An excellent debut

Sunburn (1998.) Fuel's first album.

It was in 1998 that modern rockers Fuel released their first full-length album, Sunburn. In this era, rock music stylings were beginning to change - somewhat for the better, and somewhat for the worse. To the present day, Fuel has sold suprisingly large numbers of their three albums. This is where it all began for the modern rockers. How does the band's debut album measure up? Read on and see.

The album begins with the rather thoughtlessly-titled track, Untitled Track (I'm not making this up - this is actually what the song is called!) This is an interesting track that fuses heavy and melodic rock stylings, and it serves as a strong opening track. The first track of an album should always be one that will grab the listener's attention and hold onto it - and this one does just that. Track two is Bittersweet - my all-time favorite song from this band. This is the perfect fusion of heavy and lighter stuff, and it's no surprise that it would go on to become one of the band's biggest hits. Another fairly popular rocker to emerge from this album is Jesus Or A Gun, a hard rocker in which the singer questions which of the two title objects is his true savior. The song rocks hard and rocks right, and the theme only adds to the overall excellence. The band also serves up some melodic stuff that almost certainly won't fail to please. Among the tracks that follow this style are the underrated title track, and the more popular Shimmer. The second half of the album isn't quite as good as the first, but it's still excellent material. All in all, Fuel's debut album is a very good one.

The 2003 reissue of this album features two bonus tracks not found on the original release. These bonus tracks are nothing too special, but they're still a nice touch, and a nice incentive to purchase the new version of the album over the old one. If you already have the older version of the album, it's NOT necessary to shell out the extra cash and get the new version, though - the bonus tracks aren't THAT neat.

All in all, this is an excellent debut album from the band that has gone onto become one of the biggest names in modern-day rock. THIS is by far their strongest album, because after this one, they very gradually began wimping out (this really shows on more recent hits like the strictly mediocre Bad Day.) If you want to experience the band the way they were meant to be experienced, get this album - it captures them in their prime.

Burn, baby, BURN!!!!!!!

This is an album, by FUEL, called "Sunburn". Of course, you probably knew that BEFORE you read this. But what you might NOT have known is that FUEL, possibly my favorite band in the history of all bands that have ever been bands in history, have "re-issued" this album. This, OBVIOUSLY, means that the album has been re-released, featuring new artwork, new tracks, and of course, new little stickers all over the packaging!



If you're somehow familiar with the original "Sunburn" album, then you've basically been acquainted with this new edition. All of the original tracks are here(duh), and the new tracks include a song written for the Godizilla soundtrack, `Walk the Sky', a fun little ditty that features Jeff Abercrombie`s bass-playing talents brilliantly, as well as a very cool vocal melody that I`ve fallen in love with, just like all FUEL songs. The other new track is an awesome song called `King for a Day', which is a really interesting, mostly acoustic piece with some truly SICK spanish-flavored guitar playing by Carl Bell, and while Brett Scallions` vocals seem a little `edge-less' on this song, he makes up for it at the end of the track. I'm kinda disappointed that the "Sunburn" b-side `Sunday Girl' wasn't included as a bonus track; it truly deserves more recognition than it gets, and I`ve love to hear the song in it`s entirety, as I`ve only heard 1 min. clips, which isn`t enough for any FUEL song.



The artwork is much cooler than it`s original form, featuring the same Chair-man sitting in a room with a flaming floor of fire, but it's organized a little differently with a more illustrated look about it. The Chair-man looks a little more human... rather than a tormented soul experiencing spontaneous combustion... who is now holding a sun instead of a tambourine.



If you don't already have this wonderful piece of plastic, there's never been a better time to get it. Great album, great band, great music. And what else would you expect from FUEL?

The first Fuel Album - re-released

I was surprised to learn this was Fuel's first album release and that this version of the album is a re-issue. 'Bittersweet' and 'Shimmer' are the stand out songs of this album, which gives hints to the listener of how good Fuel would become. The music since this first album has evolved and over time and experience has gotten much better. The bonus tracks, there are two of them, are not that flashy but still its good to hear the acoustic 'Walk The Sky'.