Masters of Reality

Talk about a flash in the pan: this psychedelic-blues band hit the airwaves in a big way during the summer of '89, then disappeared just as quickly...

"Masters of Reality" (Def American pressing)

  1. "Theme for the Scientist of the Invisible"--instrumental (1:33)
  2. "Domino" (3:47)
  3. "The Blue Garden" (4:24)
  4. "Gettin' High" (3:10)
  5. "The Candy Song" (3:30)
  6. "Magical Spell" (5:02)
  7. "The Eyes of Texas" (3:24)
  8. "Sleep Walkin'" (3:30)
  9. "Lookin' to Get Rite" (3:07)
  10. "John Brown" (3:38)
  11. "Kill the King" (7:36)

A spectacular debut album, with a sound so raw you could chew it. Many different musical styles are present here, from the psychedelic/grunge masterpiece "Blue Garden" (predating the "grunge invasion" by over 2 years, I should point out), to the laid-back shuffle of "Magical Spell" and "Sleep Walkin", to the acoustic "Lookin to Get Rite", to the sinister rocker "Kill the King". "Candy Song", their big FM hit, is a bit more mainstream than the rest, but I still kinda like it...

"Masters of Reality" (Delicious Vinyl reissue)

  1. "The Candy Song" (3:21)
  2. "Doraldina's Prophecies" (5:30)
  3. "John Brown" (3:38)
  4. "Gettin' High" (3:10)
  5. "Magical Spell" (3:38)
  6. "Theme for the Scientist of the Invisible"--instrumental (1:30)
  7. "Domino" (3:47)
  8. "The Blue Garden" (4:22)
  9. "The Eyes of Texas" (3:20)
  10. "Lookin' to Get Rite" (3:06)
  11. "Kill the King" (7:34)
  12. "Sleep Walkin'" (3:33)

I have no idea why this reissue exists and it pisses me off that it does. Apparently, the band's debut was such a hit that they jumped ship from Def American to Delicious Vinyl, a subsidiary of Island Records. And what's the first thing they do? The re-release a REMIXED version of the debut album! Granted, the remix isn't as terrible as it could have been (I cite Stryper as an example), although the band's raw power is noticeably muted in the cleaned-up mix, and "Magical Spell" is inexplicably cut by 1-1/2 minutes. No, the real travesty here is THEY MIXED UP THE SONG ORDER!!! I don't know about you, but I find the *order* of the songs on a record can be as powerful, if not more so, than the songs themselves. Or maybe I'm just so used to hear the final organ chord of "Blue Garden" segue effortlessly into the wild guitar intro of "Gettin' High", that hearing "Eyes of Texas" instead completely jars my senses. Whatever. The only reason to own this at all is for the extra song, "Doraldina's Prophecies", which is such a DAMN good song that it shouldn't be missed! Which was probably the record company's intent all along, to get you to buy the same album twice...well, it worked in this case, but also had the effect of causing me to lose complete interest in the band's further endeavors...

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