Customer Reviews

Pornograffitti

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This CD is so cool in every respect. The songs are well written and fun to listen to (see "When I'm President"). The musicianship on this record is incredible--it's no wonder Eddie Van Halen chose Gary Cherone to be the (short lived) vocalist for Van Halen. As for Nuno Bettencourt, I think he's a very underrated guitar player. Maybe not underrated, but unknown? At least I rarely ever hear about him, and I'm a guitar player. Check out the intro to "He Man Woman Hater," called "Flight of the Wounded Bumble Bee" (and YES, Nuno *did* play that, contrary to what another reviewer said...that was *not* Dweezil Zappa. He played on a different song.).

The recording quality of this CD is great. It's how every metal/hard rock CD should sound. The guitars aren't all muddy and washed out. They're loud, but clear, and you can still hear the vocals and everything else over them. Sounds GREAT cranked up. Extreme's best album without a doubt.

In every era of music, there's those bands that just have talent coming out their orifices, yet somehow slip through the cracks of the mainstream audience. Extreme is this era's underrated wonder. Sadly they are categorized by their two mainstream hits (from this album) 'More than Words' and 'Hole Hearted'. While they're both great songs, lord, there's so much more to this band.

From the power-chord kickoff of Decadent Dance, the listener knows that their proverbial a**es are about to be kicked for an hour. Aside from the occasional ballad, this album rocks out without a shred of filler. Cherone finally settles into a comfortable Freddie Mercury-ish vocal style that suits him and the music perfectly. Nuno's guitar playing is kicked into high octane from their debut album, it's more well-timed, restrained, yet way out of the league of 95% of the musical population. The rhythm section is at their best on this recording, as well.

This album's only shortcoming is that it loses it's momentum towards the end. Suzi (Wants her all day What?) seems to be a filler song, and 'When I First Kissed You', while certainly loungey, loose, and different, won't appeal to everyone. It picks up again with Nuno's blistering 'Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee' guitar interlude, and the final three songs are more masterpeices.

Pornograffiti is the album to start with when looking into this sadly overlooked group. Their best was yet to come, though.

Toward the late '80s I was getting very disillusioned with all this glam rock. Everyone sounded the same. Then Extreme came along. I bought this cd for More Than Words, but was extremely surprised by what I heard. Normally, it takes a while for a cd to grow on me; to hear the music; to look more closely at the lyrics. Not so with Pornograffitti! Immediately with the opening song, Decadence Dance, and all throughout I was totally blown away by how original and exciting this band was. Nuno is a guitar wizard, guitar god, guitar genius and every other superlative you can think of. Their vocal harmonies are amazing , Gary's lyrics are very creative and poetic at times, and Nuno's guitar work and solos are breath-taking. This is just an amazing cd on all levels. It revived my interest in music and continues to be my all time favorite work by Nuno Bettencourt. I would recommend this to any and every rock fan.

I was really late, discovering these guys. Sure I had heard "more than words" and "hole hearted" but I always just kinda blew them off. In 1994, the heyday of grunge and doom-rock, A musician friend of mine turned me on to Extreme. It seems that most guitar players listen to these guys because of Nuno Bettencourt's guitar playing. It's pretty amazing. To me these guys came across like a breath of fresh air. This album is full of suprises. The guitar playing is some of the best I have EVER heard and Gary Cherone's vocals are solid. My only problem is actually keeping a copy. They always get "borrowed" by my friends. After seven years, this album has never gotten old. One thing that seperates Extreme from the rest of the bands to come from their era (Poison, Whitesnake, Kix, SLaughter) aside from talent, is their song-writing skills. They sang about more than just driving fast cars and getting laid. Their debut album was good, but this is way better.

It's still nice, in a world full of Godsmacks and Slipknots, to be able to throw something like this in the player from time to time. Great album.

I've listened and heard this band since I was 8 years old(in 1992). This was my first favourite band. Of course there have been many many bands and artists after that. Now I am more with jazz and blues music because I play blues/jazz myself too..

But I have to say, that from 1992 (when I first heard this album) to this day, this might be the cd I've played most in my cd-player.

Pornograffitti, yes. Maybe this is the best funkmetal album ever. Maybe, or maybe not?! Well, I think it IS.

This is very uneven album, like a rollercoaster, and that's one reason I like it so much. It's got rough funkmetal like with some big band, good frank sinatra-type jazz song. And maybe I'm still liking it very much in this day cos' there are much horns in this album, and I play horns myself, to be honest not "horns", just saxophone and bass clarinet. Very good professionals in the band - I'm not going to put Nuno front in review like a Jesus, because I think the band works just great together. Without three others Nuno would be nothing and without Nuno the band wouldn't be as catchy and interesting.

Especially I've played title-song. It's very hard funkmetal song. It's got pretty clever solo played by Nuno, which sounds like you were walking in red district lights area, near whores, beasts and lust. And Gary Cherone's singing is very powerful in this song. Also Paul and Pat are funking this metal forward. Very smooth song, you can dance and jump around with this flow song, althought it's metal!!

Other highlights in my opinion are Li'l jack horny, When I'm president get the funk out, It's (a monster), when I first kissed you, Suzi, He-man woman hater and of course song for love where Pat does great bass-solo.

Little bouring songs are: More than words, Hole hearted.. And those were the only hit songs in this album!! Kiss my *** people, hah!!

I think this is the best band ever and the CD is one the best, because it is so full of heart, which is most important thing. Heart to do excellent music..

Unfortunately I didn't have change to catch the band when it was in Finland. I was so young back then.

But not best artist, when we are counting jazz-, blues- and funkartists to this list.

The years have gone by (all too fast, I'm afraid) and I still love to put this one on and just rock out. Seriously this album rocks so f#!%ing hard that I find it hard to believe that the only ones who realized the band's genius were those who picked this up for "More Than Words" and got a surprise, and the guitar-gurus out there who were already aware of Nuno Bettencourt's guitar wizardry. Looking back, I now realize that it was the timing that was responsible for the band being so overlooked and I still haven't figured out if they were too late or just way ahead of their time. One thing's for sure: the musicianship is absolutely flawless. Be it the aforementioned Bettencourt's shredding, Pat Badger's powehouse bass, Paul Geary's slamming, or Gary Cherone's wailing, this is as fine as it gets. They played incredibly tight together and I'm SO sorry that I never got to catch these guys live. There's a certain infectious energy here that VERY few bands have ever come close to matching. In my mind, the band never quite re-created what they pulled off with "Pornograffiti". That's not to say that their other three albums weren't all great in their own way, it's just that this one was so colorful, unique, diverse, eclectic and brilliant, following it up would have been a tough act for any band to follow. In short, this is the DEFINITIVE Extreme album and if you could only pick one, just GRAB this one.

If I only had one complaint, it's that "Watching Waiting" from their self-titled debut should have been on this one instead. It would have fit in perfectly with the flow and concept. Aside from that, "Pornograffiti" is perfect. If you don't have this in your collection, don't worry. It's never too late. Just scroll to the top and click on "buy". Trust me, your life will be much more enjoyable.

This album explains why hair metal was replaced with grunge. Its got beautiful "corporate" production but lacks honesty. Its got incredible layered harmonies, in your face compression, and an embarrasing amount of reverb. Every tune was written for radio circa 1989.

I saw extreme on tour for this album which was a great show, they are incredibly talented. This album is the pinnacle of hard rock albums and should be in your collection. End of an era.

Nobody can play the electric guitar like this guy. Impossible rhythm parts, hyper fast soloing and awesome harmonics, all played at the same time he sing the second voice. The songs are basically heavy riffs with glam chorus, but much more power full than clasic glam bands.
I highly recommend this CD specially for the guitar fans. If you like Van Halen, you'll love Nuno Bettencourt.

Why is Extreme so underrated? Well, it's kind of a toss-up. First off, their two biggest hits were the accoustic-driven love ballads "More Than Words" and "Hole Hearted". Now there's nothing wrong with a good love song, but this may be one major reason as to why the band was (and still are) overlooked geniuses. I suppose they were dismissed as a pop act...

Secondly, right about the time this album was released, there was a storm brewing in Seattle, Washington. That's right, the grunge scene came out of nowhere and took the nation by storm. Dirty jeans and stringy hair repalced the bandannas and mousse-abuse. The ever-fickle masses embraced the lyrics of alienation and getting obliterated. Next thing you know, Everyone's wanting to deny the fact that they ever listened to "glam-rock" and are wanting to grow up and be the next Cobain.

Well, that's a shame. Extreme's timing may have been a little off, but you'd never know it from the sound of this album. No, this is not some little Poison-clone, or Motley Crue soundalike, these guys were honest-to-God musicians and Pornograffiti is proof of that which has stood up ever-so-well over the years. Yeah they may have had a softer look, but that was just the time. When you hear the rock-solid musicianship on this cd, I think that you'll agree. It holds a certain energy and magic, that I believe is STILL unmatched to this day.

While I love the follow-up, "III Sides To Every Story", I'll still have to put this one ahead. It has everything you could want from a hard rock album. If you're still not convinced, I challenge you to go out and get a copy. Let the music do the talking. You can't lose.

Anyone who wants to experience how music is supposed to sound needs to pick up this CD. It is outstanding. Extreme somehow slipped though the cracks of the music world, with the exception of the obligatory power-ballad (thanks to my other fave band, Journey, for those) "More Than Words". The songs are multi-layered, the musicianship is outstanding, and the songwriting is genius. The music is high energy, with each of the tracks reaching out and grabbing you and taking you for a spin. I listen to this CD all the time. "He Man Woman Hater" has got to be one of the best rock songs ever written. Yet, despite the wildness of the music, the words really make you stop and contemplate...and I think that's what kept me intrigued by Extreme. They may have been lumped with all the other "Hair Bands" (God I HATE that term) of the late 80's early 90's, but they were truly a thinking man's (or woman's ;P) band. I loved the first Extreme album ,and you have got to get "III Sides to Every Story" as well. You will not be disappointed!!!!!!!!!!