By Staff Reports
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 26, 1997

Music Meltdown

Various Artists, (You're Only as Good As) The Last Great Thing You Did (Lookout Records)

Lookout Records is responsible for bringing the world bands like Pansy Division, The Mr T Experience, Avail and the Queers. And the world is a better place because of them. The world is an even better place when the label puts out neato samplers like (You're Only as Good As) The Last Great Thing You Did, 23 songs from all of the Lookout Records' releases in 1997, all for less than the price of a used compact disc.

And the fun doesn't stop there. See, the Groovie Ghoulies are punk pop machines. They have two songs on this disc because they put out two releases this year. They give out gum and decorate the stage with bats and things when they play. They are so much fun it's scary. Exhibit A: "Chupacabra." The entire song goes like this: "Cuidado. Tenga cuidado. Chupacabra!"

The Go Nuts are also guilty of such silliness. Exhibit B: "Snik Snak Skadoliak." It's hysterical and there's no rhyme or reason for it to be hysterical. "I'm Captain Corn Nut. I bought a candy bar. I didn't share my candy. I ate it all!"

The Mr T Experience, one of the best head-bopping-make-you-get-into-a-car-crash-and-have-to-ride-the-bus punk pop bands the '90s have to offer to the three-chord gods, also has two songs on this CD. I think they just sit around and soak up weird song concepts as if they were Kool-Aid. Not like that's a bad thing.

Give a couple of goofy guys guitars and you get almost every Lookout Records band. This is the new world order.

-Annie Holub

Metallica, Re-Load (Elektra)

They're back. And sooner than ever before.

For a band that waited five years between two of its albums, just a year between releases is impressive. Re-Load, Metallica's latest, follows on the heels of 1996's Load.

But wait, there's a catch. Re-Load is actually just 13 songs that Metallica recorded at the same time as Load which have been sitting around waiting to be released for the last 12 months.

It's a shame that these songs didn't appear on Load, since most of them are a lot better than the songs on that album.

The opening track, "Fuel," is one of their heaviest and fastest songs since "Battery," off Master of Puppets.

In fact, most of the songs on this album are heavier and faster than anything on Load, which was bogged down with way too many slow songs like "The House That Jack Built" and "Bleeding Me."

Of the 13 tracks, ones to avoid include "Bad Seed," "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Low Man's Lyric," making Re-Load far from perfect. Also of questionable taste is "The Memory Remains," which starts off like you'd expect with Metallica, but ends with some weird chanting that sounds like it's coming from the Hare Krishna in "Airplane!"

The best of the rest includes "Devil's Dance," "Better Than You," "Slither," "Prince Charming," "Attitude" and the one decent slow song, "The Unforgiven II." (Who says sequels are never any good?)

Re-Load isn't a trip back to the days of And Justice For All, but it's certainly a sign that Metallica hasn't lost their edge just yet.

- Chris Jackson