Mad at the World - "Flowers in the Rain"

Mad at the World - Flowers in the Rain
1988, Frontline

1. Fearfully & Wonderfully
2. Flowers in the Rain
3. Why?
4. Puppet Strings
5. No Mistakes
6. Wait
7. I Don't Wanna Go There
8. Faith is a Perfect Road
9. In My Dream
10. Love Light in the Midnight
11. This Lie
12. Dancing On Your Grave

Since I first got into Mad at the World with Boomerang I never listened to Flowers in the Rain...until now! Actually I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. The band starts to add some more hard rock elements to their sound on this record previewing what would happen with Seasons of Love. It seems like for the first half of the album they do a techno-pop song, then do a rock song, then back to a pop song. On the second half of the album they seem to combine both approaches and these are the songs that I find more compelling. I love tracks like "In My Dream" and "This Lie." It almost makes me wish they would have experimented a little bit more with this type of techno/rock fusion - it was quite interesting. There are some cheesy lyrics here and there but nothing that turned me off the music. Probably the biggest problem with this disc is the wafer thin production. The sound of the guitars is so thin they're barely audible. Also, it sounds like there's almost no bass to speak of. This kind of electronic music needs a little more bass I say. Glad I finally checked this out!

Useless Fact: It looks like Rose brother Ray is actually featured as a member on this album. That makes three Rose brothers on an MATW disc - a record, I believe.

Mad at the World - "The Dreamland Cafe"

Mad at the World - The Dreamland Cafe
1995, Frontline

1. On the Stage
2. The Dreamland Cafe
3. Floating Down a River
4. I Need You
5. Still a Way to Heal
6. Another One is Fooled Again
7. Living in the Shadows
8. This is How We Get To Heaven
9. Don't End Your Dreams
10. If It Were the Last Day

Okay... remember that consistency I was talking about? Well... it's not on this one. Abandoning fully the hard rock style the band now embraces an alternative style heavily influenced in 60's pop. I like "On the Stage" and "The Dreamland Cafe" but after that I just can't get into this one. It's too much of a stretch... and really, I don't think the songs are as good. Also, the lyrics are kind of on "love" overload. It's like they had a competition to see how many times they could cram the word "love" in the lyrics. Eh... definitely my least favorite here. This was also their last official album.

Useless Fact: Roger's got some solo material that sounds more like this, so if you like this then you might want to check out his stuff.

Mad at the World - "The Ferris Wheel"

Mad at the World - The Ferris Wheel

1993, Frontline

1. Not the Same

2. Eyes of Heaven

3. Jesus Lead Me

4. No Secrets

5. When Life Has a Plan

6. Going Nowhere Again

7. Losing Game

8. All My Life

9. The Love

10. Inside of Heaven's Gate

The band refines their sound a little moving in a more alternative rock direction but it's nothing drastic and certain far from a sell out or anything. I actually like this one just fine - it's probably my favorite release from these guys. I like to see Roger and Randy trade off vocals on "No Secrets," I wish that they would have done that more often. Randy is also extending his vocal range on "The Love," which, again, I think is pretty cool.

Useless Fact: There is a video of "Eyes of Heaven" out there on YouTube.

Mad at the World - "Through the Forest"

Mad at the World - Through the Forest

1992, Frontline

1. That Lonesome Road

2. Trapped

3. Lost In the Forest

4. If I Lose My Way

5. Always Be My Love

6. M.A.T.W. (Reprise)

7. Alone

8. I've Got a Heaven

9. I'll Never Go Back There

10. If I Can Dream

This was Mad at the World's most popular and successful album. And guess what? It's full of the same quality hard rock the band has been putting out for a few years. Probably the only song I really can't stand is "I've Got a Heaven" because, man, is that one boring ballad. Don't care for that one at all. Other than that - another great one from a great band.

Useless Fact: This disc has another song from the band's debut, "M.A.T.W." I don't know what kind of pop song it was, but it makes a stellar rock song.

Mad at the World - "Boomerang"

Mad at the World - Boomerang

1991, Alarma

1. House of Sin

2. If You Listen

3. Back to You

4. Don't Give Up

5. Ballad of Adam and Eve

6. Sunday

7. Draggin' the Chains

8. All These Questions

9. Isn't Sex a Wonderful Thing?

10. No More Innocence (Reprise)

Mad at the World is a wonderfully consistent band. Boomerang isn't groundbreaking or legendary but it's every bit as good as the last one, maybe a bit better. I do like the songs here as a whole better than the last as well. Randy Rose has also finally settled on his Jim Morrison/Danzig style which I've always liked. This also includes a rock version of "No More Innocence" which I think was on their debut.

Useless Fact: In a recent interview in Down the Line ezine Roger Rose questions whether or not he was clear enough on the satirical "Isn't Sex a Wonderful Thing?" He's a better man than I because if it was me I would have called my detractors idiots who would find themselves far more enlightened about the song if they would simply open their eyes and carefully read the lyrics. But like I said, Roger's a better man than me.

Mad at the World - "Seasons of Love"

Mad at the World - Seasons of Love
1990, Alarma

1. The Narrow Road
2. Seasons of Love
3. City of Anger
4. When the Wind Blows
5. Marshmallow Land
6. Summer's Gone
7. Promised Land (The Deception of Drugs)
8. So Insane
9. It's Not a Joke
10. The Love That Never Fades
11. Seasons of Love (Reprise)

Seasons of Love sees the band finally excise the rest of their europop past and fully embrace hard rock. I think that was a good move because this is some pretty good stuff - simple hard rock, really. Vocalist Roger Rose has a slight feminine quality to his voice but sometimes he sounds a little like Alice Cooper. I think it's unique. Brother and drummer Randy Rose sings too but he hadn't really defined his vocal style yet on this record. My only problem is that a couple of songs are a little cheesy, specifically "Promised Land" and "So Insane" which are diatribes against drug use. That's okay but having lyrics like "Doing drugs is so insane!" is kind of cliche. I also think that they should have used the "Seasons of Love (Reprise)" as the second track instead of the original acoustic one. Having that ballad after the hard rocking "Narrow Road" is kind of a gear shift. Still a great rock record though.

Useless Fact: The reason why the band switch styles was because they thought it was just easier to do live shows with the hard rock style.