Review by Daniel for Extreme - II Pornograffitti (1990)

Like most people, I think I first heard mention of Boston hard rockers Extreme through their 1990 sophomore album “II Pornograffitti”. I believe our paths may first have crossed when I won a copy of their “Decadence Dance” promotional cassingle on a local Sydney radio program. I can’t say that it did a lot for me to be honest but the skill sets of guitar virtuoso Nuno Bettencourt certainly weren’t lost on me. The “More Than Words” single blew up in a major way shortly afterwards & I took the opportunity to grab a dubbed copy of the album from a school mate, determined to hear more of what this Bettencourt character had to offer. He didn’t disappoint either but the album as a whole didn’t really connect with me like I’d hoped & I haven’t revisited it since so it’s about time to see how time has treated it.

Extreme certainly seemed like a band that were determined to make it big. They’d signed with a fairly major label in California’s A&M with their self-titled debut being released in 1989 & passing most people by. The band member’s lives would all change shortly afterwards though & they’d be household names only a year or two later. Extreme had done well to keep a very solid line-up together as it would have been so easy for it to all fall to pieces but they made it through to their sophomore record with A&M investing in former Accept guitarist Michael Wagener to oversee the production duties. Wagener already had some production runs on the board with releases like Dokken’s “Breakin’ The Chains” & “Under Lock & Key”, Keel & Skid Row’s self-titled albums & Stryper’s “Soldiers Under Command” all appearing on his resume by that point which kinda gives you an indication that the label had plans for a fairly commercially accessible release too. If that was the case then they would have been very happy with the outcome because “II Pornograffitti” was very much the radio hit they’d been hoping for, Wagener& Bettencourt’s production efforts amounting to a shiny collection of unintimidating, MTV-friendly songs that both your dad & your little sister could get their head around very comfortably.

“II Pornograffitti” is currently tagged as a funk metal release on the Metal Academy database which seems like a grossly misguided assessment of the album to be honest. If it was going to qualify as funk metal then one would have thought that it would a) be remotely funky & b) be an actual metal release. Neither of these things are true with “II Pornograffitti” sitting far more comfortably in the glam metal space than anything else. You can also expect to hear a examples of pop rock here & there for added commercial impact. The flashy guitar work of former Satellite Party axeman Bettencourt is the clear link to metal & he absolutely slays here, bringing to mind the elite exponents of his craft like Eddie Van Halen & George Lynch in the process. The rhythm section of bassist Pat Badger & drummer Paul Geary lay down a rock-solid platform for him to work off & had both clearly paid their dues by this point while former Van Halen front man Gary Cherone contributes a charismatic performance that would quickly see him making a name for himself in the industry.

Despite the musical talent on show though, I struggle with the blatant commercialism & the lack of substance in a lot of this material which was so clearly still targeting a Sunset Strip party crowd. The consistent use of cheesy gang vocals & bubblegum chorus hooks doesn’t help things much & neither do the sleazy lyrical innuendos. I guess I just expected a bit more from these guys to be honest as there are some hints at what they were capable of in highlights such as the glam metal stomper “Li’l Jack Horny” or acoustic pop rocker “Hole Hearted” (my personal favourite). “It(‘s A Monster)”, the title track & the super shredding “He-Man Woman Hater” are all pretty enjoyable too but then you also have to sift through disposable filler such as the vocal jazz track “When I First Kissed You”, the grossly overrated folk pop of Extreme’s calling card “More Than Words” & the God-awful pop rock of “Song For Love” which sounds far too much like it should have been played at the end of a Bill & Ted movie instead of KISS’ “God Gave Rock ‘n’ Roll To You”.

I think it’s fair to say that I wasn’t the target audience for this record & I seriously doubt that Extreme ever intended me to be either as they were far better suited to a crowd that lived for bands like Living Colour, Electric Boys & Bang Tango. The links to metal are tenuous at best but I doubt Extreme give the slightest fuck as they’ve built a long-term career that still sees them touring Australian shores all these decades later off the back of this album. It certainly needs to be asked whether it should stay on the Metal Academy database though.