of the band Ratt. And it is fair to say that I enjoyed them from the start. This album came from my heavy metal music dealer, who had managed to get copies of all of the album brought over by our American short term friend, and so he recorded this album for me with Motley Crue’s “Shout at the Devil” on the other side, something that made this cassette get a lot of listening at the time.
Now, I have probably sounded like I have given this album a hard time in the preceding instalment, in suggesting a similarity to the tracks all the way through and without offering a critical view of each song as it appears on the album. And in a way this was necessary, because we all know that there are albums that we enjoy – nay, love – that others will dislike and like to destroy in a discussion. And that while there are many factors others will suggest that may well be siding on the truth, that those arguments mean nothing to your own love of that album. And that is very much the case for me and “Invasion of Your Privacy”. I can certainly hear why some people would listen to this album and not understand why I love this album. There are techniques used in the creation of these songs here that will not appeal to some people's tastes. That’s fair. Everyone enjoys different styles of music. And one of the things that I do harp on a bit on this podcast and its predecessor is that ‘entry points’ are enormously important when it comes to bands and albums. And this album was my entry point to this band, which has therefore fostered my enjoyment of the band and my overall love of this album.
I’ve had this on again for the past few days. A few months ago I bought the remastered vinyl album to add to my collection, and it sounds terrific in the Metal Cavern. And I still adore this album. I love the songs. This album has massive memory ties to the period when I was first discovering heavy metal music, and to the friends and times we had in the final two years of high school. All of that is part of the reason why I still think this is a terrific album. I get why people will come to me and say “this is rubbish!” because the style and genre and time of the music is very much tied to the era. That is the reason I think the complete opposite.

228. Ratt / Detonator. 1990. 3.5/5

Leading up to the new decade, the band Ratt had always pushed their barrow in their own direction. From the outset they had conjured up their own sound, their own version of the hard rock and metal that they had grown up around and performed within. Alongside the outstanding characteristics of Warren De Martini’s lead guitar and Stephen Pearcy’s unique vocals, the band had found its place in the industry, and then gone about rusting themselves on and putting out consistently excellent solid albums. They had their formula that they knew was a hit with their fans and was catchy enough to attract new fans, and this is what they stuck to.
Their fourth album, “Reach for the Sky”, had seen the band continuing to stick to their guns in this regard, and though they had a charting single in “Way Cool Jr”, the sales for the album were not as strong as they had been for their first three releases. Some music critics felt that the similarity in the songs had finally caught up with the band, that there was not enough growing in the music itself, and that this was what had affected the album’s performance. True or not, Ratt decided on a change of tactics.
For their follow up album, the band parted ways with long time producer Beau Hill, instead deciding to team up with the man who had become known as the ‘hit-maker’ in the music industry. That man was Desmond Child, whose partnership with bands like Kiss, Bon Jovi and Alice Cooper had produced multi million selling albums such as “Slippery When Wet” and “Trash”. Child came in with his personal sound engineer Arthur Payson who both produced the album, with Child having his fingers all over the writing of the majority of the songs on the album as well. "Reach for the Sky” had been the first time the band had utilised an outside writer on their tracks, which had been producer Beau Hill, but here they had a Bonafide five star collaborator with an amazing track record of producing hit singles. And coming off the success of Alice Cooper’s “Trash” album, where he had performed the same role, Ratt had to be confident that they could produce something that would win back the admiration of their fan base. All of this moved into the release of the band’s fifth album, released in one of the most interesting years in metal music history in 1990, and given the suitably inflammable title of “Detonator”.

The album opens with Warren De Martini’s one minute guitar noodling titled “Intro to Shame” before bursting into the true opening of “Shame Shame Shame”, replete with Bobby Blotzer’s excellent drumming and Stephen Pearcy’s de rigueur vocals. The guitaring throughout the song is terrific and it has Desmond Child’s vision all over it. It starts off the album on the right foot. De Martini’s solo burst on the guitar greets the beginning of “Lovin’ You’s a Dirty Job”, a more typical Ratt section, styled in a mid-tempo range that settles into it groove and allows Pearcy to take centre stage and explain to you his love quandary. Its main problem is that it sounds as though it was WRITTEN to be a single, which indeed it was, released as the first from the album. It’s a bit stereotypical. “Scratch That Itch” has a far more pleasing upbeat tempo, Blotzer’s drums driving the song in his hard hitting way. There’s a bit of Def Leppard about Robbin’s rhythm guitar in this song too, whether it is deliberate or not. De martini solos beautifully, all together making the marks of a great Ratt song.
“One Step Away” again channels those darlings of the hard rock scene, Def Leppard and AC/DC. A great rhythm throughout from Blotzer, Crosby and Juan Croucier’s bass guitar sets the tone, with harmony vocals through the bridge and chorus that give it that slightly softer feel, a more commercial feel perhaps. This would have been a far better fit for the band to release as a single than the two that they did. They may have missed a trick with that. Apart from the rather obvious comparison here it is another excellent song. Then comes “Hard Time” which focuses more like an historical Ratt track, with the harder guitar and the tougher vocal from Pearcy. These are the type of songs that work well for the band in this environment, no compromise with the music and Stephen being forthright in his delivery. Read the same description for “Head I Win, Tails You Lose” which follows, one that sounds like an old school De Martini/Pearcy collaboration. Croucier’s bass is prominent in the mix throughout for this song which gives it a slightly more booming quality.
“All or Nothing” bounces like a track off the first two albums, that head and body bobbing quality that gets you moving with the track. De Martini’s guitar solo is a highlight. This then explodes into “Can’t Wait on Love” that also channels those early Ratt albums, the energy from the outset is catchy as hell, Pearcy’s vocals sound like he means what he’s singing, getting his lungs behind them and hitting those great fun heights that he can, and which generally makes the best Ratt songs when he does. This is one of the best on the album. “Givin’ Yourself Away” is the one true power ballad on the album. There are some out there that claimed that Ratt has never done a power ballad before this album and this song. Well, you probably need to check your definition of a power ballad if that is the case. This one however is a Desmond Child special, you can hear his influence all over it. It is also co-written by Diane Warren, who wrote a number of hit singles for artists – all of which happened to be ballads or power ballads. So, the direction this song goes is no accident. Skip please.
The album then concludes with “Top Secret” which returns us to where the band is at its best and plays us out to a satisfying finish.

It wouldn’t be new information to say that I was less enamoured by the album “Reach for the Sky” when it came out. There was a big push of the single “Way Cool Jr” - a song that just never really resonated with me – and I always felt the album was weaker than I liked. In recent years I have come around to it more than I did, but those feelings still remain whenever I think of that album. On the other hand, perhaps I always held "Detonator” in higher regard simply because of the fact that Desmond Child was involved, and that I had enjoyed so much what he had done for Alice Cooper’s “Trash” album. I won’t deny that that wasn’t a factor, indeed a very big reason that I followed up and bought this album after my less than positive reaction to the previous album.
At the time when the album was released, I enjoyed it... but as we all know 1990 was a year of spectacular indulgence, a year when an incredible amount of amazing heavy albums were all released in a very short space of time. Within just five weeks of this album being released, for instance, we also saw the release of Alice in Chains’ “Facelift”, Anthrax’s “Persistence of Time”, Queensryche’s “Empire” and Judas Priest’s “Painkiller”. Ratt weren’t to know then, but how in the hell do you compete against a quartet like that?! I can tell you – it can’t. This album was really enjoyable for about two weeks after I got it, and then it just got swallowed up in the gigantic enormousness of those other albums, and amazingly some others that equally that within a couple of months. The back half of 1990 was somewhat ridiculous. And – for me at least – if this album had come out a couple of months earlier, it would have gotten a much fairer listening time than it did on its release.
It did however, find its way back into the listening cycle, like many bands did for me in the second half of the 1990’s where all the bands I followed were dead or changed, and I was ambivalent about much of the music being produced. It was when I went back to the albums of the 1980’s and of 1990, and Ratt came back into vogue. And this album for me stood out from the other four of their releases during that period – not because it was necessarily better, but it was different. It had its own sound, and though it was definitely Ratt it had a more modern feel than the other four albums.
Flash forward to this week, and I have had the album out again for about a week, though mostly at a lower level at work with a couple of other albums I have been reviewing at the same time. Because it was acting as background music for me, I wasn’t taking a lot in, it wasn’t making itself known to me. But over the past two days, when I have concentrated my senses on the album, listening not only at home but increasing the volume at work to allow it to envelop me, I have had a ball. I have truly enjoyed this album, listening to it again, and not exactly discovering it again but making my acquaintance with it again. Because it HAS been a while since I last indulged in “Detonator”, and it has definitely been too long. The album has a great up vibe feel about it, it is played at a great clip, and the tempo and energy are enjoyable throughout. In many ways, it set the band up for its push into the new decade and the way it felt at the time that the genres were beginning to head.
This of course was a false dawn, as the onset of grunge almost from the moment this album was released changed the course of almost every band in the business. For Ratt, their internal problems came to a head, with Robbin Crosby’s substance abuse seeing him ejected from the band while he checked into rehab, sadly his final moments with Ratt before his passing in 2002 from a heroin overdose. Stephen Pearcy soon left for another project, and Ratt as a band went on a hiatus that was to last for several years, and remove all of the headway they had created with this album. Their return would come, and there is more to be told of the tale, but that is all for another podcast episode down the road a ways.

203. Ratt / Dancing Undercover. 1986. 3/5.

No easy task to follow two albums that did so well as Out Of The Cellar and Invasion Of Your Privacy. Especially when they were two of the first albums you produce!

You can expect more of the same here from Ratt. They have barely changed a thing from those two best sellers, and who could blame them. By doing so, they produce another pleasantly easy listening record. They also label themselves as a band who have yet to extend themselves beyond their comfort zone. Some people find this OK, others find it disturbing.

No matter in this instance. Dancing Undercover is classic Ratt. Listen out for songs like One Good Lover, Drive Me Crazy, Slip Of The Lip, Take A Chance and It Doesn't Matter.

Rating : If you like Ratt and the hair metal scene, you'll like this too. 3/5.

176. Ratt / Collage. 1997. 2/5.

This is an interesting release, given that it appears as though it was brought out in lieu of a new album while the band was touring on its heralded Reunion Tour back in 1997. It is a collection of B-sides and alternate recordings, along with versions of songs from the Mickey Ratt days, the band which was a precursor to the band we now know as Ratt.

This album is about as far away as you could get from the style that Ratt played in what many consider to be their heyday, back in the mid to late 80's.
In a similar way that L.A. Guns moved on from the hair metal phase to a heavier, more modern style of metal, on this album Ratt has also made the 'transformation' here on Collage. This may be a direct result of the majority of the material actually being older rather than new material. It probably isn't as successful though.
The album does grow on you in time, but it takes a little getting used to, especially if you are an aficionado of their classic albums. Collage has a grungier metal feel, which works fine for the most part. Some of the songs begin to repeat themselves too much, and despite the relative shortness of the songs sometimes feel as though they are dragging on too long.

That's not to say that it's all bad. The bulk of the album, including "Diamond Time Again", "Dr Rock", "Ratt Madness" and "Hold Tight" are all good songs, showcasing the best that the band has to offer. Stephen Pearcy's vocals are still as good as ever, find that middle range that makes him unique, while Warren De Martini's guitaring continues to be a starring role. I think the last few songs on the album are a letdown, especially the final song "Lovin' You" which has a rap mix to it ("Fonix Mix" is how it is labelled), which is really out of place on a Ratt album.

As a place in the Ratt history I guess this has a place to satisfy for hard core fans. For most, they will see it for the 'tour filler' it was, hoping to make  few extra bucks from their Reunion Tour, and bypass it most of the time when they reach for an album to play.