TOP 5/BOTTOM 5

[executioner]

The recent talk and post about Double Take has me thinking about what my top/bottom 5 Petra albums are. Let's see how much we agree/disagree.


BOTTOM 5
1. No Doubt- By far the worse album Petra has ever done, from sound to lineup changes put a doom on this one.

2. Washes Whiter Than- This is Petra trying to get traction in the market, and this one is forgetable.

3. Double Take- This should have been the start of the JAH Era, but instead continued the slide, and just wasn't Petra.

4. Revival- This could have started the JAH Era also, and this was same old stuff everyone was doing at the time. I believe this was the final nail.

5. Beat The System- Very popular album on inception, but now sounds very dated.I think the filler songs or secondary tracks are a lot better.

TOP 5
1. JAH- The more I listen the more I love the hooks and grooves of this Masterpiece. This is what Petra should've been doing since John L left.

2. MPTY- Most if not all of the tracks are instant classics.

3. Beyond Belief- Another instant classic, and a true band effort.

4. Wake Up Call- The production here is the best we have ever heard from Petra; the sound is timeless.

5. PP2- The best Praise album I've ever come across.

[Carolina Petra Fan]

Top 5 (in no particular order):
Jekyll & Hyde, 2003 [InPop]
Petra Praise 2: We Need Jesus, 1997 [Word]
Wake-Up Call, 1993 [Word]
Beyond Belief, 1990 [Word]
Come and Join Us, 1977 [Myrrh]

Bottom 3 (in no particular order):
Revival, 2001 [Inpop]
Double Take, 2000 [Word]
God Fixation, 1998 [Word]

[zman7720000]

I think that we have done this before, but here goes nothing!

Bottom

DT
GF
Farewell
Revival
BTTS

Top

CITAS
BTTR
MPTY
BB
WC

[Boray]

This is always hard but it goes something like this:

Bottom 5:
Double Take
Revival
Come and join us
Petra
Petra Praise 1

Top 5:
More Power to ya
Beat the system
Beyond belief
Never say die
On Fire

[thetoonguy]

I'm going to have to do do Top 6/Bottom 5 and even that is tough...

Bottom (in no order):
Petra Praise - The Rock Cries Out
Double Take
Revival
Petra
Washes Whiter Than

Top (in no order):
More Power To Ya
Jekyl & Hyde
Not Of This World
Beyond Belief
Beat The System
No Doubt

[PiedPiper]

Top 5:
Beyond Belief
On Fire!
This Means War!
More Power To Ya
J&H

Bottom 5:
Double Take
Petra (self titled)
Washes Whiter Than
God Fixation
Revival

[Preacherman777]

Top Five:
On Fire
Beyond Belief
More Power To Ya
This Means War
Never Say Die
And I'd like to add an honorable mention to Not of This World because I think that NSD, MPTY and NOTW are an outstanding trilogy of albums.

Bottom Five:
Double Take
Revival
No Doubt
God Fixation
Petra Praise 2

[PiedPiper]

Preacherman,
I considered all of the titles you listed and could have very easily had an identical list. It's much harder to do the top 5 than the bottom 5!
-PP

[reopugh]

Bottom 5
Petra Praise - The Rock Cries Out
Double Take
Revival
God Fixation
Washes Whiter Than

Top 5
Beyond Belief
Wake-Up Call
No Doubt
This Means War
Not of this World

[SCJ-7]

Top 5????
Very difficult to choose only five but here we go.

(In NO particular order):

1. More Power To Ya: Simply, the best Petra Album from the Greg's Era. The cover art of this album is my favorite... truly a masterpiece.

2. Jekyll & Hyde: Well, if you want to "destroy your speakers", simply put this awesome album in your music sound system and up... up... up... up... the volume button...

3. Beyond Belief: Not only is the best Petra Album (well, for many Petheads)... is, possibly, the best Christian Rock Album of all time.

4. Wake Up Call: This album is not as hard as On Fire or Beyond Belief, but is the best produced and the sound is excellent. Just Reach Out is my all-time favorite Petra song... the perfect ending for the 1987-1994 Era.

5. Petra Praise II: This album is not about rock music... this album is about JESUS. If you want to know about Jesus... put PP2 in your sound system...

Honorable Mentions: Never Say Die, Not of this World, This Means War, On Fire, and Unseen Power.

[Tutor23]

Best...
No Doubt - more great songs herein than appear on any other single album.

The others - well, let's just say there are great songs on all of them. Hard to choose by album; easier to choose by individual song.

Worst...
Again, certain individual songs would make my list, but hard to dis an entire album. Washes Whiter Than and the sand album are pretty bad when you hear them nowadays. But music has changed so much. And like anything else, one's musical skills and talent are developed over time; so the early years are hardly representative of the "real" Petra.

[Boray]

I'm a bit surprised that so many lists "Washes whiter than" in the bottom 5.

[neonpachyderm]

Top 5 (in no order):

This Means War!
Petra Praise: The Rock Cries Out
Jekyll and Hyde
On Fire!
Not of This World

Bottom 5 (still in no order, but DT is the worst):

Double Take
God Fixation
No Doubt
Farewell (not for content, but for production...great content, HORRIBLE sound)

that's actually about all I can do...dishonorable mention to all the Star Song compilations.

[andreasbjerre]

Bottom 5 in no particular order:

Petra: Production quality is bad, the musicianship not as good as it would later become and country-rock is not my cup of tea!

Come and join us: To me, this is still not really Petra. They need a real singer, though Greg did some vocals on this album...

Washed Whiter than: Doesn't Petra means ROCK????

The rock cries out: "I love the lord" and " I will call upon the lord" are great. The rest of it I don't like, especially the backing vocals are just too much...

Double Take: Some songs on the album are interesting, but most of them are not very likeable, especially if you start comparing to originals.

TOP 5 in no particular order (Sorry greg, I'm schlittfan) :

Beyond Belief: This is just a classic, and I think this is the album with the highest average quality of songs. EVERY single song on this album is great!

Jekyll and Hyde: This is rock n' roll! Killer riffs, killer schlitt vocals!

Unseen Power: Again another great album with lot's of great songs. Over time I have even become to like Who's on the lords side, because I think schlitt is a very funny- and coolsounding gospelchoir leader

God Fixation: Know people don't like this, but this is from the time I found out about Petra. And I really think there are very good songs on it like The invitation and St. augustins pears. It's just very different from the older petra

PP2: My first album, which makes it a very beloved one. Best praise album they did!

[michaelca]

Bottom 5 in no particular order:

Petra: Production quality is bad, the musicianship not as good as it would later become and country-rock is not my cup of tea!

Come and join us: To me, this is still not really Petra. They need a real singer, though Greg did some vocals on this album...

Washed Whiter than: Doesn't Petra means ROCK????

The rock cries out: "I love the lord" and " I will call upon the lord" are great. The rest of it I don't like, especially the backing vocals are just too much...

Double Take: Some songs on the album are interesting, but most of them are not very likeable, especially if you start comparing to originals.

TOP 5 in no particular order (Sorry greg, I'm schlittfan) :

Beyond Belief: This is just a classic, and I think this is the album with the highest average quality of songs. EVERY single song on this album is great!

Jekyll and Hyde: This is rock n' roll! Killer riffs, killer schlitt vocals!

Unseen Power: Again another great album with lot's of great songs. Over time I have even become to like Who's on the lords side, because I think schlitt is a very funny- and coolsounding gospelchoir leader

God Fixation: Know people don't like this, but this is from the time I found out about Petra. And I really think there are very good songs on it like The invitation and St. augustins pears. It's just very different from the older petra

PP2: My first album, which makes it a very beloved one. Best praise album they did!

Dude Petra and Come and Join us has excellent muscianship on it. JUst liten to the drummer and what he does. Very cool 70's rock. Infact I would go as far as saying the drumming on Petra's first and especially session musco John Hammond on every single track on Never Say Die is way more real than anything John and Dino did with Louies stuff....( Louie can play not dnying that though....)