Wednesday, August 23, 2006

#90 - Who's Watching You - Vain - No Respect (1989)



Glam has never been a sub genre I ever liked. However, this album, and this track in particular are quite good. Granted the lyrics are horrible, and one read of the lyric sheet will have any self respecting metal fan reaching for their copy of Powerslave. Given that though, the playing on this record is really good. I guess Vain was more in the model of Ratt, where the guitar player was skilled, and sort of gave the band a small amount of musical credibility.

Of course, this came out at the end of glam's popularity, and thus Vain is a mere footnote in the book of 80's metal, but if you see this one in the used section or cut out bin, pick it up.

6 comments:

Metal Mark said...

I have never heard this, but have wanted to for some time. It tends to go for at least $13 everywhere I may break down and get it. I don't know that glam lyrics are any worse than the majority of standard metal, speed, black or death metal. Iron Maiden are much more the exception than the rule for lyrics and god bless them for being that way. There is good glam and bad glam, but the good stuff can be a welcome change from some metal bands that are so stiff at times.

T-_Bone said...

Mark - These lyrics are exceptionally bad IMO, much worse than Ratt or Enuff Z'Nuff (two real good bands)

Ben - All in all, I like about 4 or 5 songs on the album, but the whole thing is pretty good. It all starts to sound the same around track 7 or so, but it is still pretty good. To me this song and the song Beat the Bullet are the best.

Anonymous said...

I ended up picking this album up due to the hype of Vain's comeback last year. No Respect seems to fetch between $20-$30 on Ebay but I was lucky to grab it for $15. Everything I read said that it was a "glam classic" or "a must for fans of '80s Hard Rock".

For my money, it isn't a classic, more like generic glam hard rock. 'Beat The Bullet' is good but the rest just all sounded the same.

Strutter71 said...

I had this on cassette back in the day, but don't know what happened to it. I thought Vain were far above average for that genre, and "Beat The Bullet" was one of my favorite songs of that era. But like T-Bone said, it came out too late and it's a shame because it was a great album.

Metal Mark said...

I have thought about buying this before, but I am still not convinced. I will probably wait and see if a cheap copy ever shows up. I like a number of hard rock and glam bands. Yet it does seem like for every Ratt or Motley Crue you get like ten bands that are very average or worse.

T-_Bone said...

Mark - I must admit, I bought this used back in '91 for $4, and that was after I herad the whole thing once, so no loss for me. I love the song, but I promise, I would never pay $15 for the whole CD.