M the P wrote:
I posted this to RW forum. Just thought I would post it hear for people to see:
ROGUES TRACK LINUP
In my other thread I mentioned how Victory album starts off very slow and most of the good songs are late on the album. I really think this kind of pattern turns critcs off. Let's face it, critics usually only hear an album once or twice before reviewing and the early songs leave the biggest impression and often get listened to more just because of interruptions etc.
For Rogues, many have stated that Draw The Line is a bad first track. Now, regardless of the quality of the song I do agree this is not a good track to win over critics. Expecially since there is a large contingent out there just frothing at the mouth to lambaist RW for lack of speed and not enough pirate songs.
In addition, tons of reviews and opinions are already out there before any of these people have even heard the bonus tracks.
I am not suggesting Rolf do what I am suggesting below. Obviously he does not give a crap about pleasing the reviewers and rightfully so. If he builts an album a certain way then that is good enough for me. That said, I just wonder how many of the reviewers that shot down Rogues so quickly would have the guts to do so if the tracklist was something like this:
1. Libertalia
2. Angel Of Mercy
3. Skeleton Dance
4. Skull And Bones
5. Cannonball Tounge
6. Rogues En Vogue
7. Black Gold
8. Soul Vampires
9. The War
10. --
11. --
12. -- Bonus
13. -- Bonus
You can fill in the final four positions any way you like and my point is not at all that those are bad songs. My point is simply that everything the critics want out of RW is on this album but because a few of the tracks that fit the description of "everything that is supposedly wrong with RW" are starting off or early on the album and a few of the great classic tracks are BONUS and therefore not considered they can get away with pretending the whole album is nothing but Victory and The Brotherhood's worst songs re-made.
Take a good look at this linup and then think of what the critics say when they complain:
1. Album has no speed metal.
- O.K. this is shot down in flames right off the bat with Libertalia and Angel Of Mercy and all the other early songs have a reasonable pace as well.
2. Too many of these slow, boring, groovy rock and roll tunes.
- I think if they try to make this arguement they will look like idiots. RW never did all fast tunes so what are they going to say? Something like "Well, yeah most of the album pretty much rips along at a good pace but when you start getting up to the double digit tracks the album has a bunch of slow paced crap so therefore the whole thing sucks."
3. Rolf needs to do more pirate songs like the BHI days.
- Well, most RW albums only have a small hand full of pirate tracks. With this linup you have 2 absolutely killer pirate tracks within the first part of the album and you still have songs about Rogues, Skeletons, Black Gold and a War. What the hell do you want?
Again, I am not suggesting Rolf do this but it would take a lot of starch out of most of the harsh critics. Nobody holds bonus tracks against a band so by re-aranging the album and also hiding a few of the "Critic's whipping boy" tracks as bonus they would probably see the album totally different. The only real complaint they would have in their pocket is if they want to complain about the sound, the time signiture or some other technical bullshit.
M the P
I think the 1st song is really good, but is a bit too slow to be a 1st song.
)'s voice !
