POISON – Poison’d!

After launching a very successful and hugely attended reunion tour in the Summer of 2006, along with a 20-year anniversary Best Of, release, and keeping themselves active in the public eye with rumors of in-house brawling, some would say it was a pretty good “comeback” year for Poison and their devoted fans. Actually, the only thing missing from this “Cinderella Story” would be a new studio recording from the reunited 80s “Glamsters.”

Well, their “new” release Poison’d! almost fills the bill, but not exactly … you see it’s a “covers release” instead of being all newly written material, hence not being totally “new,” or even inventive, for that matter.

Yes, Poison have perhaps played it safe by joining all the others who have come before them (e.g., Def Leppard, L.A. Guns, Slaughter, Tesla, etc.)… a path cursed by many music fans … and released a CD of covers of the band’s favorite tracks.

For the most part, though, this release is a pretty darned good “covers” CD. It contains thirteen tracks in total, but only the first eight are newly recorded, while the remaining five tracks were previously released. Even though it’s only eight new recordings, the price on it seems to have been adjusted accordingly, with it currently retailing for $9.99 USD in select discount establishments.

One of the big questions with cover releases is the band’s song selection. The band has chosen win-win no-brainers like “Little Willy” (Sweet) and “Suffragette City” by David Bowie. There’s also some extraordinary picks in “Dead Flowers” (Rolling Stones) and perhaps the most unlikely, and best of the new covers, “Just What I Needed” by The Cars. On the latter, the band submit a hard-edged version of The Cars’ song without all the keyboard “fluff” that made the original sound like Industrialized Pop. Many of the other newly recorded covers seem to exude that “good time” attitude of Poison of old, which makes these non-ballad numbers catchy and enjoyable. The down side of the release is that perhaps the “hardest” covers are those submitted that were previously released, including songs by Kiss, The Who, Loggins & Messina, and Grand Funk Railroad. Some of these previously released tracks have already even been performed live.

Bottom line, new material by the band is sorely missed, but perhaps this is a way for the label and management to “test the waters” of Poison fans in regards to their pocketbooks. While Poison doesn’t do an immensely memorable job on all these tracks, they do put in commendable performances on the majority of them, making it well worth the price to own. Everyone should find a song or two here that they thoroughly enjoy as the band’s picks have run the musical gamut of sorts. In the end, Poison’d turns out to be an enjoyable covers release and it happens to be just in time for the advent of summer, as many of these original tracks are memorable summer tunes in their own right!

Tracklisting (original artists in parenthesis)

Little Willy (Sweet) * Suffragette City (David Bowie) * I Never Cry (Alice Cooper) * I Need To Know (Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers) * Can’t You See (The Marshall Tucker Band) * What I Like About You (The Romantics) * Dead Flowers (The Rolling Stones) * Just What I Needed (The Cars)

Previously Released

Rock ‘N Roll All Night (Kiss) * Squeeze Box (The Who) * You Don’t Mess Around With Jim (Jim Croce) * Your Mama Don’t Dance (Loggins & Messina) * We’re An American Band (Grand Funk Railroad)

Lineup

Bret Michaels – Lead Vocals, Harmonica
CC DeVille – Guitars, Backing Vocals
Bobby Dall – Bass, Backing Vocals
Rikki Rockett – Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals