The Petra Zone

It still boggle my mind how Christian labels tended to get carried away releasing best of albums from artists like Petra and Whiteheart. It was nice when they added some liner notes or some new cover art, but still fairly deplorable. Then this happenned https://www.amazon.com/Same-Man-Matthew ... rachel+loy
They used a stock photo? cheap!

Stock images, yuck.

The cover art industry died with the LP.

Apart from Petraphonics, there really isn't any Petra compilation worth getting. But what was the reason for one anyway? Petra albums are almost always either all good or all bad, so you if you like one song from an album, you should like the rest.

Mountain Man wrote:The cover art industry died with the LP.

Good reason to get LPs!

fiendik wrote:Apart from Petraphonics, there really isn't any Petra compilation worth getting.

What does make that one worth getting? Not the medley, right?

Still Means War at least has remastered songs. To me that one is worth getting just for the much improved sound of Onward, Christian Soldiers. And on The Power Of Praise (the Word one from 2003 and not the 1993 Star Song Power Praise album) there's a different mix of We Hold Our Hearts Out To You (with drums added right from the beginning), so to some that might be worth getting.

Hope the guy in the boots is getting a good percentage for all his appearances!

Re: Records

When it comes to Petra, if you were buying used, you would want to look for first runs, on the original label. Record club and re-issues traditionally did not use the same masters or press on good vinyl. This is why they sucked sonically, had more noise, and were not accepted as returns at music stores. The same goes for cassettes.

Mastering for a record is a completely different process, on different equipment. What production masters in existence for all of the green tree material are digital only. That was as of the 90s. So, if there WERE any around, they for sure are gone by now, since the company has changed hands, and EMI had interest only in digital files, not physical media.

fiendik wrote:Apart from Petraphonics, there really isn't any Petra compilation worth getting. But what was the reason for one anyway? Petra albums are almost always either all good or all bad, so you if you like one song from an album, you should like the rest.

I guess it depends. I'm not sure about the label's intention (well, yeah, money, but I digress) but back in the 90's when I had only listened to Beyond Belief and other few Schlitt albums, I remember I bought Power Praise (the one with a lion in the cover). I loved it, it was a great introduction to other classic Petra songs and eventually motivated me to get more familiar with the Volz era. So from a fan perspective, they might not make sense; but from a beginner/unfamiliar perspective, I think some of them might work.

Thief wrote:I guess it depends. I'm not sure about the label's intention (well, yeah, money, but I digress) but back in the 90's when I had only listened to Beyond Belief and other few Schlitt albums, I remember I bought Power Praise (the one with a lion in the cover). I loved it, it was a great introduction to other classic Petra songs and eventually motivated me to get more familiar with the Volz era. So from a fan perspective, they might not make sense; but from a beginner/unfamiliar perspective, I think some of them might work.

But then Petra Means Rock will do the trick (it has a good cross section of Star Song stuff), Petraphonics (with all the mellower stuff), or The Ultimate Collection (w/ Star Song / Dayspring/Word / Inpop combined). No need for more. Including live, Spanish and Classic Petra has 27 albums. Excluding those, only 21 albums. How can they ever have thought they needed 15(!!) greatest hits album....

I liked War and Remembrance because it was the first time I had ever heard a lot of Petra's early stuff, and I liked hearing the progression of Petra's sound. Plus it came with a really cool booklet about the history of the band.

p-freak wrote:

Thief wrote:I guess it depends. I'm not sure about the label's intention (well, yeah, money, but I digress) but back in the 90's when I had only listened to Beyond Belief and other few Schlitt albums, I remember I bought Power Praise (the one with a lion in the cover). I loved it, it was a great introduction to other classic Petra songs and eventually motivated me to get more familiar with the Volz era. So from a fan perspective, they might not make sense; but from a beginner/unfamiliar perspective, I think some of them might work.

But then Petra Means Rock will do the trick (it has a good cross section of Star Song stuff), Petraphonics (with all the mellower stuff), or The Ultimate Collection (w/ Star Song / Dayspring/Word / Inpop combined). No need for more. Including live, Spanish and Classic Petra has 27 albums. Excluding those, only 21 albums. How can they ever have thought they needed 15(!!) greatest hits album....

Yeah, it's an obvious studio cash-grab, but still, from someone who at the time wasn't aware of the scheme or the amount of albums and whatnot, one of those cheap cash-grabs got me deeper into Petra fandom

I like Petraphonics and War and Remembrance, but most of "best of" collections aren't impressive. I have the whole Petra CD collection anyway, so I don't really need the "best ofs".

Thief wrote:

p-freak wrote:

Thief wrote:I guess it depends. I'm not sure about the label's intention (well, yeah, money, but I digress) but back in the 90's when I had only listened to Beyond Belief and other few Schlitt albums, I remember I bought Power Praise (the one with a lion in the cover). I loved it, it was a great introduction to other classic Petra songs and eventually motivated me to get more familiar with the Volz era. So from a fan perspective, they might not make sense; but from a beginner/unfamiliar perspective, I think some of them might work.

But then Petra Means Rock will do the trick (it has a good cross section of Star Song stuff), Petraphonics (with all the mellower stuff), or The Ultimate Collection (w/ Star Song / Dayspring/Word / Inpop combined). No need for more. Including live, Spanish and Classic Petra has 27 albums. Excluding those, only 21 albums. How can they ever have thought they needed 15(!!) greatest hits album....

Yeah, it's an obvious studio cash-grab, but still, from someone who at the time wasn't aware of the scheme or the amount of albums and whatnot, one of those cheap cash-grabs got me deeper into Petra fandom

To be fair, it used to take some time and effort to put together your own compilation cassette back in the day, and there was always the quality loss to contend with, so a professionally produced compilation album was kinda nice to have.