Florida’s Saigon Kick arrived too late for the 80s glam metal party but their 1991 debut album had an eclectic and alternative edge that seemed custom-built for the new decade. The flashy chops and harmonies cast back to the glory days of Ratt, Dokken and the like but colourful shades of Alice In Chains, psychedelia and thrash pointed to the future.
Easy to see why there was a buzz about this band but the eclecticism is a double-edged sword. The variety is impressive and keeps things interesting but also means that for every infectious pop rocker like Colors or moody metaller like New World there’s a cheesy U2-esque Love Of God or the silly cod-angst of What Do You Do. Add banal lyrics to all the style-hopping and the album starts to seem like it’s got little to say.
The hard edge and druggy melody brings to mind contemporaries like Warrior Soul and Enuff Z’nuff but Saigon Kick are inferior to both, with neither Warrior Soul’s incendiary intelligence or Enuff Z’nuff’s depth and taste. There definitely some great stuff here but in an era with a bewildering array of musical flavours on offer, Saigon Kick taste too vanilla.
HEAVY METAL OVERLOAD 
I loved this one, played it again just before Christmas. The bits where they thrash out are great. They pretty much vanished after this.
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I know a lot of folk love this. But I just find it too cheesy and sexless I guess.
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Cheesy and Sexless are actually my middle names. Fact!
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BAHAHAHAHA…..!
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I heard the second and third albums were really good…
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People seem to like the first three most. Second was the biggest seller apparently and had a minor hit on it. Heard any of their stuff yourself?
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Just the singles. The one song off this album that I call “Far and Distant Places” is the one I liked best. There were a few bands of this ilk around this time. I thought Kik Tracee had an awful name but a great sound, hard rock with a twist.
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Actually I got KIK Tracee as a freebie from MEAT Magazine….their cover of Mrs Robinson was quite good…Dude had a killer set of pipes and I think he was up for the singer spot in the Crue before Crabby got it…
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Cool, I didn’t get that! I did get the I Mother Earth tape about a month before the album came out. I played the shit out of that all summer! It had “The Mothers”, “No One”, and “Basketball”.
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Nice man real nice…
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And yes he was up for the Crabby job. Man I should ask Gerry McGhee about that experience…
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Yeah that’s one of the better songs here. Never heard Kik Tracee. Do you know Saigon Kick got their name from a misheard Cult lyric? I think it was “… cyclone kiss”.
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Fact: All my Cult lyrics are mis-heard. I have no idea what he’s singing at any given time. I mean, he turned “fire” into a three syllable word.
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Hahaha you should be able to come up with some cool band names then.
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Fi-Ahh is one.
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Never understood what the hoopla was about with these guys…I just could not get into them at all….Always thought of them as a poor man’s Extreme..
Now GET THE FUNK OUT!
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Extreme is a good comparison dude. Glad I’m not the only one that’s underwhelmed by these guys. Some songs are pretty good though so it’s a bit frustrating!
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Considering I was buying everything in site back in 91 this one I skipped but my brother bought it at the time on cassette as he was learning guitar at the time and he read in Guitar World about the guttering being quite good…
I borrowed it for a few listens on the Walkman hahaha…and it was like …ah where’s my copy of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge…hahaha…
Thats where my head was at in 91!
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The guitar here is quite tasty but nothing unique or special. I’d take FUCK over this every time. Call her up on the spank line!
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BAHAHAHA….my all time fanboy VH 45 would be ..
A Side- Spanked
B Side- Source of Infection
and the Japan edition would have Black N Blue!
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Pretty much all the VH you need right there.
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I remember when this came out. I was a college radio DJ (metal) and I kept trying to like this record, but there just wasn’t much to it. It didn’t get any air time on my show.
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Cool. I thought everyone would disagree with me on this one but good to know there’s some more naysayers out there!
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Mmmm… vanilla…
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Eh. That’s not too bad. A pal of mine actually mentioned this lot a few times (likewise, he has telt me that I need to hit up Warrior Soul). Maybe this would appeal to me… or maybe I’ll just listen to Warrior Soul…
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Well that’s the worst track on the album I reckon so… if you like that. I think it’s really stupid but there you go! Different strokes…
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I like the swagger… I’ll see how I get on with the album and report back.
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I never got into these guys other than the song “Love is on the Way”…which was a great ballad. Outside of that…nothing!
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I’ve got the album with that on it (The Lizard) but I’ve not listened to it yet. I’ll get there at some point but I’m not in a hurry!
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you aren’t missing much.
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My first experience of Saigon Kick was the ballad “Love Is On the Way.” This song is a complete contrast. Maybe they should have stuck to ballads.
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Yeah you might be right about that. Don’t think they’re very convincing as an aggressive band.
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I like that vanilla comparison.
There’s a line in Weird Al’s “I love Rocky Road” where he says, Vanilla just makes me cold – sounds like he could have had one of the less interesting saigon kick scoops here!
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Saigon Kick did okay. I think for the time they came out they and Galactic Cowboys were a bit ahead musically and got overlooked or labeled incorrectly.
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Yeah, not an easy band to label. I’ll give them that. I’m not a big fan but I can see myself going back to this on occasion. Some good tunes for sure.
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