Extreme
Extreme II: Pornograffitti

THE REVIEW

Second album by this American band that encapsulates in its style everything that could have been said in music by giants like 'Van Halen' and 'Queen', summarizing in 13 pieces a large part of the music from the magical decade of the '80s-'90s with sounds ranging from rap to those typical of jazz orchestras complete with a brass section, but what prevails is surely the raw yet perfectly rhythmic and precise sound of Nuno Bettencourt's guitar and certainly also Gary Cherone's voice capable of ranging from anger to sentiment and "rapped" pieces, stylistically completing the album.

The other half of the Line-up consists of Pat Badger on bass and Paul Geary on percussion, very well blended to provide a powerful rhythmic base to Nuno Bettencourt's scratching riffs. Besides composing all the orchestral arrangements and most of the tracks, he delights us with a brief piano solo in F sharp major, intended, however, to be overshadowed by the riff of the album's first track: "Decadence Dance"; a track with a typical Glam style chorus with double falsetto voices repeating this categorical imperative "Dance... Dance". This is followed by "Li'l Jack Horn", quite rhythmic where Nuno Bettencourt's notes written for the brass start making their first appearances. As I mentioned, rap is also contemplated in the vast range of genres that make this album a masterpiece, and it's the turn of "When I'm President". In the playlist, after "Get The Fuck Out", appears an '80s milestone which is the acoustic "More Than Words", with Nuno, who, with only his six-strings, manages to mark time more than an entire rhythmic section. Nothing more to say about this wonderful song that seems to clash with the rest yet enhances its content.

The album continues with "Money (In God We Trust)" and "It ('s A Monster)" leading up to the title track "Pornografitti" which opens with a continuously changing riff preluding a nasty and overwhelming chorus. Hats off so far, but after the "swinging" and romantic "When I First Kissed You" and the typical intermezzo song "Suzie (Wants Her All Day What?)" with a classic-sounding solo, as an intro to "He-Man Woman Hater" there's one of the worst electric revisitations of "The Flight of the Bumblebee" by Rimsky-Korsakov: playing thirty-second notes on a chromatic scale alone doesn’t give the idea of buzzing... dear Nuno... this time you didn't hit the mark, quite the opposite.
But the Extreme quickly redeem themselves, oh yes they do, with what I think is the most beautiful song on the album ("He-Man Woman Hater" indeed): here it is, with a brilliant riff emphasized by those "whistling" sounds from his Washburn that Nuno loves so much, characterized by another excellent guitar: Dweezil Zappa playing the solos.
Also noteworthy is the presentation by a booming voice that imperatively declares "No Women Allowed" (…let's be clear, they have no homosexual tendencies, quite the opposite... the inside of the album cover explains everything... they prefer red-light venues for men only... amusing indeed).

To conclude this album, a couple of great songs, the last of which recalls a lot of country and funk sounds. The "Funked up FairyTellers" (as they call themselves) have put together a great album, but unfortunately, it will be their last true album... as, excluding collections, only two sporadic releases followed in 6 years, and frankly, they don’t even resemble each other anymore. In short, yet another meteor that lasted only 6 years: they might have concentrated all their possibilities and creativity into this masterpiece and didn't have anything more to say, or perhaps they were overshadowed by the assertiveness and revolution of Nirvana, who released Nevermind that same year????