Search - Warrant :: Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich

I know I shouldn't like this stuff, but ...

Sal Nudo | Champaign, Illinois | 10/14/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"... some of the songs are simply guilty pleasures that have somehow found their way back on my stereo! I owned this tape back when I was in high school, and perhaps these days I'm a little more comfortable embracing my cartoonish metal-lite past. From the start, punchy guitars and drumming, breezy and confident choruses, and scorching guitar solos and a carefree attitude are all par for the course on this cheeky debut album. The hit "Down Boys" might be one of Warrant's slickest, best songs ever, and the sappy but heartfelt "Heaven" was perhaps a fitting culmination of what the heavy metal "ballad" was becoming by the late 1980s. Get your lighters out, boys and girls.



There was always an underlying goofiness to Warrant's over-the-top sound, but say what you want, these guys knew the value of a good hook. For every tough-talking tune that tried to display Warrant's Hollywood street cred ("Big Talk," "D.R.F.S.R.," "Ridin' High"), the band never forgot its bread and butter market -- the female teenager fan. "Sometimes She Cries" is as hokey as it gets, but the song probably sounded great at proms all across the country during Warrant's heyday. And this band could rock out, too. "So Damn Pretty" is chock-full of both gritty and amazingly fluid guitar work, while the album's title track is a genuine diatribe against the cheaters of corporate America that's actually effective and relevant these days, and even a bit edgy considering Warrant's normal output.



Seminal `80s producer Beau Hill seemed to let the band do its thing on "D.R.F.S.R.," and surprisingly, the album sounds rawer than most of what RATT, who also utilized Hill's producing services, was churning out during most of the decade. So if you're up for a little fun and old-fashioned `80s nostalgia, this now out-of-print CD just might be the way to go.



Cool cover, too."