The Donnas: Gold Medal CD Track Listing

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The Donnas Gold Medal (2004)
Originally Released October 26, 2004\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Following 2002's spitfire release Spend the Night, the Donnas returned with a different drive on Gold Medal. Their earliest releases clung tightly to the Ramones' ethic of three power chords and a chunky rhythm, while Spend the Night riffed on tough and punchy Kiss licks and Cheap Trick-esque super pop, but Gold Medal veers yet again, heading into '70s psychedelia, hinting at a more introspective and melodic feel. A quieter, gentler Donnas? Yeah, kinda. Vocals run through vintage effects, swirling wah-wah riffs, chiming acoustic guitar, and laid-back vocals all give the music a more restrained and casual feel -- as if the band is less aggressive, less impulsive, and less "rawk." The first single, "Fall Behind Me," is one of the few that hark back to their older sound: a heavy harmonic riff (almost reminiscent of the Cult), double-tracked vocals, and a guitar solo by Donna R. (Allison Robertson) that would make Thin Lizzy's Scott Gorham grin. The familiarity ends there, as the other songs sound alternately like Suzi Quatro covering Foghat's "Slow Ride" or actually kind of like the Shangri-Las after smoking down with the Foo Fighters. The album's unexpected highlight is the quirky title track, a choogling shuffle with a freight-train boogie and an acoustic-guitar-vs.-piano break in place of the usual electric guitar solo. As unexpected as that sounds, it fits better than any of the other hybrid "hard rock guitar"/"laid-back vocals" song experiments on the album. It appears as though former guitarist Brett Anderson (aka Donna A., natch) has decided to concentrate solely on vocals (with a few piano contributions), which leaves some space in the sound and makes the full-on assault of the previous Donnas records an impossibility. Still, it could be argued that what they lack in "wall of sound" noise attack they've made up for in nuance; the basslines have never been more intricate, tambourines and handclaps come in at all the right times, and the whole album sports the most terrific production of any Donnas record to date. There was something charming in their (metaphorical) balls-to-the-wall embrace of late-'70s party rock that is missing on Gold Medal -- the teenage gang has grown more mature, and while they've gained some in-depth musical insight, they've lost a little of the leather-jacketed spark that fans have grown accustomed to. While this release shows real growth, one questions if that's what Donnaholics are looking for. It is possible that this album will eventually be seen as the transition away from the cute punk-pop of their previous recordings and a bridge into the more elaborate, more mature work that they demonstrate on the album's spectacular title track. [Gold Medal was also released as a "Dual Disc" release, with audio tracks on one side of the disc, and DVD content on the other side. Additional content includes the video for "Fall Behind Me" as well as a "Making of the Video" feature, lyrics, and credits, plus the full album in 5.1 surround sound.] -- Zac Johnson\n\nAmazon.com Editorial Review\nThe Donnas proved themselves more than apt at playing fast and fun party rock in a Ramones-y mold from their teenage get-go in 1998, then quickly amassed a huge following for their increasingly "pro," deliriously fun retro-rock. In 2002, they surprised lots of folks with Spend the Night, an album that showed more lyrical finesse as well as Cheap Trick/ Thin Lizzy-ish pop-rock flourishes. On 2004's Gold Medal, however, the wayback machine continues to spiral backwards, and the result is far less pleasurable. The songs plod along with little reward, most of them "going over like a lead zeppelin," to quote Keith Moon. There are some nice touches, from the Zombies-esque backing vocals on "Don't Break Me Down" to the truly psychedelic guitar solo in "Out of My Hands." But in the end, Gold Medal will likely be remembered as the Donnas album with way too much cowbell on it. --Mike McGonigal \n\nAmazon.com Album Description\nThe Donnas' eagerly awaited Gold Medal takes the top prize for vital, edgy, modern rock'n'roll at its finest. The quartet's 2002 break-through Atlantic debut, "Spend the Night," debuted in the #1 position on Billboard's "Heatseekers" chart, fuelled by the radio/video hit, "Take It Off," massive critical acclaim, and high-profile TV performances on Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Now the Donnas have raised the bar, as musicians and songwriters, to deliver the best work of their career. Produced by Butch Walker (Avril Lavigne, Injected), tracks like the provocative first single, "Fall Behind Me," and the poignant "Revolver" shimmer with rock energy, blasting off the blocks with newfound invention and intensity. With Gold Metal, the Donnas take an Olympian leap forward, setting a sparkling new standard for pure rock'n'roll brilliance. \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nDual Disk Malfunction, July 28, 2005 \nReviewer: M. Lorenz "homemikey" (Rutherford, NJ)\nYes-there was a pressing problem with the disk. All of them skip/stop at the same point. They were recalled, and you had the option of keeping the cover if you traded in the disk for the regular CD version. The dual disk may someday be re-released, but I think it's unlikely, since the Donnas aren't as popular as the Rolling Stones (hey, I love the Donnas, but let's be real). So, more than likely, the dual disk will probably be something of a collectors item some day... \nAnyway, I would have to give this CD 5 stars. It's that good. If your musical taste leans toward 70s/80s hard rock/metal like Joan Jett, Judas Priest, Bad Company, etc, you'll love this. Buy it, and play it loud and often... \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nthe Donnas cut short?, April 28, 2005 \nReviewer: weezerfan4life (CA) \nI love the Donnas, and I love this album. But the last track on the CD side is only 53 seconds and just cut-off in the middle of the song. Did this happen to anyone else? \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThe Donnas make a solid return with a twist of the 70's, October 26, 2004 \nReviewer: eric_f (Boston, MA) \nEver since hearing Spend The Night, I've been a fan of The Donnas. I find their music fun to listen to and hum along. They may not be revolutionary nor groundbreaking but they don't have to be. These 4 ladies can more than hold their own weight in a male-dominated industry, and for that I say, good for them. \n\nAnd now The Donnas are back with Gold Medal, their highly anticipated new album. Before I go on, I should say that the only Donnas album I own (other than Gold Medal) is Spend The Night, so my comparisons will be only to that album. That out of the way, I think Gold Medal lives up to the hype for the most part. One thing you'll notice, perhaps the first thing you'll notice, is that this album has a mellower feel than Spend The Night, even during the heavier songs. At first I wondered why this was so, and then realized it's because of the slightly less-polished production than Spend The Night. I can't help thinking of the overall sound of Gold Medal as 70's "fuzz" guitar. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you. It's as if The Donnas want the listener to focus on the music itself this time, rather than just the chunky, loud power chords that Spend The Night consisted of. Which one is better? That will be a personal preference, but I have to say that I liked the production on Spend The Night better. Don't get me wrong though, Gold Medal sounds great too. It's just another type of "great" if that makes sense. \n\nLyrically, The Donnas have injected a little more maturity into their songwriting, although their desire to party is still ever so present: case in point, the opening lines of "It's So Hard": \n\n"I'm not obsessed, I could care less. I just want to get you undressed." If that's not trademark The Donnas, I don't know what is! But it's all tongue-in-cheek, so why not just go along with it. \n\nThis album has been released in a limited edition "Dual Disc" version in addition to this single disc version. Unless you're an avid collector of limited edition releases (or just love The Donnas so much that you absolutely must own both versions), I would recommend just getting this single disc edition. It has an enhanced section with the video of "Fall Behind Me" (which is WAY COOL), a link to their website and a link to ring tones. So basically all the multimedia stuff you would want. The Dual Disc edition offers a dual-sided disc with the album on one side and a DVD on the other. The DVD offers the entire album in Surround Sound (really not that different in terms of sound quality, unless you own top-of-the-line speakers), the video of "Fall Behind Me" and a making-of segment for the album. Sounds good at first, but there are some drawbacks. For one, the Dual Disc format is nothing new, and I along with many DVD owners HATE them. They are much easier to scratch and get fingerprints on, since one can't touch either side. Anyone who has ever owned a DVD film on a dual disc format will know exactly what I'm talking about. And if that's not bad enough, the DVD will not play on certain models, nor on certain models of DVD-Rom drives on one's PC. The only real bonus of the DVD is the making-of segment, but this will only appeal to die-hard fans. For everyone else, the single disc edition is the way to go. \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThe Donnas Strike Again!, March 29, 2005\nReviewer: Analog Demon (Providence, RI USA) \nThe Donnas have grown up. The result? "Gold Medal", the Donnas follow-up to 2002's awesome "Spend The Night". One thing that instantly hits you about this record is that it isn't quite as fast as previous Donnas records. That's not a bad thing at all, but worth mentioning. \n\nThe opening track "I Don't Wanna Know (If You Don't Want Me)", as with just about every opening track on a Donnas album, sets the tone for the rest of the record. "Fall Behind Me", the album's first single, is definitely a Donnas classic. Even the title track, "Gold Medal", which is as close to mainstream as I've heard the Donnas get, is really good. Though not quite as fun and dancy as "Spend The Night", anyone who listens to this album with an open mind and an open ear surely won't be disappointed. Great stuff! \n\nAs a side note, this is available on vinyl in a nice package. It's pressed on heavy vinyl which sounds great and includes a lyrics insert with pictures of the girls and also includes a blacklight poster.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nLove The Donnas, Don't Love This CD, January 9, 2005\nReviewer: William Scalzo (Niagara Falls, NY) \nI like the Donnas, I really do. For one thing you have to see them live, they're an exciting and fun act to catch. For another thing The Donnas are very cool. My friends and I saw them at an outdoor show on the Erie Canal last summer and we ended up at the same bar as three of the Donnas afterward. Brett, Torry and Allison partied with us and were unbelievably down-to-earth and fun to hang out with. \n\nThis CD isn't their best though, I have to admit. For some reason the "punch" is missing that their earlier records have. Maybe it's the cowbell missing in action, I don't know. Some of the lyrics are hilarious though as usual: "I may not be a man but you're not one either." \n\nIf you're new to the Donnas you should get The Donnas Turn 21 or Spend the Night first. But, catch the Donnas live if you can, they rock!\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nNot up to Par, October 31, 2004\nReviewer: Python "Python" (Sweetwater, TN) \nI agree with the other guy who wrote this review, I'll quote him on it, \n"Well, I guess it's a decent pop album, but where's the aggressive sneer, the hungry attitude and emotion of previous albums? C'mon gals, just because you've gotten popular doesn't mean you have to sell out and get complacent. This may be a decent pop album for some other artist, but I've thoroughly enjoyed Donnas albums of years past and this PALES in comparison. Very vanilla, very much by the numbers" \n\nI think he hits the nail on the head. The more I listen to it, I'm sure it will grow on me some. But when I throwed in "Turn 21" and "Spend the Night" for the first time, I was BLOWN AWAY, and couldn't stop listening. I'm getting the very opposite feeling from this album. \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nNo longer hungry & aggressive -- Donnas go fat and content, October 29, 2004\nReviewer: Rick "Rick" (Jackson, MS) \nWell, I guess it's a decent pop album, but where's the aggressive sneer, the hungry attitude and emotion of previous albums? C'mon gals, just because you've gotten popular doesn't mean you have to sell out and get complacent. This may be a decent pop album for some other artist, but I've thoroughly enjoyed Donnas albums of years past and this PALES in comparison. Very vanilla, very much by the numbers... \n\nTo add insult to injury, the DualDisc has a technical snafu that cuts off the last track after about 58 seconds. I've exchanged two copies of it now to no avail, and now I read on the Donnas website that THE ENTIRE PRODUCTION RUN of the Dualdisc has this screw up, which is unforgiveable for a major label release. \n\nSo in the end we have an uninspired album with technical (and artistic) difficulties. Very disappointing. I'll go back to listening to the new Green Day and Sum 41 CDs -- at least they've still got attitude and energy.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nLeonard Cohen Met the Donnas and this is the result, October 29, 2004\nReviewer: Robert Hindla (Bohemia, New York USA) \nThis record reminds me of the sulky Samantha Jones in the 5th season of Sex and the City, during her train trip to San Francisco. Her fuse fizzled when she confronted the shabby linoleum-floored world of Amtrak, but she recovered by the 29th minute of the episode. Her resuscitation gives me hope the Donnas will convalesce successfully and return to full mattress-rocking form on their next album. This time, they left their catchy hooks at home on their nightstands; the hooks, like the one in 'Don't Get Me Busted,' or the one in 'Midnight Snack,' that goes 'I want a little piece of you for my midnight snack' aren't heard. On the old records, conquest was either proposed or achieved; it was a fait accompli; here it's a struggle; here there is a bruise, but no pleasure. What pleasure there is comes from the expert production. Letting the sound on this record wash o'er one brings some relief. Let us sincerely hope, however, that the 'Matrix' never shows up on a Donnas record. \n\nThe tunes are adequate, but no more. I thought the first cut released, 'Fall Behind Me,' was a compromise between competing forces - those of the band, and that of the record company, because it seemed so unrepresentative of the band's previous work - and that its release was the result of the confusion that almost saw 'It's on the Rocks' released as the single from 'Spend the Night,' instead of 'Take It Off.' On further listening, it seems to be about the catchiest tune on the CD. I would probably have released 'I Don't Want to Know,' which rocks harder. It sounds better to me than the insipidly coiling and uncoiling lick on 'Fall Behind Me.' And whoever was listening should have spotted the similarity of 'It Takes One to Know One'to 'A Little Like a Refuge.' \n\nThe source of my discontent is that the Donnas have changed genres from punk/pop to indie pop. If I wanted to hear some sensitive guy tunelessly mewling about failed relationships I could go to Ludlow Street (NYC) on any of the seven nights of the week. I want the Donnas to smash me in the nose, as if with their palms, with joy in their liberated sexuality, not wrap me in Leonard Cohen's cold, clammy fog. I'm wringing my hands - they should be too, because they've lost their way to the back seat and into my heart. We turn to the Donnas for relief from existential torsion. \n\nHey girls, give me the kiss in the sun that was your previous recording. Authenticity comes in the fleshly variety, too. I want your desire and your sweat, not your darn poetry, unless you can write like Byron or Keats. And I want to be inspired to further understanding of how you feel about it, the way that Sex and the City aspires to furthering the understanding of the psychological and physiological need for connectedness, never otherwise admitted in the mass media, let alone explored. \n\nMaybe you could take up drugs and drink to get over this barren patch. What's behind the curtain? Because of the double standard, women who write songs about sex are supposed to be engaged in irony - I remember, despite your high-school gum-cracking style of conversation in the segment about making the video, that Cynthia Lennon was a well-hidden secret. But then, maybe there should be a little mystery. Liz Phair's once shocking revelations have become dull. \n\nYou know it, Donna's: AC/DC isn't dull. That's the attitude! \n\nI've probably misunderstood the whole thing, haven't I? Unlike Fox Mulder, I don't want to believe - that things could be as dull and untheatrical as seem to be. \n\nTo add insult to injury, your new web site is nowhere near as good as the last one. Bring the old one back. \n\nWomen, take a vacation, you've been working too hard, too long. It's about art, talent, and giftedness. Working hard could be considered important, but it'll never bring to your work what recharged psychic batteries can. \n\nHalf.com Album Credits\nButch Walker, Producer\n\nAlbum Notes\nThis is a DualDisc, which contains a CD on one side of the disc and a DVD on the other.\n\nThe Donnas: Brett Anderson (vocals, piano); Allison Robertson (guitar, background vocals); Maya Ford (bass guitar, background vocals); Torry Castellano (drums, percussion, background vocals).\n\nRecording information: Conway Studios, Los Angeles, California (2004).\n\nThough the Donnas' sound bears elements of punk (they did, after all, start out on Lookout Records, original home of Green Day) and garage rock, they've largely eschewed the trappings of either since the very beginning. As with their previous five records, GOLD MEDAL is simply a straight-up, no-frills rock & roll album, owing as much to the Runaways as it does to the Ramones. The Donnas have come off as tough girls since the beginning, and they don't soften their sound a bit here. Biting, primal guitar hooks, snarling vocals, and thundering, martial drums rage from start to finish, full of grit and fire, but streamlined to the bare essentials by Chris Lord-Alge's high-efficiency production. By refusing to bow to the genre specifications of pop-punk, alt-rock, or anything else, the Donnas craft a timeless edifice of rock & roll fury on GOLD MEDAL that's both eminently accessible and undeniably powerful.\n\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW\nSomebody out there pissed off the Donnas real bad, and now the four sassy chicks from Palo Alto, California, are getting their revenge with Gold Medal -- a full album of hard rockin', bird-flipping tunes that come on like punky updates of "You're So Vain." Five albums in, these ladies have outgrown their limited palette of good-time party tunes about boys, cars and getting high, and have tapped into an emotional well full of more bile than anyone could have expected. \n"Friends like mine will never let you down/Until you hit the ground," Brett "Donna A" Anderson snarls on "Friends Like Mine." "It Takes One to Know One" taunts the dude in question with lines such as "I may not be a man/But you're not one either." With help from producer Butch Walker, the Donnas indulge their Eighties hair-metal obsession more than ever before, with guitarist Allison "Donna R" Robertson wailing on solos that would make AC/DC's Angus Young proud. Posted Nov 11, 2004 -- JENNY ELISCU
This misc cd contains 12 tracks and runs 42min 40sec.
Freedb: ab09fe0c
Buy: from Amazon.com

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