Parental Guidance (2012)

Searching for a way to retool their sound, Judas Priest attempted to accentuate their melodic side on Turbo by incorporating synthesizers and '80s pop-metal stylings ("Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days" sounds more like Poison (albeit with synths). The restrained songcraft sometimes pays dividends, especially on the PMRC-bashing "Private Property" and "Parental Guidance," and the synth-driven leadoff track "Turbo Lover," the latter of which is easily the best song on the record, and a successful reimagining of the Priest formula. But often, the band simply sounds directionless, unsure of exactly which path to accessibility it should follow; moreover, the synth-guitar backing and overly polished production give the album an oddly mechanized, processed feel…

Frank Zappa - Understanding America (2012) {2CD Zappa Records 0238922}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 980 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 340 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 240 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2012 Zappa Records / Universal Music / ZFT | 0238922 / ZR 3892
Rock / Experimental Rock / Avant-Garde / Art Rock / Fusion

Official Release #93. Conceived, Composed & Produced by Frank Zappa. The two-disc compilation of alternative takes titled Understanding America is intended for devoted fans only. It's scattershot material, tied together loosely by one theme: Zappa's acerbic mistrust of American culture. Throughout the '60s, '70s, and '80s, social satire made up a huge amount of his catalog, so Big Brother, media outlets, organized religion, and recreational drugs are all subject to attack here. The gold nugget is the unreleased 25-minute "Porn Wars Deluxe," a Negativland-esque collage that pairs together samples of music with clips from the 1985 PMRC Senate hearings, for which Zappa played an integral role defending against censorship.

With a track listing avoiding songs which already had an outing on Unleashed In the East, this double live album from the Turbo tour showcases how Priest were able to work their material into a cohesive setlist, despite the studio albums the songs come from having very divergent sounds - Turbo and Point of Entry don't sound much like British Steel, for instance, and Screaming For Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith sound different from those other three, but the renditions here manage to make everything sit together naturally, revealing that perhaps it was more the production approach on those albums than anything inherent to the songwriting which was responsible for the apparent divergenve…