The monster's loose and now you know the truth

Continuing my trip back through the 2006 album charts.

29/10/06 : Bat Out Of Hell III - The Monster Is Loose - Meat Loaf

My first ever visit with Mr Loaf!  I was quite surprised that Bat Out Of Hell didn't feature on Rolling Stone's Best 500 Albums Ever - it's not as great as the sales figures suggest, but it's a well put together album with some cracking songs on it.  I think I listened to BOOH2 once but didn't see the point - and I'm totally expecting to have the same opinion of this.

And yeah - it was fine if you like that sort of thing.  I'm kinda like "I don't mind this sort of thing", so I didn't mind it - he doesn't take himself too seriously, but it's all a bit of a mess.  However, I did find myself feeling a bit grumpy whilst listening to it which I finally decided was because there was absolutely no reason for this to be called BOOH3 - BOOH isn't exactly a concept album but it does mostly hang together, whereas this is just a load of tracks which most definitely don't hang together (particularly the opening one which is, errr, nu-metal?!?).  And none of them stand out - there's definitely no "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" on here (love it or loathe it, it definitely stands out!).

We're at #3 with a new entry this week on the start of an eleven week run - he's definitely trading on the Batname there.  The rest of the top five are Robbie, My Chemical Romance, Rod Stewart (another name that pops up every year) and The Killers (all new entries except for The Killers) - not the greatest top five ever imho.  And there's one more new entry in the top ten with John Legend (#10) which is probably way better than any of the top five and spent a lot less time in the charts than any of them - Rod managed 12 weeks with a random bunch of covers!

Wikipedia has quite a bit on the album, but it's nearly all about the fact that Jim Steinman wasn't involved in producing it, which caused quite a bit of a stir and a lawsuit, especially since he owned the trademark for Bat Out Of Hell - because obviously, when you hear that phrase then "Jim Steinman" is the first name that comes to mind.  It does however feature seven Steinman songs, all of which were written for other projects which might possibly contribute to the album not exactly hanging together.  The critics were mixed - I think "impressive recreation of Steinman's Andrew Lloyd Webber-on-steroids approach" is a fair comment.  It did OK globally without topping the chart anywhere - #8 in the US is hardly shabby though.

"Customers also listened to" Jim Steinman, Steve Steinman (who appeared on Stars In Their Eyes as Meat Loaf in 1993), Bonnie Tyler and Slade - an unusual mix to say the least.  I didn't mind having this on, but there's no chance of me ever seeking it out again - it just feels very messy, unnecessary and unfairly cashing in on the Bat.

22/10/06 - Much better than I was expecting
5/11/06 - This is certainly something

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