Faster Pussycat Wake Me When It's Over
⭐ 5/10
Wake Me When It's Over Track Listing
The Hit: House of Pain video
You can feel the heartache pour out of the blue-toned video
It works, Youtube doesn't have a thumbnail
One of the few [hair metal][/hair-metal/] band videos that does not directly (or indirectly) flaunt scantilly clad women.
A handful of decent tunes and that's about it.
Wake Me When It's Over notes
When There's a Whip, There's a Way
Interesting tune to lead off here on Wake Me When It's Over. Taime Downe constructs some interesting vocal runs on When There's a Whip, There's a Way. This song is almost 7 minutes long (6:46). Feels like they just don't get bad ass enough with the main riff (which has a G'n'R feel).
Definitely an interesting outro. Harder and all around tougher.
Little Dove
This song has a little bit of everything in it. Some 70s Aerosmith, 80s Guns'n'Roses, and some 90s grunge. Drawn out outro.
Poison Ivy
Decent riff. Good bar band tune to drink whiskey to. Stacy and Michals finally have stuff to do. Savigar tickles the ivories good on Poison Ivy. Taime Downe keeps the vocals fun. Wake Me When It's Over might be a better album if they were all like Poison Ivy.
Yay! The drums and vocals chorus. Every album should have one song that employs this. You can hear a bit of horn wanting to creep into the mix.
Not a bad tune. Not a bad tune at all.
House of Pain
Power ballad! Guess where? Track 4. Always track 4. Zavala with some appropriate harmonica for this sad diddy. House of Pain HAS to be the reason that Wake Me When It's Over achieved "gold" status.
Downe's timbre really drives this tune. His voice was made for this exact song.
House of Pain always reminds me of The Ballad of Jayne (LA Guns) and vice versa. Different lyrical content, but same sound. Funny story about The Ballad of Jayne, I remember Tracii Guns having short hair in the video. Well, shorter. It was a revelation.
Gonna Walk
The most featured Eric Stacy is on the entire album comes through here in Gonna Walk. Not technically difficult, but some enjoyable guitar work. Gonna Walk has some potential.
Namechecks New Orleans. Unsure why. I like the chorus. Faster Pussycat really chose the wrong decade to write a blues album. Gonna Walk is one of the better songs on the album.
Blatantly referencing ZZ Top is a double edged sword (a double necked guitar would be better)
Pulling Weeds
Steele and Muscat have a fun little boogie thing going on here. Nice chromatic runs in Pulling Weeds. Definitely not a typical hair band solo in this one. Forgettable lyrics. Not a bad false ending to Pulling Weeds.
Slip of the Tongue
Faster Pussycat channels [Open Up and Say ... Ahh!][/poison/open-up-and-say-ahh/] on Slip of the Tongue, especially in the chorus. Look what the cat dragged in ... a faster pussycat! Ohhh, 80s hair metal puns kill me. Just before the 3 minute mark on Slip of the Tongue, Stacy gets to build a groove while Downe raps out a few words.
Cryin' Shame
Faster Pussycat is more like Slow Hand Blues Pussycat on Cryin' Shame. Here is where the album title came from. Basic blues solo, only made interesting by a harmonizer pedal. Greg Steele and Brent Muscat treat Cryin' Shame like a fundamentals warmup.
Tattoo
Is this Great White? Sounds like it. Wake Me When It's Over was a bit ahead of it's time on some songs with a very 1994 Empire Records sound. Tattoo is one such song. Jimmy Zavala dropping in to say hi on the horns. This song would probably be better off without the guitar solo.
Come to think of it, Tattoo is a low rent Dyslexic Heart (Paul Westerberg) from the [Singles soundtrack][/soundtrack/singles/]. Listen for yourself.
Hey Kids, it's Jeremy Piven! (with less hair)
Ain't No Way Around It
Started a bit wobbly. Good rockin' riff. Zavala's harmonica solo might be the best solo yet (and to come for that matter).
Arizona Indian Doll
Blindsided by Faster Pussycat going for "cool" on Arizona Indian Doll. It ... kinda works. They employ more of Kevin Savigar than I remembered back in the day. Makin' love where the buffalo roam ... might be the best lyric on Wake Me When It's Over.
Please Dear
Sounds like House of Pain 2. Kevin Savigar makes an appearance on keys in Please Dear. Wow, that Eric Stacy bass solo part was very uninspiring. If Please Dear and House of Pain were twins, then Please Dear is the Danny DeVito to House of Pain's Arnold Schwarzenegger.
(Holy smokes, they are making a sequel called Triplets!?)
I truly hope Mark Michaels didn't need more than one pass to nail the lackluster drums in this song.
Please Dear is not a great way to close an album ...
More Wake Me When It's Over Details
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