MR

I didn't realize until today that TNT's new album, "New Territory" with Shy vocalist Tony Mills had come out this year. From the few reviews I've read so far, apparently the fans HATE it! Has anyone else heard it, and if so, what do you think? I couldn't even find a review on MR.

Not heard the new one. But i thought it was a good vocal choice anyway, i like some of Shys stuff. Not a massive TNT but i always remember there being a song "ordinary lover"(?), something like that anyways, ha always makes me laugh anyway.

They need to hang it up or get TH back in the fold. Mills doesn't cut it.

It's not HORRIBLE but it is far from their best. There are some good tunes, Tony is a good vocalist and Ronnie has some great moments on the guitar...but none of that seems to happen at the same time. And then they made some really poor choices...what probably seemed like "fun" and "chemistry" but don't sit on record well.

Rip Rokken wrote:I didn't realize until today that TNT's new album, "New Territory" with Shy vocalist Tony Mills had come out this year. From the few reviews I've read so far, apparently the fans HATE it! Has anyone else heard it, and if so, what do you think? I couldn't even find a review on MR.

Look a little harder my friend!

http://www.melodicrock.com/reviews/tnt-thenewterritory.p3

Andrew wrote:Look a little harder my friend!

http://www.melodicrock.com/reviews/tnt-thenewterritory.p3

Hey, thanks! Still, I can't find it using the standard links or indexes in the reviews section -- where am I going wrong there?

Andrew wrote:

Rip Rokken wrote:I didn't realize until today that TNT's new album, "New Territory" with Shy vocalist Tony Mills had come out this year. From the few reviews I've read so far, apparently the fans HATE it! Has anyone else heard it, and if so, what do you think? I couldn't even find a review on MR.

Look a little harder my friend!

http://www.melodicrock.com/reviews/tnt-thenewterritory.p3

Sadly, Andrew was pretty "Generous" with that score. Happy to say I lost NO money on that release

T-Bone wrote:Sadly, Andrew was pretty "Generous" with that score. Happy to say I lost NO money on that release

Trust me, I asked here about it first, once I saw the $30+ price tag on Amazon for this import. I can safely say now that I shant be parting with that kind of money for it.

As a longtime fan this was admittedly not my favorite TNT release, although it does have some moments (like Something Special). But I've received a healthy dose of e-mail this year suggesting that TNT should have let Tony do more of what he did for the upcoming China Blue record (also featuring Josh Ramos, who just finished his solos here yesterday.). More info & soundclips at http://www.chinabluemusic.com.

jrnyman28 wrote:It's not HORRIBLE but it is far from their best. There are some good tunes, Tony is a good vocalist and Ronnie has some great moments on the guitar...but none of that seems to happen at the same time. And then they made some really poor choices...what probably seemed like "fun" and "chemistry" but don't sit on record well.

I got the sense these guys really wanted to experiment on this record, and i dont think the end result came out in a TNT fashion.

I had the great pleasure of interviewing Tony Harnell back when TNT was pushing the Intuition album at the end of the 80's. Cool guy; we had a fun conversation, most of the time spent with him reminiscing about growing up here in San Diego as a self-described "skate rat."

Their show here a few weeks after our phone chat was at a tiny club called the Bacchanal, and it was smokin' hot and exTREMEly fucking loud...just the way it should have been. Great band with a great singer and guitarist...Ronni le Tekro peeled the fucking paint off the walls that night. I still play Intuition at full volume in my car every now and then...

Funniest thing was Harnell's grandparents were in attendance that night, huge earplugs stickin' outta their ears. It was hilarious (and actually kinda cute, in a strange way) to watch them do a sort of geriatric headbanging thing while they were watching the show...

More on topic, I'm not impressed with what I've heard from the new singer. Harnell has some amazing pipes, and I just don't think Mills can fill the guy's shoes...at all.

;^)

chynablue wrote:As a longtime fan this was admittedly not my favorite TNT release, although it does have some moments (like Something Special). But I've received a healthy dose of e-mail this year suggesting that TNT should have let Tony do more of what he did for the upcoming China Blue record (also featuring Josh Ramos, who just finished his solos here yesterday.). More info & soundclips at http://www.chinabluemusic.com.

Hey, Eric! I've been meaning to holler at you for a while, as I am a longtime Takara fan as well. I hadn't listened to your China Blue project before, but man, that's great stuff! Keep us posted when the album hits, and I'll be first in line to buy.

I've finally got to hear "New Territory", and don't like to give too many thoughts before I give a disc at least 3 spins, but it's definitely different. I think Tony Mills' voice fits well with the band, and I can't say I *hate* the record after 1 listen, but it's definitely not grabbing me like "New Religion" or "All The Way To The Sun" did. Sometimes when I hear the term "experimental", I think of musicians tossing sounds and chords into the mix that normally don't go together, I guess as a way to break away from relying on overused hooks and chord progressions, but still -- there is a reason those sounds don't go together... haha!

I'm about to listen to it again all the way thru, but so far, I'm not anticipating this staying in my player too long. Nothing is grabbing me so far -- definitely nothing that I want to rewind and listen to again. For me, though, some albums work best as "background music" -- something I just pop in while I'm doing something else and listen to all the way thru without pausing to rewind a song. For those, I don't really pay intent attention to them -- they just are, well, background music. This may be one of those...

Ok, final comments on this. After quite a few listens, it's growing on me a bit more, but I don't like it near as much as the last two albums. Overall, I do agree with Andrew's contention that they had a lot to prove with a new vocalist, and should have delivered a killer rock album. Instead, it comes off to me as a band running out of tricks (or tiring of their own sound) and veering off into strange territory (that would have been a better album title). I do find it fairly listenable overall, though I'm not in love with any of the tracks (not a good thing), and there are way too many songs that are non-TNT style. I don't mind an experiment here and there, but... The song "June" is this album's equivalent of "What a Wonderful World" on "All The Way To The Sun".

One last thought -- I get annoyed by bands that beef up their track list with non-songs... Andrew was right, the last track, "Let's Party Mills" is just a spoken word list of album credits, delivered by Tony Mills in a Cockney accent. I just consider it misleading... I mean, include that on a bonus disc or something. Even my DigiPak version of "My Religion" had a few of these near the end -- two separate tracks which were nothing more than short spoken radio intros by Tony Harnell and Ronnie le Tekro ("Hi, this is Tony Harnell and you are listening to TNT, "My Religion"). Uncool to list these as "tracks", IMO.

So yeah, I don't hate this album, but am disappointed overall, as much as I loved the last two. It's enough to keep me from shelling out much money for future TNT albums sight unseen.