Here is a band who has returned to their first love and to what they do best after some years in the wilderness. When any band comes back from hiatus, unless the pressures to do so are financial, they tend to sound fresh, relaxed and usually somehow different. With this in mind, anyone wanting nothing more than “Pornograffitti II” will have to deal with the fact that this is not what Extreme in 2008 is about. They have returned to their roots not only as musicians together but in the influences they bring to their compositions.
The first impression is that they’ve been listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin recently as many tracks are underpinned by a delightfully Bonham-esque drum style. Opener ‘Star’ is classic Extreme, spiced with sweet touches which attest to the band’s innate and enduring appreciation for the music of Queen. ‘Learn To love’ is haunted by the ghosts of both Zeppelin and Free but feels entirely fresh with some superb interplay between all members of the band, incredibly tight but with the spontaneous feel of excellent musicians enjoying themselves. ‘Take us Alive’ with its count delivered in a (slightly iffy) English accent is a galloping hoedown which owes an obvious debt to Zeppelin’s ‘Bron-Y-Aur Stomp’. It’s not all at the same pace or emotional pitch though, far from it. The desperation implicit in ‘Last Hour’ finds Gary Cherone belting out his vocals with more raw emotion than we have probably ever heard before.
‘Flower Man’ bounds along with energy worthy of the Foo Fighters and ‘King of the Ladies’ has a vibe which is hard to place at first. It’s Rap! It’s not ,of course, full of generated beats and samples, its Extreme playing their brand of rock, but the feel is definitely “urban” and it works! Then comes ‘Ghost’ which is a modern pop ballad; think Coldplay or similar but delivered by a band of real class. There are actually 14 tracks on offer (including ‘Americocaine’ a demo from 1985 as a bonus for the European release) and it is clear that Extreme have released an album of the music they want to be making here and now.
They have drawn on rock’s rich heritage and contemporary influences to concoct an intriguing blend of the new and the old, delivered in their own inimitable fashion … and in ‘Star’ a hook that it’s just impossible to get out of your head, which would be really annoying if it wasn’t so darn good!