Customer Reviews

Mars Needs Guitars

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mars needs guitars was one of my favorite albums when I was in high school. I wore out the tape playing it in my car. It is a classic for fans of alternative bands from the eighties.

The best two tracks on the album are "Bittersweet" and "Wipeout". The rest of the material on this album is also strong, and lets the band display a wider array of musical talent than their first album (Stoneage Romeos). I saw the gurs live when they toured for this album (they actually opened for the Bangles, and I think I was one of three guru fans in the crowd), and all the songs sounded great live and loud. With that in mind, I recommend listening to this album on a loud stereo, preferably with the volume high, to get the full effect. It just doesn't sound the same on a walkman.

I highly recommend this album to any Hoodoo Guru fan if you don't already own it. For anyone not familiar with the band, they have a very guitar based garage band sound (similar to the Replacements). So, if you like the Replacements, the Alarm, REM, or the BoDeans, you will most likely also enjoy this band. Enjoy.

This album is one of those rare beauties that gets better everytime you hear it. I know for a fact that this thing was probably played a half million times in Cedar County, NE over the course of 1985-1988. "The Other Side of Paradise" is one of the most underrated love songs of the 1990's. The remainder of the album is anything but shabby. There was the beautiful"Show Me Some Emotion", the rollicking "Like Wow Wipeout" and the guitar friendly "Bittersweet". How did Poison get to be rich and famous when bands like this were struggling? It's a damn shame, because the Gurus were way beyond cool and possessed a very knowledgeable memory of the American pop lexicon. They were what a lot of bands could only hope to be. Buy this and you'll be a happy music camper. I remember some crazy makeout sessions while listening to this album. All sexual nostalgia aside, it's still a great album.

Simple and sweet. Hate to sound like a old-fogey, but the so-called rock bands of today could learn a lot about how to write killer power-pop songs from this album. The only thing better is Stoneage Romeos.

My all time favorite summer album. Every song is a garage pop masterpiece. You owe it to youself to give this one a listen!

A unique sound. Sort of hippy/grungy with a cool rock backbone.
Bittersweet is up there with any song by any band.

"...We'll take guitars to Mars and hit the discotheque... c'mon!" --- outrageous, funky, hip, warped, grand slammin rock n' roll. The crazy days when the Gurus were submerged in hair, paisley headbands and grunge. Just as legendary as the previous Stoneage Romeos, the Gurus just kept on pumping out great music. Like Wow Wipeout is a cult-like anthem for those who grew up with the Gurus. This whole album, again, is another non-stop quality Gurus masterpiece! And Dave Faulkner's hair back then, what a look Dave. (To add to the legend, the Gurus are died-in-the-wool fans of rugby league team Cronulla; Go you Sharks!)

The Hoodoo Gurus put out a lot of good music during their time and Mars Needs Guitars is one of their best efforts. If you have never heard the Hoodoo Gurus, you couldn't go wrong with this CD or 'Blow Your Cool'. Both are core Hoodoo Gurus material.

This record will always sound pretty fresh, every track is great. And the Hoodoos thankfully never sought nor achieved mega star status which means your taste for the music has never been cloyed by the overplaying, over-promoting and embarassing ego trips that infected and corrupted other bands of the era (U2 and REM come to mind).

Also they stayed together and kept working hard as a band for many years after this record, all of their following releases are worth owning including Mach Schau from 2004.

It takes a modicum of effort to seek out the Hoodoos music, that is probably how it should be. Sometimes if something comes too easily it is not as rewarding. I think they might've been featured in Rolling Stone (ouch!) way back in the day (probably right after a long article on Michael J. Fox's dog's love life). But they survived and thrived untainted. Congratulations boys!

There are very few albums that I would judge have absolutely no songs that are "filler." This one one of those albums -- The Hoodoo Gurus created something of a masterpiece with Mars Needs Guitars -- every single one of these songs, in their own way, really hits a bullseye into what rock should be -- even the faux-country-tinged "Hayride To Hell" or the surfer-esque song "Like Wow, Wipeout." Starts out a bit harder, mellows out with "Show Me Some Emotion," and finishes off wicked strong with the slightly more primal "Mars Needs Guitars" and "She" -- both of which wouldn't be out of place on one of the garage rock "Nuggets" compilations.

Comparisons will abound to their first album, Stonage Romeos, a reference to which is heard on the title track "Mars Needs Guitars." To pre-answer the detractors who absoltely love SR -- Stonage Romeos was awesome, a much harder sound, a veritable diamond in the rough -- but they discovered a real polished sound on Mars Needs Guitars.

This was probably one of the first albums I ever owned, and I still listen to it regularly -- absolutely fabulous material.

I know it's a sign of fuddy duddiness to hold candles for albums that are more than 20 years old but I don't care. This recording still makes me awful happy.