most under rated album

[pmal]

Come and Join Us. In fact, the first three on the list are so underrated it's not even funny. At least several from No Doubt had airplay ... Revival would probably be the next best to have not gotten any exposure for a great album. I didn't care for God Fixation except for one song, St. Augustine's Pears ...

[Shell]

God Fixation is very underrated, there are some very good songs on that particular album/CD.

[shawnpfan01]

I agree God Fixation is a great album.

[pmal]

I know I've said this before and I'm sorry, but God Fixation and Double Take caused Petra irrepairable audience harm. They both were shadows of the Petra we all know and love. They were disasters. The few audiences that still knew Petra and weren't die hard fans didn't like those albums and the new youth culture that heard Petra for the first time didn't like their sound. I'm a diehard fan and I still didn't like those albums, so what does that say about people who weren't? Remember, there were three years between No Doubt and God Fixation. Plus, No Doubt wasn't exactly a popular album itself. Even John has said that album was under appreciated. You really have to go back to Wake Up Call to find an album where the average joe really loved Petra for a Rock Album. Petra Praise, doesn't count. For the teenage crowd on whom christian rock radio is based, that's a whole generation of listeners. Then, to follow that up with Double Take, it was too much to recover from in my opinion. When Revival hit the stores, no teenager knew who Petra was anymore and that had been their market up until that point. What those two albums taught people was that Petra wasn't rock and couldn't produce a quality, up to date modern rock album anymore. It wasn't until Jekyll and Hyde that Petra finally released a good rock album again and then it was like they were starting over. The only success those albums had was the Double Take grammy, which, I think, caused the industry, indirectly, to resent Petra because Petra had won that grammy when not a single song on the album charted. That's the first time I ever heard that Petra was an "old" band deserving of lifetime achievement, rather than a best album award. From that point on, nobody on radio cared that Petra was releasing Revival or Jekyll&Hyde except for radio people that grew up with Petra.

Since there is no classic rock radio for CCM and since ccm rock radio has totally abandoned their history like it doesn't exist, there was no longer anywhere for Petra to go except to fund it all themselves. That's a whole other discussion as to why CCM just thinks that when you are 30-40, you just give up liking rock anymore and just switch to Steven Curtis, Michael W., and the Gaithers.

Anyway, there, I said it. I love Petra and I like every other album they have ever done except for those two. Maybe I am just crazy.

[shawnpfan01]

I did not like God Fixation at first but over time it grew on me. There are some really deep songs on that album.

I think Double Take was to much of a different sound, if they would have just mondernized the songs, I think it would have been a better album. I do like the song The Longing, but to take the old songs and change them so much didn't do any good.

I agree that both albums really did not gain new fans, some die hard fans probably left them. I think if they would have done Jekeyl and Hyde first and then another rock album after that, then they might still be around today.

I think they went to the well one to many times with Revival. Not one that I listen to very often.

Just my two cents worth.

[pmal]

I actually like Revival. I just think album as one that is more for the adult crowd. I still count myself as a youngster at 34. Something about those other two that just got me. I just didn't like the melodys is the deal, they just seemed too mono-tonish. I actually like to listen to Revival now and then but St. Augustine's Pears is the only song I really like off God Fixation. Even the best songs off Double Take (Beat the System and This Means War) aren't songs that I would pick to listen to right off. I could listen to "Send Revival", "Jesus, Friend of Sinners", "Meet With Me", "We Want to See Jesus Lifted High", and "How Long" any day of the week ...

[shawnpfan01]

I wonder how much the record label had to do with the sounds of the two albums??

[separateunion]

Due to grunge and the 90s alternative movement, the music landscape changed completely. Petra had to change. The style they were playing was outdated and no one liked it anymore. The two popular routes they could have gone were the alternative/post-grunge route, which I don't think they had the creativity or versatility to do, or acoustic rock route, which is sort of what they attempted to do. It backfired, but I don't think going the alternative route would have been any better. This idea that if they'd just kept doing what they were doing in the 80s and early 90s, they'd still be successful has no basis in reality.

[St_Augustines_Pears]

GOD FIXATION, followed by REVIVAL.

In fact, I think REVIVAL is the best of the three "praise" albums.

[knotodiswrld]

When I first heard "God Fixation", I just plain didn't like it. I think I was wanting another "Midnight Oil" or "On Fire".

But, I never got rid of the CD. A few years later I picked up the CD again and for some reason listened to it one more time. Maybe I had just grown up some.

But that time, I realized that while it was very different from what they had done before, it was really a good CD, with some great songs.

[micah]

Yeah. St Augustine's Pears and Invitation are fantastic. The others are a bit more so-so but are nice to hear sometimes.

[brothertom]

Perhaps I had the advantage (or disadvantage) of being a late comer to the Petra party. But the first time I heard Doubletake, I thought it was one of the more creative efforts I have heard. I had not solidified the original versions of these songs as the 'standard' at that point, and was able to appreciate what I thought was a clever re-imagining of the songs. I absolutely agree with some of the points about negatively impacting Petra's marketability, but then I never have been one to go for the most popular stuff. It is very different from what one might expect from Petra. Sounds like I hold the minority opinion here, but that feeds in to why I think Doubletake is Petra's most underrated CD.

[executioner]

I think the 2 albums that did the most harm to Petra was No Doubt and Revival. No Doubt was such a departure from the previous outings. Yes I agree they needed to change to some degree to fit the 90's mold, but No Doubt harmed them beyond repair and they never recovered. No Doubt and Revival both lost me because of the drums being drowned out on the production.

[rexreed]

The most under rated for me on the list has to be No Doubt. I think it was the the first tour without a couple key members (Bob and John L?) and the music scene had switched to grunge. There are some great tracks on the album but no one seemed to care anymore. Personally Wake up Call did the most damage. The prior three non Praise albums went On Fire (awesome), Beyond Belief (awesome + 2), Unseen Power (back down to awesome) and then Wake up Call( uhhh, ok I guess). I mean really, there are some decent songs on the album but a couple of real clunkers and the sound, well it sounded really watered down. It barely sounded like a Rock and Roll band. Thank goodness they never used that producer again. So for me No Dount was a pleasant return to some good ole rock!

[separateunion]

The most under rated for me on the list has to be No Doubt. I think it was the the first tour without a couple key members (Bob and John L?) and the music scene had switched to grunge.

Uh, grunge was dying in 1995, if not already dead.