Review Summary: Aside from a few standouts, Ra's rare tracks album is mostly mediocre-to-poor tracks that weren't released for a reason.
The Tale of Ra: Part 5
After a strong hard-rock/nu-metal debut with
From One, and a more mainstream-minded but still enjoyable sophomore record
Duality, Ra had what looked to be a promising career. Unfortunately, largely due to limited budget and promotional issues with the record label, the follow-up
Black Sun was disappointing, an unfocused effort that had only a few traces of the excellent song-writing displayed on the first two releases. Ra’s fourth studio album,
Black Sheep, is a rare tracks album. Given that fact and the disappointment of the last release, it’s unsurprising that most of these tracks fail to live up to the quality that Ra is capable of.
The album actually starts out with a promising track.
Cross of Snow is a good rocker, with some impressive riffs and a shredding solo. It doesn’t belong here, it should’ve been on
Black Sun, that album was practically begging for a song like this. From there the quality drops. The rap-rock tracks lingering around the first half of the album are cringe-worthy, the worst offender being
Deliverance. Sahaj’s rapped vocals are awkward during each and every one of these rap-rock tracks, the only moment that’s very interesting here is the reggae-like chorus to
The Foundation. After hearing how good Sahaj’s vocals can sound in Ra’s other albums, it’s very strange to hear him delivering wannabe gangster lines like “this is how we roll”, or delivering a Fred Durst-like bridge to
Busted. To be fair, most of these tracks were recorded in the late 90’s, but these stale, bottom of the barrel nu-metal attempts should never have seen the light of day, not even on a rare tracks album.
Unfortunately, even when the rapping is dropped, most of the album doesn’t display Ra at their best. It’s mostly what one would expect from a rare tracks album, boring and unfocused songs that were unreleased for a reason. Ra reveals a fair amount of shredding solos, but most of the time it’s too little too late, with many of the songs becoming boring after a minute or less. Some songs, like
Tomorrow’s Sun, are just too long, and drag on, not justifying their 5+ minute running time.
U Need Me tries to be a creepy stalker song in the vein of the deliciously twisted
Fallen Rock Zone from the debut, but while
Fallen Rock Zone had a natural dark atmosphere, Sahaj tries too hard here to be creepy, and fails to create a compelling song.
This doesn’t mean the album is all bad.
Crazy Little Voices is a weird and fairly enjoyable nu-metal track with a driving bassline, if you can look past the cheesiness of the lyrics. Also the album’s last 5 cuts are the strongest part of the album.
Not in Your Head and
What I’m About are both solid vocal-driven songs that at the very least give Sahaj some room to display his impressive voice.
Seen All Good People is a fairly well-done Yes cover, not amazing by any stretch of the word, and it does drag on a bit before the song picks up tempo in the second half, but the vocal harmonies are very pleasing.
Baghdad is a straight-up metal song, driven by a speedy Motorhead-style riff and a dueling guitar solo, bringing some momentum to the end of the album.
Supernova is the biggest treat here. Apparently released as the single to go along with the album, it shows that Ra still has the ability to write compelling songs, with driving riffs and a great vocal performance by Sahaj.
Ultimately, though, this release only goes to show that without the proper guidance, Ra’s talent is too often wasted. The most frustrating thing is that
Cross of Snow and
Supernova should have been used on Ra’s next studio album rather than being wasted here. They put everything else here to shame, and emphasize just how weak most of these tracks are compared to what Ra is capable of. Even the few enjoyable songs here would be throwaways on Ra’s first 2 releases. While it’s commendable that Ra wanted to give an album to the fans, a better gift would be an album in the vein of
From One that they are
very capable of creating if they got the proper support.
Note: As a regular album, this would get a 2, but since it’s a rare tracks album I am being generous and giving it a 2.5.
Top Tracks: Cross of Snow, Baghdad, Supernova
Thus concludes the journey of Ra.
