Been listening to Blaster non-stop the last few days. Pretty solid overall, probably my favorite STP related release since Army of Anyone or Contraband.
I will say though, I felt a little weird going to Best Buy to purchase a CD. The once massive CD selections there is now only about 2 aisles long. It's been a while since I've gone to a store to specifically buy one CD, usually I peruse and grab something in the used section. So I did feel a little odd. I guess that's just the sign of what the music biz is in 2015.
A few random notes on Blaster:
-the opening riff for Modzilla just totally kicks it in, perfect intro song, really sets the tone
-the first 7 songs I really liked, the last 5 songs were sort of just OK
-I love the sort of bassy-modulated tone Jeremy has in some of the songs, sort of reminded me of cKy a little bit
-the lyrics right before the solo in Amethyst "Looking back at all the wasted time" gave me goosebumps, I could only think about Scott's substance abuse problems during that part
-very impressed with Scott's singing on White Lightning, and he really pulls it off live
-didn't care for Youth Quake at all, I literally cringed when I heard the chorus line "no one really cares if they bring the noize"
-didn't mind the cover of 20th Century Boy at all, and really liked Circles
-My top 3 songs would be Hotel Rio, Blue Eyes, Bleed Out
-I can see why some people think the songs get a little repetitive, especially Amethyst. Great song, but the chorus of "I can't SEEEEE...." really got old to me. Luckily the blistering guitar solo saved it for me
It's hard to rank where this album is in the entire STP catalog because frankly, I like all of the albums (except maybe Libertad). So instead I will give it an 8.5/10.
One final note, I was lucky/unlucky enough to see Jeremy's final show on the Friday before his death at the Hard Rock in Hollywood (sort of a secret show). I was standing on Tommy's side of the crowd and they only played 4 songs from Blaster, but Jeremy didn't really stand out to me. This may have been because I was focused mostly on Scott, and Joey Castillo (my favorite drummer) and Tommy cause he was right in front of me. But on the album Jeremy sounds amazing, his tone and crunch are great, and he has some awesome solo's. Too bad he left us before the peak of what the Wilabouts could become. Such a sad situation, but I guess that's how life works out sometimes. RIP Jeremy.