most under rated album

[executioner]

The first couple of listens of WUC you do get the feeling that it is a mellower CD, but after listening to it straight for about a week it really grows on you and also it really starts to rock. The guitar and drumming are both spot on; This is one of the very few albums you actually get to hear Louie play. It also is one of their strongest for lyrical content; most of the songs on the CD really speak volumes to me and really have encouraged me through my Christian walk.

[brent]

Agree...WUC is truly a great record. It has class, depth and the best sonics of any Petra record. It was recorded one of the greatest sounding and most historic studios in America (may it rest in peace) and it sounds like it.

[gman]

The first couple of listens of WUC you do get the feeling that it is a mellower CD, but after listening to it straight for about a week it really grows on you and also it really starts to rock. The guitar and drumming are both spot on; This is one of the very few albums you actually get to hear Louie play. It also is one of their strongest for lyrical content; most of the songs on the CD really speak volumes to me and really have encouraged me through my Christian walk.

Agree...WUC is truly a great record. It has class, depth and the best sonics of any Petra record. It was recorded one of the greatest sounding and most historic studios in America (may it rest in peace) and it sounds like it.

Absolutely! What they said!

Cue the firestorm...

[shawnpfan2010]

The first couple of listens of WUC you do get the feeling that it is a mellower CD, but after listening to it straight for about a week it really grows on you and also it really starts to rock. The guitar and drumming are both spot on; This is one of the very few albums you actually get to hear Louie play. It also is one of their strongest for lyrical content; most of the songs on the CD really speak volumes to me and really have encouraged me through my Christian walk.

Agree...WUC is truly a great record. It has class, depth and the best sonics of any Petra record. It was recorded one of the greatest sounding and most historic studios in America (may it rest in peace) and it sounds like it.

Absolutely! What they said!

Cue the firestorm...

I also agree.

[blayze5150]

Come and Join us is pretty fantastic!

[CatNamedManny]

No Doubt was my first Petra cassette, and I loved it. I understand why a lot of people don't like its sound, as compared with the previous albums, but songs like "Enter In," "Think Twice," "Heart of a Hero" and "Right Place" were excellent, which is about two more songs than I can say for Wake Up Call, which is an album I never liked as much. I know a lot of people like it and think it's a great album, but I just don't see it. "Midnight Oil" and "Underneath the Blood" are two of the best Petra songs ever, and there's a whole host of decent second-tier songs -- "Sleeping Giant," "Praying Man," "Just Reach Out" -- but for me, it's a lot of unmet promise. More songs like "Oil" and "Blood" (or like the first 30 seconds of "Praying Man") would have made this a much better album for me.

Basically, all this talk about which album after No Doubt was the one that truly killed Petra seems to miss the broader point: that Petra, like nearly every long-running rock band in music through this time, simply could not find a way to adapt to the modern sound while keeping its essential "self." No Christian bands successfully made the adjustment -- Whiteheart, Bride, Rez Band, Whitecross, DeGarmo and Key, Deliverance, Guardian. By 2000, every single one of these bands was gone or releasing CDs independently. That Petra survived the 1990s at all, never mind with an actual record deal, is pretty astounding, and it's pretty clear this was only possible because the guys running Inpop took pity on the band. Secular bands didn't have as much of a problem with this, bands like Aerosmith, AC/DC and the Rolling Stones could keep on pushing the same sounds because, as a commenter noted above, the secular music industry cares a lot more about its history than the Christian music industry (to the extent that there's any difference anymore; maybe it's more now that the secular music industry that runs the Christian music industry doesn't care about the history of Christian music).

That said, No Doubt didn't kill Petra, but it was the first blow. Then came the ill-timed decision to do another Petra Praise album, which, while a good album, was still a drastic change in style and simply not designed to appeal to as broad a cross-section of rock fans. Then God Fixation, which -- while it also had some good songs -- was simply no longer Petra, in sound or basically in band members without Bob. Double Take was the nadir, for all the reasons mentioned above. It's simply a boring album with maybe three songs that are pretty good if pulled out from the sludge surrounding them and thrown into a mix. Revival was not much better. There's nothing on that album that would pull in a young rock fan. The biggest rock bands in 2001 were Nickelback, Linkin Park, Creed and System of a Down. Sorry, but Revival pales in comparison to any of those bands' sounds -- yes, even Nickelback's (a band I abhor both musically and lyrically). By then, it was too late. Jekyll & Hyde was the album Petra should have done instead of God Fixation, but instead they did God Fixation, Double Take and Revival. The fact that 12 years separate the two Petra albums upon which there is universal agreement about how good they are (Beyond Belief and Jekyll & Hyde) should tell you a lot. It's a bummer, but that's how it is. It's hard for a good rock band to adjust when good rock music essentially takes a decade off, as it did in the 1990s (any decade that starts with Nirvana and ends with Nickelback with a trip through the Mighty Mighty Bosstones should be ashamed of itself).

/ranting

[knotodiswrld]

It's hard for a good rock band to adjust when good rock music essentially takes a decade off, as it did in the 1990s

I'm not sure how much of your post I agree with, but THAT statement is dead on the money!! The 1990's were a musical wasteland!! That goes for Christian and non-Christian bands alike. Everybody was trying to "Mellow Out". The band that made "This Means War" and "On Fire" had no business "mellowing out".

And I don't think the fans really wanted this mellowing out. If you think about the rise of Rebecca St. James, it was right in the middle of all this, and Rebecca was not mellow. She was still giving fans what they wanted. The other bands didn't understand what the fans wanted.

And yet, IMO ... Petra's music was still better than 90% of the crud being produced in the 90's. Overall, they were still the best band, I think. It's just that "better than 90% of the Christian bands of the 1990's" isn't exactly resounding praise.

[Jonathan]

Should those of us who managed to find great music in the 1990s get off your lawn?

[separateunion]

when good rock music essentially takes a decade off, as it did in the 1990s

This is a joke...right? Please tell me you're kidding.

[Jonathan]

Now now, Jason, we'll probably hate the music that's released when we're their age in the 2030s.

[SCJ-7]

Poor Double Take Album. The Album that many people want to erase from the Petra's long history. OK, it's not a hard rock album but I sincerely like the sound of some of the songs.

[CatNamedManny]

Should those of us who managed to find great music in the 1990s get off your lawn?

Well, you should get off my lawn on general principle, but I hope you all can recognize hyperbole when you see it. I own plenty of hard rock albums from the 1990s that I enjoy. Some of them I even consider "great." But I've enjoyed music from the 1980s and the 2000s far better than that decade. As I alluded to, alt/modern rock devolved into swing/ska for a year or two there. That's pretty atrocious for a hard rock/metal fan like me.

By the way, I was 8 when the 1990s started, to help dismiss a caricature.

[executioner]

Nothing that came from the 90's interest me @ all. This generation(fireflight, Flyleaf, Skillet, Day of Fire, etc) has put the 90's to rest. Paul MaCarty had a quote about 10 yrs ago saying "the artists of the 90's have lost their art" He has in several interviews called it "the lost decade of music"

[fcollazo]

I started playing with bands in the 80's but the 90's to me were the best and most artistic time, since nobody had to wear spandex nor hairspray, so please do not bash the 90's. Paul McCartney is becoming senile, he just got into the liberal agenda talking points when he made the rude comments directed towards president Bush at his Glorify-Me party with The Obamas, so I used to be a Macca fan, but he's gone the wrong way now.

[Dan]

When No Doubt came out, I just loved it I still hold it up the top there with Beyond Belief, This means war and Not of this World