JUDAS PRIEST — Turbo

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3.14 | 93 ratings | 6 reviews

Album · 1986

Filed under Heavy Metal
By JUDAS PRIEST

Tracklist

1. Turbo Lover (5:33)
2. Locked In (4:19)
3. Private Property (4:30)
4. Parental Guidance (3:26)
5. Rock You All Around The World (3:37)
6. Out In The Cold (6:27)
7. Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days (4:40)
8. Hot For Love (4:11)
9. Reckless (4:20)

Total Time 41:07

Line-up/Musicians

- Rob Halford / vocals
- K.K. Downing / guitar
- Glenn Tipton / guitar
- Ian Hill / bass
- Dave Holland / drums

About this release

Released by Columbia, April 14th, 1986.

Reissued in 2001 with the following bonus tracks:

10. All Fired Up (recorded during the 1985 Turbo sessions) (4:45)
11. Locked In (live at Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, May 23, 1986) (4:24)

Thanks to Pekka, Time Signature, Lynx33, adg211288 for the updates

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JUDAS PRIEST TURBO reviews

Specialists/collaborators reviews

Warthur

In all of Judas Priest's 1980s albums, a tension between their aggressive metal roots and more radio-friendly hit-making fare exists. Sure, British Steel might have the comparatively raw Breaking the Law, but Living After Midnight and United are poppier numbers. Point of Entry leaned harder on the pop-metal side of the equation, Screaming For Vengeance went easier on the pop and harder on the metal, and Defenders of the Faith found the two sides of their 1980s sound more or less in balance.

On Turbo, the scales shift way back towards the pop side of their sound, and as with Point of Entry this has meant it's not dated quite so well as British Steel, Screaming For Vengeance, or Defenders; there's a thick aroma of cheese here, with the band using synthesisers and studio treatments of their guitars more than they ever had before.

That said, I actually think it succeeds better at this than Point of Entry did. Of all of Priest's attempts to go radio-friendly, this is certainly the most polished and hookiest. Just try not to sing along to Turbo Lover, if you don't believe me. I think Screaming For Vengeance showed the best of their purist metal side at the time, but as far as forays into finely-honed, studio-enhanced, synth-infused pop-metal go, Turbo is far more compelling than a lot of the material in this sort of vein that would issue forth in the 1980s; I'd rather listen to it than the vast majority of then-contemporary glam metal or hair metal.

If it's not your thing, then sure, it's not your thing - but let's not pretend that this was some sort of unexpected, unprecedented betrayal by Judas Priest of their earlier sound; there'd been an undercurrent of this sort of accessible, sing-along stuff in their repertoire for a good long while by the time they made this, Turbo just happens to be the album where they decided to concentrate on that aspect of their sound, and I think it's for the best that the band were open to putting out albums which put one side of their sound or the other under the microscope rather than sticking right to the middle of the road all the time.

more than 2 years ago
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Report #689727

666sharon666

The tenth Judas Priest album Turbo from 1986 was actually originally conceived as a double album that would have been called Twin Turbos. The idea was that one disc would focus on the hard rock side of Judas Priest and the other would be their usual heavy metal style. Because of record label resistance (or maybe that should be influence) Twin Turbos was scrapped and the result of that decision was Turbo, the next album Ram It Down and a bunch of tracks that ended up put out as the bonus material for the 2001 remasters of many of the first twelve Judas Priest records.

Turbo itself plays on the hard rock side of the Twin Turbos idea which stylistically puts this album closest to 1981's Point of Entry rather than any other Judas Priest album. It's a bit different too though, in fact I would call a good portion of Turbo glam rock/metal. So in that sense both it and Point of Entry can still both be considered oddballs of Judas Priest's largely traditional metal based discography despite some similarities. Turbo is not a bad record by any stretch of the imagination but as is the case with Point of Entry it's just not an album I personally wanted to hear from Judas Priest (especially not after them getting back on track after that album with Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith) which makes it a fans only release in my book.

Attribution: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/judas-priest-turbo-t3834.html

more than 2 years ago
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Report #246146

Kingcrimsonprog

Judas Priest’s tenth studio album was released to a pretty negative reaction back in 1986. Their previous two albums Defenders Of The Faith and Screaming For Vengeance had been strong and heavy releases which established a certain expectation in terms of style.

Turbo didn’t fulfill these expectations; in fact it was a departure of sorts. The album incorporated glam and hair metal influences, synths, big reverby production and all the other trademarks of the mid to late eighties that serve to date music from that period really easily.

Turbo was very commercial and people didn’t like that. The album has been called a sellout, false metal, downright rubbish and much worse.

I actually like the album; it is something of a guilty pleasure for me. I still recommend that people try before they buy; this is not an album for everyone. I hear and understand everything that is wrong with the record and why people hate it, but just personally don’t find it in me to dislike the album.

Tracks like ‘Parental Guidance,’ ‘Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days,’ and ‘Private Property,’ are unbelievably cheesy I agree, but they are fun and I like listening to them. If you don’t mind a bit of commercial music then disregard the huge amounts of negative press that this album receives, believe me it is only a disagreement over style; the actual quality of the album isn’t taken into account.

While the aforementioned tracks were glam/hair metal influenced and the title track is synth filled, the other tracks like ‘Locked In,’ ‘Hot For Love,’ or ‘Reckless,’ are all fairly strong songs and contain a lot of the style from the previous four Priest records, take away the production and certain flourishes here and there and those songs would fit well into many of the more loved Priest albums.

If you are new to Judas Priest, don’t start with Turbo. If you frequently use phrases like ‘sell out,’ ‘not metal,’ or ‘false metal,’ then give Turbo a miss, you won’t like it. If however style doesn’t bother you and you just want more music from Judas Priest then give it a try a least, you may enjoy it, I sure did.

more than 2 years ago
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Report #252697

rushfan4

In retrospect this album is probably quite a disappointment given the complete awesomeness of their previous albums but it is sort of a guilty pleasure album for me. I was a 16-year old at the time of this release and everyone knows what that is like, and songs like Private Property and Parental Guidance just spoke to me. I remember this album with fond memories. I can remember lying around the pool soaking in the sun rays and blasting Turbo at volume 10 so the entire neighborhood could hear it. This album probably did not age as well as their earlier releases as a result of the use of guitar synthesizers and electronic drums but I still enjoy listening to it from time to time. If I had rated Turbo back in 1986 I have no doubt that this would have garnered a 5 star rating from me, but the onset of time and outside influences result in a downgrade to a 3-start rating.

more than 2 years ago
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Report #227972

Time Signature

Rock you all around the world...

Genre: heavy metal

I know a lot of fans were disappointed by this album, so I know that my 5-star rating will strike some as being unnecessarily generous. fortunately, taste in music is a very personal and subjective affair; so love me or hate me, Here's five stars for an album that I like very much and which is very important to me personally.

I was never disappointed with this album. I think it's very much a product of its time in terms of production, and there are lots of uplifting energetic hard rock tunes on this one. Especially "Turbo Lover" is great and the way it is built up reflects the contents of the lyrics very well - I think that is effing genious (and, on a side note, I once sent K.K. Downing an e-mail with a question about this song, to which he responded!!!). And that's what I like about Priest. They're always spot on in terms of the musical trends of their time without ever losing their originality - you can always hear it's Priest. Albums like "Turbo", "Painkiller", "British Steel", and "Jugulator" - all of which are very different - show this. So, actually "Turbo" fits very well into the whole Priest discography.

Recommended to any open minded fan of traditional metal and hard rock.

more than 2 years ago
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Report #221503

Members reviews

SouthSideoftheSky

Shifting gears again

Turbo is a controversial album in the Judas Priest catalogue. I think this is mostly because they experimented with guitar synthesisers on this album with mixed results. Personally, I don’t mind the guitar synthesisers, for me it is the weak song writing that is the main problem. With song titles like Rock You All Around The World, Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days and Hot For Love you can almost know what they sound like before you hear them! And the lyrics are bad throughout with many of the songs coming across as cheesy party rockers. Is this Glam Metal? Another problem is that the songs are too similar to each other, with Locked In, Private Property and Parental Guidance sounding basically the same. In addition to cheesy lyrics most of the songs here have overly catchy choruses that are very difficult for me to like. But there are a couple of decent songs here too, particularly the title track and Out In The Cold.

Coming after the very good Defenders Of The Faith album, Turbo was a major disappointment and together with Point Of Entry this is Judas Priest’s lowest point.

Avoid this cheese fest unless you are a hard core fan!