The Petra Zone

Favourite Petra Album 1990-2003

This is an odd grouping, perhaps you should have done 90-99. It's not fair to pit JH against Petra prime... Petra Prime, sounds like another best of album?

zman7720000 wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 18, 2018 2:22 pm

This is an odd grouping, perhaps you should have done 90-99. It's not fair to pit JH against Petra prime... Petra Prime, sounds like another best of album?

Then Beyond Belief wouldn't have any competition

Wake Up Call. After years of the over-processed Elefante sound (which I do enjoy despite it all), this was such a breath of fresh air. It sounds like real musicians playing real instruments in a real studio. One of Petra's best, and best sounding albums. It's a great ensemble album with four of the five band members writing songs for it, and it's also one of the few Petra albums to feature Louie's actual playing.

1. BB
2. UP
3. J&H
4. WUC
I was really disappointed when WUC was released. I can listen to it now, but I loved the Elefante sound, call me crazy.

I must agree, WUC may be their best sounding (sonically) ever. Most certainly of the Schlitt era. It has aged very well! It may not be as memorable as say, On Fire - Unseen Power, but the sound holds up better.

Mountain Man wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 18, 2018 4:13 pm

Wake Up Call. After years of the over-processed Elefante sound (which I do enjoy despite it all), this was such a breath of fresh air. It sounds like real musicians playing real instruments in a real studio. One of Petra's best, and best sounding albums. It's a great ensemble album with four of the five band members writing songs for it, and it's also one of the few Petra albums to feature Louie's actual playing.

zman7720000 wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 18, 2018 2:22 pm

This is an odd grouping, perhaps you should have done 90-99. It's not fair to pit JH against Petra prime... Petra Prime, sounds like another best of album?

Petra Prime. Sounds like one of those Transformers where the five robots join to make one huge, amazing robot. I feel another discussion coming. Which five members would you use for Petra Prime, and what part of the the robot would each member form?

I really need to get out of the house and get some fresh air.

John Boy wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 19, 2018 6:31 am

zman7720000 wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 18, 2018 2:22 pm

This is an odd grouping, perhaps you should have done 90-99. It's not fair to pit JH against Petra prime... Petra Prime, sounds like another best of album?

Petra Prime. Sounds like one of those Transformers where the five robots join to make one huge, amazing robot. I feel another discussion coming. Which five members would you use for Petra Prime, and what part of the the robot would each member form?

I really need to get out of the house and get some fresh air.

Petra, to me, is defined primarily by two line ups:

Greg Volz
Bob Hartman
John Slick
Mark Kelly
Louie Weaver

and

John Schlitt
Bob Hartman
John Lawry
Ronny Cates
Louie Weaver

PiedPiper wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 18, 2018 4:29 pm

I loved the Elefante sound, call me crazy.

I like it, too, despite my criticisms of it. It was how "The Industry" made music in the 90s, and in that context, they're great sounding albums, but they also sound like a product of their time and don't have that timeless organic quality that the Johnathan David Brown albums and Wake Up Call have. It's the same reason The Beatles catalog still sounds great today despite its age.

Although the production of WUC was more "pure", the songs are among me least favourite with a couple of exceptions. Even GF has more songs for me to enjoy, even though I wasn't a fan of the sound.

Currently, UP is among my fav's. Yah, it's overproduced is a way, and Hand on my Heart is a bit cheesy, but from start to finish, it's one of the most thorough listens of any Petra album.

Unseen Power starts off strong but swings a bit adult contemporary in the second half.

I can't say there are any songs on Wake Up Call that I don't like. "Midnight Oil", "Praying Man", "Underneath the Blood", "Sleeping Giant", "Marks of the Cross", and "Just Reach Out" are all instant classics in my opinion. Producer Brown Bannister said when making the album that he wanted one good song after another and not one or two radio hits with the remainder comprised of filler tracks, and I think he succeeded.

St_Augustines_Pears wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 19, 2018 4:46 am

God Fixation

Really?

St_Augustines_Pears wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 19, 2018 4:46 am

God Fixation

The thing with God Fixation is that "If I Had to Die for Someone" is good and "St. Augustine's Pears" is really good. Pears is so good in fact that I think it could go head to head with just about any other Petra song. It's at least a 9... but the rest of the album is just not up to the Petra standard. In reviewing it on Wikipedia I was not at all surprised to learn that much of is was indeed written by people other than Bob. Contrast that if you will with Hyde I'm not sure but do think that most of it was composed by Bob.

God Fixation was ok, but I think it's main problem was that it didn't rock hard enough. Wake Up call had a few good songs (Midnight Oil, Underneath the Blood, Good News, Just Reach Out), but I don't think it was as good as UP and BB. Also I think it wasn't quite as hard a rocker as UP and BB.