Pretty Maids after the album "Stripped" (1993)?

[GaetanL]

For a very long time, the only album I had was "Future World" (1987). Just recently, I bought the 5 CD box set containing the 5 first albums (without counting the 1983 S/T EP). Tonight I'm playing the album "Jump The Gun" (1990) and it sounds good to me. What about the stuff released after the album "Stripped" (1993)?

[introclaus]

Pretty Maids, one of my favorite bands of all time! I've seen them live more times than I can count (heck, I grew up in the same little town as they did, so I didn't have any excuse for not being a major fan-boy and catching them live any time possible).

The first couple of albums (including the EP) will always stand out as something absolutely amazing to me, and that includes Jump the Gun (or Lethal Heroes as I believe it was called here in the US) and the following album Sin-Decade. After that the quality dropped a little bit, but still high quality within the genre.

Scream and Spooked were very similar to each other - both showcasing a harder hitting side of the band, but also throwing in a handful of ballads here and there. Anything Worth Doing, Carpe Diem, Planet Panic and Wake Up to the Real World all fall into this "meh" category, where there are some good songs on all albums, but neither of them are perfect. It was like the band kind of lost touch with their roots in the early part of 2000's. Luckily Pandemonium from 2010 marked a return to form, and the following albums Motherland, Kingmaker and Undress Your Madness have all been good-to-great.

There's a couple of "not really true" studio albums out there: Stripped (acoustic album), Offside (another acoustic album - actually this came before Stripped and most of the songs are on both), Louder than Ever (re-recordings of songs from the mid-period + 4 new songs).

Great band, on album and especially live.

[Locust0311]

Anything Worth Doing, Carpe Diem, Planet Panic and Wake Up to the Real World all fall into this "meh" category, where there are some good songs on all albums, but neither of them are perfect. It was like the band kind of lost touch with their roots in the early part of 2000's.

What did you think of the rerecorded versions of the songs from those albums on Louder than Ever?

[introclaus]

Anything Worth Doing, Carpe Diem, Planet Panic and Wake Up to the Real World all fall into this "meh" category, where there are some good songs on all albums, but neither of them are perfect. It was like the band kind of lost touch with their roots in the early part of 2000's.

What did you think of the rerecorded versions of the songs from those albums on Louder than Ever?

I thought they were quite good - I like the fact that they didn't choose the "too obvious" ones (such as Destination Paradise or Clay), but instead went for some a bit deeper cuts. Psycho Time Bomb Planet Earth is a killer tune and it's nice to hear a version of Virtual Brutality that ain't as "clean polished" as the original.

In general these kinds of re-recordings doesn't do much for me, but when it comes to 'maids, I'm willing to listen

[Guillaume]

Anything Worth Doing, Carpe Diem, Planet Panic and Wake Up to the Real World all fall into this "meh" category, where there are some good songs on all albums, but neither of them are perfect. It was like the band kind of lost touch with their roots in the early part of 2000's. Luckily Pandemonium from 2010 marked a return to form, and the following albums Motherland, Kingmaker and Undress Your Madness have all been good-to-great.

I agree with most of what you said, except this part, which only applies to Wake Up To The Real World IMO. Cause Carpe Diem and Anything Worth Doing are excellent IMO, not that far from Spooked. And Planet Panic added a "modern" element in their sound on some songs and was quite good too.

Pretty Maids is also one of my fave bands.

[dspot]

I also share Guillaume's opinion that there aren't really any "meh" albums in their catalog. yes, there are some better than others but overall, they've been consistently good to great on every release. I personally love Jump the Gun, even 'tho I know that the band doesn't. Scream is their heaviest, having been produced by Flemming Rassmussen of metallica fame. Spooked is really good, and so is Anything Worth. Pandemonium is probably their best and what sort of restarted their career after a hiatus, and everything after that has been really really good. Hope Ronnie' health issues are resolved soon and they come back. Beyond awesome band

[introclaus]

Anything Worth Doing, Carpe Diem, Planet Panic and Wake Up to the Real World all fall into this "meh" category, where there are some good songs on all albums, but neither of them are perfect. It was like the band kind of lost touch with their roots in the early part of 2000's. Luckily Pandemonium from 2010 marked a return to form, and the following albums Motherland, Kingmaker and Undress Your Madness have all been good-to-great.

I agree with most of what you said, except this part, which only applies to Wake Up To The Real World IMO. Cause Carpe Diem and Anything Worth Doing are excellent IMO, not that far from Spooked. And Planet Panic added a "modern" element in their sound on some songs and was quite good too.

Pretty Maids is also one of my fave bands.

Keep in mind that a "meh" Pretty Maids album to me is 8/10 I love this band, and even these albums are very good by the standard all other bands in the genre are measured by.

[GaetanL]

I decided to go all the way with this band like I did with Yngwie Malmsteen.

No bad album, that "Pandemonium" disc is truly excellent!

I love this band!

Thanks everyone!