Reviewed:
- Montrose (1973)
- Paper Money (1974)
MONTROSE 1973 (Warner Bros.)
- Standouts: Everything on here is a goddamn standout!
Why the fuck did this album take so goddamn long to appear in my collection?! I heard 'Space Station #5' way back at the start of my music obsession aged 12 or 13, and I loved it. God knows why I never actually picked up Montrose's debut until my early 20's. So yeah, I hang my head in shame. But whatever, I own a copy now, and that's what counts.
Talk about ahead of their time! Montrose were rockin' harder than pretty much all of the competition at the time. Sure, Sabbath were heavier, Zeppelin were more creative, Purple were more technically-accomplished etc., but if straight-up rockin's your thing, then you've come to the right place. I know that some David Lee Roth-purists like to hate on Sammy Hagar's work with Van Halen, which would come around many years after his stint in Montrose, but all those haters seem to forget that he made this album a few years before Van Halen even released their debut in 1978 (VH even used to cover 'Make It Last' in their early days...). I'm not gonna go out of my way and say that Montrose's debut is better than Van Halen's (because let's be honest here, it's not), but it is still a genuinely brilliant slice of ass-kickin' heavy rock that Hagar was an integral part of. He was the singer after all! And he actually has the most writing credits for the songs on this album too.
Of course, Ronny Montrose (RIP) was also key to the band, if the name didn't give it away. Ronny was one of the really early guitar heroes, and for good reason. Just listen to that awesome, groovin', funky riffage on 'I Don't Want It'! But really, the songs are just awesome in general. The second you press play and the first few notes of the heavy rock anthem 'Rock the Nation' blares out of your speakers, it almost immediately forces you to crank things up to eleven! How about the fast rocker 'Space Station #5', which should be towards the top of all those 'greatest driving songs of all time' lists. 'Space Station #5' rocks so damn hard, it just makes me wanna crack open a lager and party hard! And then there's the good-time boogie hard rock of 'Good Rockin' Tonight' and 'One Thing on My Mind', which I honestly feel already have some of that David Lee Roth-era Van Halen, party rock vibe in it - like Sammy Hagar saw them coming. The latter's guitar riffs remind me of Ted Nugent's 'Hey Baby', from his 1975 debut. 'Rock Candy' is slow, heavy, chunky and sleazy. Very American, but in the best way possible. 'Bad Motor Scooter' has that big Sunset Strip, California vibe. A whiff of glam metal about it minus the poser-attitude, and it came a decade early. The last track, 'Make it Last' is another slower and sleazy burner that wraps things up perfectly.
It's hard to really find anything notably wrong on here. Ronny Montrose isn't the most exciting guitarist in terms of his solos, but maybe that's just because this was still only 1973. And the rest of his guitar playing certainly makes up for this. Sammy Hagar has sounded better from a vocal perspective on later albums throughout his career, but Montrose's debut was the first album he ever sang on, so I this isn't exactly a diss either. Erm... the album's short as hell too - like, just over thirty minutes long, but again, this doesn't bother me. All those early Van Halen albums were short too.
For me, this is one of those perfect party rock albums, like AC/DC's Back in Black or Van Halen's Women and Children First. I put it on, and it never fails to make me feel good. The songs are fun, but they're definitely not dumb either. And the music itself is ground-breaking stuff. Some call it the first ever American heavy metal album. It's certainly the best thing Sammy Hagar was ever a part of. It deserves it's place in every rock fan's collection!
Adam's rating: 9.5/10
PAPER MONEY 1974 (Warner Bros.)
- Standouts: 'The Dreamer', 'I Got the Fire'
I really do believe that Montrose's debut album is one of the finest heavy rock recordings in American music history. It just kicks ass on so many levels, it was ahead of it's time, and it had a really fun, party kind of mood that many of the heavy British bands just didn't have. So what the hell happened with this follow-up record? Why's it so much weaker than the debut?! And why is the album cover so crappy and lazy by comparison?! Seriously!
Apparently, kicking ass is not necessarily what the band had in mind with Paper Money. 'Underground', the album's opening track is a soulful, kinda bluesy sounding rock piece; it almost sounds like a precursor to what Boston would be doing in the years to come. 'Connection' is the Rolling Stones cover - a soft rock, acoustic-led, maybe even folky number (folky in the most minor way possible that is)! There was no way in hell anything that sounds like this would have appeared on the first album. Sammy Hagar barely even sounds like Sammy Hagar on this one, sounding more like a subdued Robert Plant (not that that's a bad thing, come to think of it...). I guess 'The Dreamer' is a bit more hard-edged, but this is very much a slow and sleazy kind of hard rock number. It does have that random and unfitting, mellow keyboard mid-section which comes out of nowhere though. 'Starliner' finally gets the tempo going somewhat, but even this is just an instrumental, and not an especially memorable one at that. I do think 'I Got the Fire' comes fairly close to the first album's material - this is the first upbeat heavy rocker on the entire album, and we're already more than half way into it. But to say it's as good as anything from the debut is being a bit too kind.
'Spaceage Sacrifice' is another sleazy rock track that plods along like, uh... my childhood Golden Retriever? Her name was Amber, and for some reason she never ran! She always took her time! Sorry, but I can't think of another comparison! 'We're Going Home' is yet another slow, mellow and balladish kind of number, and for some reason Ronny Montrose handles the vocals. To be fair, he's not really a terrible singer, but he's definitely buried by Hagar. Some of the solos are quite nice on this song. The title track is the finale, and it slightly raises the rhythm with it's almost tribal-like beat. Not bad, but not great either.
This album doesn't completely suck, but it definitely sucks compared to the debut. I don't think any of these songs are horrible... they're all quite listenable, but nothing on here is all that memorable. The energy's just not there. It almost sounds like they couldn't be arsed this time around - like they lazily threw a bunch of tracks together as fast as they could and recorded them. Maybe the label hastily got them back into the studio before they were even ready to really record? Who knows. I feel sorry for fans of the debut who bought this thing back in the day, imagine how disappointed they'd have been! Sammy Hagar left the band after Paper Money and had a hugely successful career. He went solo for many years, joined Van Halen after David Lee Roth's departure and has been involved in many other projects such as Chickenfoot, since.
Adam's rating: 6/10
