Tape Head

Artist: King's X
Label: Metal Blade
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio Cassette

UPC: 039841418743
EAN: 0039841418743
ASIN: B00000ENOS

Release Date: 1998-10-20

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Tracks:

Groove Machine
Fade
Over and Over
Ono
Cupid
Ocean
Little Bit of Soul
Hate You
Higher Than God
Happy
Mr. Evil
World
Walter Bela Farkas (Live Peace in New York)

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Dogman
Ear Candy
Out of the Silent Planet
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Customer Reviews:

Another strong release from King's X.......2006-08-30

King's X's seventh album, Tape Head, was released in 1998, and would be their first to appear on the Metal Blade label. Despite releasing a strong catalog of music, Atlantic Records gave the excellent power trio their walking papers after sales of their previous album, Ear Candy, didn't meet expectations. Now on an independent label, King's X no longer had to deal with compromising their music to meet the masses. The result was a series of albums that were more ambitious, beginning with Tape Head.

Tape Head, is similar to their 1994 release, Dogman, in that it's pretty heavy and that many of the songs have one-word titles. However, the album explores a wide range of moods, more so than any of their previous releases. The album starts off with the wicked groove that is "Groove Machine", and is one of many tracks that is carried by the music rather than the lyrics, which are quite sparse on some of the songs. More melodic fare such as "Cupid", "Over and Over", and "Little Bit of Soul" still contain those great harmonies but don't work nearly as well as the heavier tracks. However, "Ocean" is a gem and is one of the best songs to feature Ty Tabor on lead vocals. His guitar lines in this one are downright majestic, on the level of Queen at their peak. As mentioned earlier, the best songs are the heavier ones and most of them are on the album's second half. "Happy" is downright thunderous while "Higher than God" and "Ono" contain some of the meanest riffs they've ever penned. Other great tracks include the very dark "Mr. Evil", the ironic "Hate You", and the intense "World." The last track, "Walter Bela Farkas", is a throwaway and the band has acknowledged this in the past. One of their heaviest albums, Tape Head is another in a long line of strong releases from rock's most underrated band.

Love King's X, but ... one word for this album ...DULL.......2006-08-20

First of all I am a big fan of this band. However, this CD left me greatly disappointed. It is not immediate or catchy except for a few songs - that unfortunately, after a few listens, emerge as false hope - for they also leave a lot to be desired. Even after repeated listens on my part in an effort to give it a chance to grow on me, it never did. Maybe for comparison purposes you could say this album is of a similar vein to the self-titled 1992 effort King's X ... but not even in the ballpark. Try Gretchen, Out of the Silent Planet, Dogman, or King's X for their best. I even liked Bulbous and Manic Moonlight, but this one is summed up in one word ... DULL

I loved it!.......2006-06-02

I heard people complain a little about it and after I got it I didn't understand wtf they were talking about?? This is yet another cd packed full of great playing, soul and melody. It's hard enough to write 1 good song, Much less a whole catalog of gems that these guys do.

Tapehead.......2004-11-07

In other King's X reviews, I have written that the first 4 albums in the King's X catalogue are absolutely essential must haves. If you are going to buy any King's X album as a new fan or customer, start with those first 4(Out of the Silent Planet - 1988/Gretchen Goes To Nebraska - 1989/Faith Hope Love - 1990/King's X - 1992).

But admiring this band as much as I do, I cannot help but recommend any other album more than Tapehead. It was almost 10 years later after their debut, and this band, to me, released one of the best albums of their career. Finally released from Atlantic Records, it seemed a bit of new found freedom can be found on this album. Though much material wasn't prepared for it, and a lot of these songs come from the pen of Doug Pinnick, Tapehead is one of those instantly accessible albums in their catalogue. There are songs on this album I believe rank up their with anything on Gretchen Goes To Nebraska, though a little bit of Faith & Hope have disappeared from their 'energy'. What's left is Love, and it is said , the greatest of the three is Love, so maybe King's X haven't disappointed after all.

I loved this album on first listen. There weren't any acoustic guitars, or augmentations as on other releases, but I do not think this album suffers one bit because of that, because simply, the songs are all that good. From track 1 through 11, Id say this is one of the best collections of songs in a row that I've ever heard, and though the last 2 songs are not ones I play often, how can you go wrong whne so much of this album screams out 'Aren't I great?'

Standout tracks have to be 'Ono', 'Groove Machine', 'Happy', 'Higher Than God', and 'Cupid'. 'Fade' was the video/single release from this album, but again, the presence of Ty as main singer seems to indicate what companies think will play on radio, rather than the voice of a black man fronting a 'rock group'. Whether or not this is true I don't know, but I can think of 5 other songs on this album slightly stronger than Fade. But when you take this album as a complete whole is when you understand this is one of King's X's strongest albums, quite possibly since Gretchen. That's if we're looking at it like, song after song, you're wondering where they're coming up with it all from.

The same year, Doug Pinnick's first Poundhound album came out, called Massive Grooves . . . , and to me 1998 was one of the best years for King's X. Ty Tabor's Moonflower Lane also came out this year, but I didn't buy it. The demos from this album called Naomi's Solar Pumpkin, just did not strike me in the way Tapehead or Poundhound had. It wasn't as instant. Years later, I picked up Moonflower Lane, and re-listened to Naomi which I had when it was released. Naomi is actually a very good collection of songs, and some of my favourites from Naomi were completely left off the professional'Naomi' that is Moonflower Lane. I appreciate these albums much more now than I did back then. But I still think 1998 was one of the best years for King's X album releases, either solo or together.

Please buy this album.

Time to upgrade your car audio system........2004-02-24

Stripped down, occasionally slowed down, but man, the high points of this album are right up there with anything ever recorded. Most bands will never come close to recording a song half as good as "Ono" or "Happy", but for these guys, that's an established level of quality and artwork.

King's X has established such a ridiculously high level of expectations that anything they release is going to be examined under a very harsh light, yet they continue to blow past previous highs. Highlights of the album include "Groove Machine", "Fade" (which should be an AOR staple but'll never get any airplay), "Ono", and the throat-rending, soul-battering, wall-shaking "Happy", which is reminiscent of one of those surprisingly hard Beatles songs where John Lennon was possessed by some supernatural force of genius looking for an earthly vessel and finding it in these three musicians.

To quote Lynryd Skynyrd: "Turn it up."

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