Sweet Sixteen

Royal Trux | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 11, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B000000WCZ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,993 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Don't Try Too Hard

2. Morphic Resident

3. The Pickup

4. Cold Joint

5. Golden Rules

6. You'll Be Staying in Room 323

7. Can't Have It Both Ways

8. 10 Days 12 Nights

9. Microwave Made

10. Sweet Sixteen

11. I'm Looking Through You

12. Rosewell Seeds and Stems

13. Pol Pot Pie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a trip, October 9, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Sweet Sixteen (Audio CD)

First: One of the greatest rock and roll album covers ever.

Second: What a mind-blowing record! Long after giving up on what Royal Trux were going to do next (and having been a fan since the 'Cats and Dogs' days)... I got this when it came out and was TRULY confused. 13 insane rock/funk/blues tracks... all of them very long... all of them with ear-blasting insane production and all of them so complex that it sounds like their is a whole LPs worth of material hidden within each one. The production on this record is AMAZING. How many musicans were on this CD? A zillion? It almost sounds like each number had about 48 tracks of recording and in the final mix-down it was decided to use EVERY track on each song - just pumped up in the studio so each one would stand out rather than mixing into a blur. Wow. Complex psychadelia has never sounded so transcendently pristine. Kind of like "Twin Infinitives" with the production techniques from "Veterans Of Disorder" then multiplied by 1,000,000,000 - does that make sense? And much like "Twin Infinitives" - this highly detailed and monsterous recording would probably take a lifetime to de-code and document. There's so much going on!

I love all the RTX releases to varying degrees... but if I had to pick 3 that I think are "masterpieces" they would be "Twin Infinitives", "Cats and Dogs" and "Sweet Sixteen" (with the 'Mercury/Shockwave Rider' 7" a close fourth)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Underrated yet essential album for true trukkies., December 31, 2002

By 

G. Rao "grao!!!" (san francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sweet Sixteen (Audio CD)

This album is the one most frequently mentioned when you ask people what turned them off of Royal Trux. Rumor even had it that the duo made this album intentionally unlistenable, for the sake of sabotaging their deal with Virgin Records. In my opinion though, it stands out as one of their better efforts. Whereas prior albums tended to be somewhat sparse and low-fi, this one is lush and orchestral. Its stylish prog rock spewed out from the sewers of mars. Haggerty seems to have made a special effort to pack in as many different guitar tones as he could, filling in the remaining gaps with low key synths and even a few dueling horn segments. It was intended to be a representation of the 1970's, complete with decandence, excess, and languid narcissism. Taken as such, it totally hits the mark. It is Exile on Main Street as performed by Curtis Mayfield. "don't try too hard", the first track, is a really great song that rides a neat little bell melody through a mess of tangled guitar pyrotechnics and heavy handed bass and drum grooves. "Cold Joint" is a funk number, with great interplay between the moaning vocals and wah-wah pedal guitar. "ten days, twelve nights" skips along with a characteristically thumping Trux beat and scream, and then dissolves into a morass of sinewy guitar and floating horns, jazz fusion style. Royal Trux flirted with many different rock styles throughout their career, staying loyal to none. This album represents them at their most technical phase, displaying a level of prowess many people didn't realize they even had. If you've already listened to "Cats and Dogs" and "Accelerator", then this should be your next acquisition.

5.0 out of 5 stars toilets and stuff, August 22, 2003

By 

asparagus (SF) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sweet Sixteen (Audio CD)

best album cover ever. the contents, on the other hand, vary from genius to headache. oh come on! Five stars baby!