The Petra Zone

Lately some have been talking in the "Adonai" thread about some of the like/dislike of Petra's albums so here is my take on my top 5 & bottom 5 Petra albums.



TOP 5

1. Wake Up Call
2. More Power To Ya
3. JAH
4. Beyond Belief
5. On Fire!

honorable mention: This Means War!, PP2, Unseen Power

BOTTOM 5

1. No Doubt
2. Washes Whiter Than
3. Revival
4. Petra(1974)
5. God Fixation

dishonorable mention: Come & Join Us, PP1, Never Say Die

best (In Order)
1) Beyond Belief
2) Unseen Power
3) J&K
4) On Fire
5) Beat the System

not so much (In Order of most disliked to least)
1) Petra
2) Double Take
3) Come and Join Us
4) Washes Whiter Than
5) Wake Up Call

Worst of the Worst Petra Records IMNSHO:

1. Petra
2. Come and Join Us
3. Washes Whiter Than
4. Back To The Street
5. Petra Praise, The Rock Cries Out
6. Double Take
7. Revival (NOT a Petra record)
8. Farewell (HUGE Let down)
9. God Fixation (It's ok, just not a Petra record. More of a Schlitt solo record)

Sorry, could not limit them to 5.

Best Petra Records

1. More Power To Ya (Broke the band into the market, shook the Christian world up on multiple levels)
2. Captured In Time And Space (Because it encapsulated the other great tunes and was at that time the best sounding Christian Live album with no overdubs)
3. Wake Up Call (The most organic record since JDB era recordings)
4. Jekyll & Hyde (This is really a record for the 90s, but beggars can't be choosy)
5. Back To The Rock (Put the book end on the band so it can fade away into the sunset and gave fans some ear candy and closure)

Oh look! It's another list. I'll play along.

• BEST
  1. Beyond Belief
  2. More Power to Ya
  3. On Fire!
  4. Not of This World
  5. Back to the Rock
  
  WORST
  5. Beat the System
  4. Come and Join Us
  3. Washes Whiter Than
  2. God Fixation
  1. Double Take

Best:
1. This Means War
2. Beyond Belief
3. Not of this World
4. Wake up Call
5. No Doubt

Worst:
1. Petra
2. Come and Join Us
3. Washes Whiter than
4. Revival
5. CITAS or PP2

Best:

More Power To Ya
This Means War
On Fire
Beyond Belief
Unseen Power

Worst:

Washes Whiter Than
No Doubt
Double Take
God Fixation
Back to the Street (if I have to add a 5th)

In no particular order...

Top 5:

This Means War
More Power To Ya
Beyond Belief
Beat The System
On Fire!

Bottom 5:

Double Take
God Fixation
Petra (1974)
Come and Join Us
Revival

I find it really interesting to read that people find albums like Back to the Street and Beat the System to be worse than Petra (1974) or Revival. I guess that's why we read forums like this.

1. Unseen Power
1. Wake Up Call
3. On Fire
4. More Power To Ya
4. Jekyll & Hyde
Honorable Mentions: This Means War and Beyond Belief

UP and WUC are tied as my top faves. On Fire comes in at #3 because I would choose to listen to that album over MPTY. MPTY lands in the 4 slot because most of the early Petra songs that I'm really familiar with and really enjoy come from that album. J&H is a great album. I would choose to listen it over MPTY, however I probably give it biased love because it is the most recent album, and they play some of it live. Therefore it ties at #4.
TMY gets an honorable mention because it was my first real exposure to Schlitt era Petra. I don't own
any compilations, so if I want a Petra fix, it's albums only. BB is a great album, and the movie was cool, but I'm not reaching for it to listen to it. I only own it because I got it from a discount rack. So it gets an HM.

I'm not enough of a fan of Petra's entire history to do a worst of list. If I did, there's a good chance it would include DD and GF. It would not include any of the praise albums, and it definitely would not include No Doubt. I really like the title track, and I like several other songs on there. Plus Bob does some fine guitar work.

Best:
1/2:Beat the System
2/1:This Means War!
3: On Fire!
4: Back to the Street (not perfect, but still good)
5: Beyond Belief

6: Unseen Power
7: Jekyll & Hyde
8: Not of this World
9: More Power to Ya
10: Wake-Up Call
11: Washes Whiter Than
12: Never Say Die
13: No Doubt
14: God Fixation
15: Petra

Worst:
16: Come And Join Us
17: Revival
18: PP1: The Rock Cries Out
19: Double Take
20: PP2: We Need Jesus (The worst music ever made)

Where these would be:
Back to the Rock: 6b
Farewell: 17b

Notice that WUC still gets #10

I don't know about PP2 being the worst music ever made. Ever hear of Cindy Lauper?

Best
Wake-Up Call
Beyond Belief
Jekyll & Hyde
Petra Praise 2: We Need Jesus
Unseen Power

Worst
There are no bad Petra albums, just ones that are not as good.

In no particular order

Top 5
More Power to Ya
Not of this World
Beyond Belief
Unseen Power
Wake-Up Call/Beat the System (couldn't pick)

Bottom 5
Anything after No Doubt

TOP 5
Beyond Belief
Not of this World
On Fire!
Wake-Up Call
Jekyll & Hyde


BOTTOM 5
Back to the Street
Washes Whiter Than
Petra
Double Take
Petra Praise: The Rock Cries Out


I don't consider any of their albums bad, though, but there are some I enjoy less than others. However, I own all of them and I can listen to all of them on a regular basis. I would also say that every album has AT LEAST one good/great song, most of them have several, if not all.

Top 6 (aka Albums I go back to time and again)
Beyond Belief
Unseen Power
On Fire
More Power to Ya
This Means War
J&H

Bottom 6 (aka Albums I rarely have the urge to listen to)
Double Take
God Fixation
Washes Whiter Than
Wakeup Call
No Doubt
Petra

Top 5:
1. WUX
2. MSOIJA
3. MMSSO
4. IAO
5. MAOJS

Bottom 5:
1. YYGGA
2. KAS
3. IPP
4. QLSS
5. MMAA