Best of "Helpyourselfish" by D-A-D....well, the whole album!! ("IMHO")

Imo, this is one of the maybe 3 best "Hard rock"-releases from a danish band (the other 2 would be the first FATE-album and the first album from a band called Dizzy Miss Lizzy), and it's definetly the heaviest album, D.A.D. ever made. They still exsist, but I don't think, they will make an album like this again.

A little history:

D-A-D began playing together in the early 1980s in Copenhagen, Denmark, under their original band name Disneyland After Dark.D-A-D released their first EP in 1985 and has now been together for more than twenty-five years, with only one change in the lineup, as Laust Sonne replaced former drummer Peter Lundholm Jensen in 1999.When the group made their international breakthrough in 1989, they had to change the band name to D.A.D. to avoid an impending lawsuit from the Walt Disney Company. In 1995, the "spelling" changed to D:A:D, to make it more obvious that it was an abbreviation. Finally in 2000, the band story became one of advanced punctuation as the spelling was changed to the more internet-friendly D-A-D.The band released their first album, Call of the Wild in 1986.The group made their international breakthrough in 1989 with the record No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims, which was released on the band's 5th birthday. The album became the band's greatest success, and also gave the band a million dollar contract with Warner Bros.. The band was poised for great success in the United States, but the breakthrough didn't happen. They achieved some airplay with the single "Sleeping My Day Away", but in the end, the band gave up on the chance of making it big in the US, and concentrated on the European market.The band formed as a revolution against the pessimistic and arrogant attitude among punk musicians and their audience; they wanted to bring joy and life in their performances. Their signature sound was conceived during rehearsal, when bass-player, Stig tried to play a three-note riff with a different rhythm. The others joined in, the style known as cowpunk. The lyrics were made-up stories where abundant clichés were added as an ironic twist.

Helpyourselfish is the 5th studio, and was released on March 1, 1995 and the follow up album to the highly successful album Riskin' It All. It features a break from most D-A-D-albums, with a heavier sound.The release was met with great response in the Danish press where D:A:D and their new album were given lots of exposure. And for once even the critics were enthusiastic. With headlines such as “D:A:D gets serious” and “Metallic masterpiece” the reviews were overall very good. Unfortunately, the album did not get much airplay on the radio, but this was expected all along due to the harder style of music that had more edge than what most radio stations favor.

1."Reconstrucdead"

2."Written In Water"

3."Helpyourselfish"

4."Soulbender"

5."Unowned"

6."Candid"

7."Blood In/Out"

8."Prayin' To A God"

9."Naked (But Still Stripping)"

10."Are We Alive Here???"

11."It'swhenit'swrongit'sright"

12."Flat"

Best tracks (imo): Reconstrucdead, Written in water, Prayin' to a god.

"Hidden treassures": Soulbender, Candid, Are we alive here.

If you want to listen, and I know you will, then click here:

http://www.podsnack.com/published-players/details/?list&hash=1d...

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on March 18, 2011 at 3:19pm

This isn't bad, in fact some of it is quite decent. I liked the first 4 songs, with Soulbender being my favorite. I loved the line "I'm silent in seven languages". That's brilliant. The rest of the album dropped off for me. Musically, I like it a good bit, but I'm not crazy about the singer. In some spots it sounds a lot like Candlebox (vocally). Good post Niels.

P.S. Soulbender is a very cool song title and would also be a cool band name.