Dysfunctional
| Dysfunctional | ||||
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| Dokken studio album | ||||
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Publication |
1995 |
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admission |
1994 |
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| Label (s) | Columbia Records | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
54:42 |
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| occupation | ||||
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Don Dokken, Michael Wagener |
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Dysfunctional is the fifth studio album by the US hard rock band Dokken , released in 1995 . It is the first album that the band recorded for their comeback after the breakup announced in 1989 .
Emergence
Dokken had split up in 1989, and the musicians had gone their own ways in order to continue their careers: Don Dokken recorded the album Up From the Ashes under his own name , which was not a great success, guitarist George Lynch founded together with Dokken -Drummer Mick Brown the group Lynch Mob , with which he tried to build on old successes and with two albums in 1990 and 1992 could reach positions 46 and 56 on the Billboard 200 . Bassist Jeff Pilson initially ran the War and Peace project and joined the band Dio in 1993 .
Don Dokken wrote songs for another solo album in 1993 . He called the album recorded in his studio Dysfunctional , but when it came to negotiating a deal with Columbia Records, John Kalodner advised him to get George Lynch back and market the album as a Dokken CD. Although the tension between Dokken and Lynch had caused the split in 1989, both sides agreed to resolve their differences. In 1995 the band found their previous line-up (Dokken, Lynch, Pilson, Brown) together again; Lynch rewrote and recorded the guitar parts.
Don Dokken took over the production of Dysfunctional ; he produced the songs Shadows of Life , Sweet Chains , Lesser of two Evils and What Price together with the German producer Michael Wagener . Wagener was also originally involved in the production of Inside Looking Out , The Maze , Too High to Fly , Nothing Left to Say and Long Way Home , but the tracks were re-produced by Don Dokken.
The finished album contains eleven tracks, of which only Sweet Chains was written by Don Dokken alone - at least one of the other three band members was involved in the songwriting of the remaining tracks (with the exception of the song From the Beginning ). From the Beginning is the cover version of a song that Greg Lake wrote for the Emerson Lake and Palmer album Trilogy in 1972. In Japan the album was released with the additional title When the Good Die Young .
Too High to Fly was released as a single .
reception
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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Daniel Böhm wrote that the comeback “does not defy the changed musical landscape, but rather reflects it” . The album was "considerably more melancholy in the basic mood" , but "old trademarks of the band come together with hearty riffs and polyphonic Beatles melodies" , which in combination "often reminds of the more melodic King's X" .
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic.com commented on the album that it was "more of a marketing move than an inspired musical collaboration". He also noted that Don Dokken's voice was "worn out over the years" , that he could "no longer afford to sell mediocre material just because of his charisma." Lynch's guitar solos also sound to Erlewine as if they had been "copied into after the songs were recorded" .
The German music magazine Rock Hard gave the album 8 out of 10 points and judged:
“ With all its current trends, the music scene has by no means left the band untouched, but they haven't made the mistake of countless other combos of putting the previous trademarks aside in the course of their own further development. In 1995, Dokken grooved a lot harder than in earlier times, and I wouldn't have thought the band could do a song like King's X's 'Hole In My Head' in this form. However, like its predecessors, the album is dominated by Dokken's excellent vocals and George Lynch's exquisite guitar playing. And not only with songs that consistently continue the old Dokken line ('Nothing Left To Say' or 'Too High To Fly'), but above all with tracks that when heard for the first time do not fit into the quartet's earlier concept want to fit. The 'Sweet Chains' with psychedelic passages or the gloomy 'What Price' that initially sounded like the Doors are the best examples for this thesis, because despite new influences the band has retained its recognition value. There are eight big points for this successful balancing act and for the fact that Lynch blows all head socks, goatees and flannel shirt wearers who are currently up to mischief on the wall with his guitar playing. "
The album peaked at number 47 on the Billboard 200; it failed to reach the charts in the UK and Germany .
Track list
- 4:08 - Inside Looking Out (Dokken, Pilson)
- 4:33 - Hole in My Head (Brown, Dokken, Pilson)
- 4:50 - The Maze (Dokken, Lynch, Pilson)
- 7:10 - Too High to Fly (Dokken, Lynch)
- 4:30 - Nothing Left to Say (Dokken, Pilson)
- 4:33 - Shadows of Life (Dokken, Pilson)
- 5:12 - Long Way Home (Dokken, Lynch, Pilson)
- 5:46 - Sweet Chains (Dokken)
- 4:03 - Lesser of Two Evils (Dokken, Lynch, Pilson)
- 5:45 - What Price (Brown, Dokken, Pilson)
- 4:12 - From the Beginning ( Greg Lake )
Bonus track of the CD released in Japan:
- 4:55 - When the Good Die Young (George Lynch) - 4:55
Web links
Dysfunctional at Allmusic (English). Retrieved July 1, 2011.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Metal Dreams Interview with Don Dokken ( Memento from March 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Liner Notes of the album
- ↑ Charts US
- ↑ Review: Rocks - The magazine for Classic Rock , issue 01/2012, page 60.
- ↑ Allmusic.com Review
- ↑ Rock Hard , Volume 97 (1995)