Though it was unknown at the time, Extreme hit my radar in 1989 during the film, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Specifically with the song, Play With Me, which can be heard during the chaos that ensues at the mall just before all our historic figures are arrested. However, I didn't know the name of the song, the band, and had no interest (at the time) in the soundtrack.
Fast forward to the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert where Extreme takes the stage to perform a fantastic medley of Queen hits...And I still had no clue who they were.
Advance further to 2009 where the song Play With Me comes back around to my radar, but this time for a goofy animation project I decided to slap together one day using Microsoft Paint and a simplistic video editor program. If you look hard enough, you can find it on Youtube. Still, beyond my little project, there was no lasting impression.
Fast track to 2018 where I finally get around to grabbing the soundtrack for Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, as well as Extreme's self titled debut album. The song finally becomes a part of my library.
I remember playing it shortly after obtaining it, but it made no lasting impression at all. Which brings me to today's Retro Spins, where I'm giving it another shot.
The stand out to the album is definitely the lead guitarist work of Nuno Bettencourt. His thrashing licks, fast fingers and polished solos will definitely please any 80's hair band rocker. His work is slick, and reminded me somewhat of Steve Vai. Specifically, Vai's work from his 1990 album, Passion And Warfare. Check it out if you haven't heard that one.
As I listened to the tunes and read up on Steve Vai's 80's career with David Lee Roth and Whitesnake, this only served to push the subpar Extreme album to background noise which relatively got ignored. Which to be honest was no surprise. With exception of the guitar work here and there, nothing really stood out. It was pretty average at best.
By the time the album reached the halfway point, I pretty much didn't care, and had fully checked out. I ended up skipping through the remaining tracks, giving them less than five minutes to impress, which they didn't, and then shut it off.
Play With Me is a solid track, and I know the band went on to release the highly popular More Than Words in 1990, but for me, Extreme is just not that good.
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