Poison: Look What the Cat Dragged In (remaster)

To celebrate the bands 20th Anniversary, Poison released a rousing collection of their greatest hits with The Best Of Poison: 20 Years Of Rock. A tour soon followed and now the party continues with the re-release of their first three albums in remastered format. Deluxe packaging and artwork as well as previously unreleased tracks are included for the listener to enjoy as well.

When you look at the first Poison album you are immediately reminded of MTV at the time and quickly remember just how flashy the Hard Rock genre had become. The year was 1986 and bands like Poison gave rise to what became labeled the "Hair Metal" decade. This aspect of big hair rock and roll would be par for the course for many of the bands from the Los Angeles area. Poison was an MTV poster child and had five songs from this album in heavy rotation on the network. Their wild "Glam" look and cartoon character antics made for some truly memorable videos. It took me quite awhile to enjoy this album for during the year of its release I was primarily interested in a far heavier aspect of the Rock genre. It was also during these Hair Metal years that a darker and angrier Metal was building up steam with bands like Metallica, Testament and Slayer leading the charge. Still despite my initial reservations the premier release by Poison is a lot of fun when you look back on it. Singer Bret Michaels, guitarist C.C. DeVille, drummer Rikki Rocket and bassist Bobby Dall surely seemed to have the world in their grasp and almost single handedly increased the level of female interest in the Hard Rock genre. The formula on the album was simple and straight forward, it was about Rocking and it was about girls. Songs like "Talk Dirty To Me" and "I Want Action" played upon the bands not so subtle sexual innuendos and seemed to pave their way. Ballads like "I Wont Forget You" would show the band had a softer side and while this number was good it would not have the impact of the forthcoming "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". Like old KISS and ACDC, early Poison had a catchiness to it that made the chorus parts very easy to remember. You could not go to a Rock crowd filled bar back in the day without hearing them blasting from every jukebox. One of my personal favorites was always "Cry Tough" since it seemed to cite the necessary drive that made up every hard working musician of the day.

The remaster has two remixes of album tracks which I did not find all that catching to me, however I did enjoy the "Don't Mess Around With Jim" recording as the band did a nice job from the original Jim Croce song. If you own the old vinyl, then perhaps its time you pass it along to some younger Rock fans to show them a particular point in time and then treat yourself to this remastered edition. Now where did I put that hairspray……

Track Listing

1. Cry Tough
2. I Want Action
3. I Won't Forget You
4. Play Dirty
5. Look What The Cat Dragged In
6. Talk Dirty To Me
7. Want Some, Need Some
8. Blame It On You
9. #1 Bad Boy
10. Let Me Go To The Show
11. I Want Action – remix
12. I Won't Forget You – remix
13. Don't Mess Around With Jim

Added: August 18th 2006
Reviewer: Ken Pierce
Score:
Related Link: Poison Website
Hits: 2579
Language: english

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