Customer Reviews

Poison'd!

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The idea of a Poison cover album at first seemed super-lame. Maybe I wasn't psyched for this album because of last year's abysmal "Yeah" (2006) from Def Leppard, or it might have been because Poison plays the same set-list every tour (with no songs dating past 1990) and are content being a nostalgia act. Why not just release a new album of all new material? The idea of a cover album seemed like a cash-crab from a creatively bankrupt band. For whatever reason, my expectations for this CD were low.

To my surprise, however, I really love this CD. You can't argue with most of their choices--Tom Petty, the Stones, Alice Cooper, Bowie, etc. If you're thinking that it's sacrilegious for Poison to cover those artists--you needn't worry, as Poison really pulls it off. While you may still prefer the originals, Poison actually does a good job of making these songs their own, hence the name of the album "Poison'd" (2007). Even the really stupid "Little Willy" by Sweet sounds good.

One thing that "Poison'd" has going for it is the band sounds really, really good; perhaps as good as they have ever sounded. While Poison will never be the most technically proficient band on the planet, they sound really tight and on fire on this CD and totally into what they are doing. In other words, they still know how to rock and aren't just interested in going through the motions to get a product out.

I do have one bone to pick with "Poison'd" however, which is its inclusion of five past cover songs (over a third of the album). For one thing, some of them sound out-of-place, as the new songs sound fresh and the old covers "Rock N' Roll All Night," "Your Mamma Don't Dance" and "You Don't Mess Around with Jim" sound stale by comparison, as they are twenty years old. All five of these past covers are available on past albums and probably most people buying this CD already have them. How hard would it have been to just record five new covers? It was really stupid and lazy to put those old songs here.

Despite losing a few points for the inclusion of past cover songs, "Poison'd" is still a winner as the band sounds great and really makes these songs their own. Producer Don Was is a perfect fit for the band and will hopefully be around to produce a new Poison studio album.

Poison has always been my "guilty pleasure" band. Not everyone wants to admit they like their music, but I feel that though some of it is cheesy, it's still nothing but good time rock and roll.

Seems that Poison is following the trend of other bands (Def Leppard, Tesla, et al) by putting out an all-covers album, and at least they do the songs they've chosen some decent justice.

However, while most of the tracks they've chosen for "Poison'd" are new, several were released prior, even going as far back as their 1988 release, "Open Up And Say...Ahh!".

"Rock And Roll All Nite" was originally featured on the soundtrack to the motion picture "Less Than Zero", and featured as the b-side to The Bangles' "Hazy Shade Of Winter" CD single. But, since that album is probably out of print, it makes for a nice additon here.

"Your Mama Don't Dance" was featured on 1988's "Open Up And Say...Ahh!"

"Squeeze Box" was featured on 2002's "Hollyweird".

"We're An American Band" was released on just last year on the retrospective CD "The Best Of Poison: 20 Years Of Rock".

While I feel there's hardly anything this band can't do, it would've been nice to have seen them tackle a tune by Disturbed, Staind, Van Halen, or anyone else but Justin Timberlake as a bonus track for the Wal-Mart release. Seeing them cover that kinda cheapens this collection a little, but not much.

A better inclusion than "Sexy Back" would've been their cover of Dr. Hook's "Cover Of The Rolling Stone", from their 2000 release "Crack A Smile" (which also includes their "MTV Unplugged" performance), and has the band (supposedly) drunkenly trying to get through the recording as best as they can.

In any case, listening to this CD will be "Nothin' But A Good Time".

Nothing excites a music fan like a cover song. If you plan on making one of those you have to do one of two things. Either make it your own or very close to the origional with that little twist that lets the fans know who the cover artist is. Now a cover album...there lies a real challenge. Out of possibly 50 or more cover albums to be released in close to the past 5 years the boys from 80's glam metal band Poison step out from the shadows and make one hell of a cd!

Poison is one of the few bands from the glam metal scene of the late 1980's when bands like them were coming out by the boat loads. Through all the forgetable names Poison is always one of the first three glam bands people always remember. This new album is what Poison always stood for loud guitars, monster ballads and of course one hell of a good time.

I love this cd it has everything a rock fan can ever want. Each track is a classic cover of famous rock songs written by the biggest of the big, like The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and KISS. Poison takes all these songs and pumps them up ten fold using their own classic Poison style. The track that everyone will love it "What I Like About You". Just pure fun the listen to with a guitar intro that punches you right in the face and makes you wake and bang your head. The other great tracks include, Rock N' Roll All Nite, Can't U See, I Need to Know and Your Mama Don't Dance. It is great to see a band like Poison back on the music scene with their fans still with them after all this time and all the cheap shots that chapter in Heavy Metal took. I will say I am glad Poison chose to make this CD because there is no doubt a band like Van Halen or Guns N' Roses would have capitalized on this concept. Better a band that still has some shread of a decent reputation left than a true has been.

This album is incredible from start to finish. Starts off with Little Willy which might be my favorite track and ends with We're An American Band which is an insane cover. Rock and Roll All Night and What I Like About You also rock. The powerfull ballad type song is I Never Cry. Of course it has one of their biggest hits from back in the day, Your Mama Don't Dance!
So buy it and support POISON FOREVER!

Main reason I'm giving this thirteen track, all-cover Poison CD a for-star rating, is because of their full effort they put in on making this disc. These cuts were recorded during 2006-07 with the assistance of producer Don Was. There's only one song here I don't like at all. But tunes that managed to sort of catch me off guard were Sweet's "Little Willy", Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See", the smoking Romantics cover - "What I Like About You" {killer harmonica - they're playing this on their current summer tour}, the Stone's stellar "Dead Flowers" and Jim Croce's "Don't Mess Around With Jim". Can you beat that? Hair metal rarely sounds this good. Definitely worth a listen.

Poison'd proves that Poison are one of the greatest rock bands, as this cover album shows they can do it as good as, even better then most.
10 new tracks, although not every copy includes the track 'Sexy Back' and even though 'You dont mess around with Jim' was released before, alot of people probably haven't heard it.
My only complaint is that they didn't include 'Cover of the rolling stone' from Crack a Smile with the other 5 previously released covers which are at the end of the album as bonus tracks.(WHY LEAVE ONE OUT ?)
They could've even added a couple of tracks from Rikki Rockett's solo cover album 'Glitter for your soul' - 'Tear it down' with Bret Michaels on lead vocals and 'Life's a gas' with Rikki Rockett on vocals.

Even better would,ve been more new songs.
Poison however will gain alot of new fans with this album and should now do a brand new rocking original studio album.

This CD really rocks! Rock-pop songs but were Poisoned! Amazing and enjoyable to party and enjoy life!

You love them or hate them, Poison is one is the best rock bands, very skilled musicians with diferent styles and personalities that make Poison's music very enjoyable that the people can related to (even if the songs are old-from early or late 80's or 90's or Covers!)

This new album is pretty cool and fun! Each cover is very well performed and played with the Poison's mark, the boys had fun recording it and people will have fun listening! Great deal that is digitally remastered, sound quality could not be better.
Very good were added: "We're an American Band" and "Rock and Roll all night" (one recent recording and a classic that was almost lost).

Now, this cd could be a lot better having the next as value add:
-Where is Dr Hook "Cover of a Rolling stone" from "Crank a Smile"(CAS)? Also is a great song under Poison's vibe-yes, with Blues Saraceno on guitars

-A CD holds 80 minutes space and Poison take between 4 or more years to deliver new material, where are more covers songs that could get a hard rocking edge sound? What about: from Thin Lizzy: I'm a Rocker, Jailbreak (Cowboy Song could be great for next Bret Michael's solo album), from Van Halen: Panama or Unchained, from Judas Priest: You got another thing coming or Living after midnight, from Kiss: Deuce or Sttruter, from Motley Crue: City Boy Blues, from Aerosmith "sweet Emotion", what about a medley of Poison's "Let it Play/Sweet Home Alabama" from Lynyrd Skynyrd but jamming with Cinderella (Tom Keifer and Bret Michaels singing together this classic would be a hit), or Poison "Rock and Roll Bandit" -original version of Nothing but a good time.

-or what about 2nd CD added with: complete MTV Accoustic session (6 songs) with Good love or Let it Play-still unreleased-, remaster of studio tracks from Swallow this live and Power to the People (9 songs), + "when the Whip comes down" from Native Tongue recoding sessions and news songs such as Talking Loud, Steal the night away, Rock like a rocker, as others songs thet wrote when they were Paris.

Please somebody at Capitol take note, I think I'm not the only fan dreaming about something like this.Thanks!

I know how rabid other Poison fans are for a new album and how quickly they are to defend everything Bret, Bobby, C.C. and Rikki do but I don't feel this deserves 5 stars. That said, the production is very good and there is a consistency to the track selection. If you dig what Poison does you will dig this.

Little Willy: Very well done. If you don't know the track, it's very upbeat and kicks off the album in excellent fashion.
Suffragette City: Honestly, does this song need to be covered by EVERYONE? It's on Warrant's covers cd, L.A. Guns 2/5's covers EP and I never liked it all that much to begin with... though this is probably my personal fav. version.
I Never Cry: Works very well! Bret sounds great here. Again, for anyone who doesn't know the song, it's a fabulous Alice Cooper ballad.
I Need To Know: It's played and sung well. I just don't personally care for the song. Uptempo but overly repetitive lyrics for my taste. Then again, Petty doesn't tend to impress me.
Can't You See: I really like this cover. Bret seems right at home. Reminds me of his solo album balladry.
What I Like About You: My favorite track on the disc! Wonderful guitar/harmonica blend for the solo and there is a great crunchy groove throughout. I like it better than the original. Highlight!
Dead Flowers: Most surprising and refreshing for me... I'm not a Rolling Stones fan but the song is great and this version is great (though I still think Gilby Clarke/Axl have it beat on Gilby's first solo disc).
Just What I Needed: Another one everyone seems to do... Bang Tango, Eric Martin of Mr. Big... I honestly don't care for this song enough to give it repeat listens. Bret sounds a little strained or rough in parts.
Rock and Roll All Nite: KISS... I like it but it seems out of place. Bret's vocals have changed too much to throw this in the mix and make it even more obvious. BUT I think it's an awesome track!
Squeeze Box: Decent song, lackluster cover. It's okay...
You Don't Mess Around With Jim: Jim Croce is amazing and this version is fresh and unique. Definitely worth a listen but it again highlights Bret's vocal changes.
Your Mama Don't Dance: Unnecessary on here. If they were putting EVERY previously released cover, fine, but they didn't so I don't think it should be here either.
We're An American Band: It okay. I never loved the original.

I'm not sure why everyone feels the need to record and sell cover cd's. Poison, Tesla, Styx, Toto, Warrant, and the list goes on... I really am tired of the concept. Play the stuff live and spend a little time writing and recording some new material. The true fans will buy everything new so it'd be nice to have bands work a little harder than just churning out some rehashed old stuff other artists wrote. Viva le Scorpions. Their NEW album is 5 stars. Also, it really irritates me that Poison enticed everyone into picking up the re-releases of LWTCDI and the newest Greatest Hits cd by adding a few tracks that now appear on this disc.

Of note, "Sexy Back" by Justin Timberlake is on the version of Poison'd sold solely at Walmart. For all you die-hards it's a pretty cool cover and definitely new territory. More in the vein of Power To The People (title track).

I have been a poison fan since I was a teenager and I saw them on MTV with 'I want action', and the blonde bombshell CC Deville strolled across the stage strumming his guitar in a way only CC can. I have most albums. I saw this album and recognised the Bowie track and as it was Poison, how wrong could you go? What I wasn't prepared for was the fact they had matured and matured a lot. Bret's voice is more powerful now than ever and CC's guitar playing well it has to be said, he gets better with age.
Poison for me, is like a vintage fine wine, they get better with age. If you don't like cover versions you will be pleasantly surprised at how good their versions are; and in a lot of the songs, much better, Squeeze Box being a prime example.
For sheer listening pleasure buy this album you won't be disappointed.

FINALLY!

Even though this is a collection of covers, it's more like Look What the Cat Dragged In than anything else...it only took them 20 years to get back to their incredible roots! BUY.

Also check out Fozzy All That Remains Reloaded, heavier, but a ton of fun, with that raw edgy fun sound.