Like so many I discovered D-A-D when they released “No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims” in 1989. The music industry tried to pigeon hole them into the 80’s Hair Band movement, and they fit to some degree, I listened to all that stuff, but I always knew that D-A-D was different.
They started off as what was described as “Cowpunk”. Their first two albums were very different from what they sound like today, it’s quite remarkable the transformation they’ve made. Their 1986 album “Call Of The Wild” has a couple representatives on this “Best Of” collection. “Marlboro Man” and a live version of “Riding With Sue” and “It’s After Dark”. You still hear some small elements of that sound moving forward, some slide guitar for instance, and it’s the early days that help set them apart in the future.
“D.A.D. Draws a Circle” came out in 1987 and was slightly more bluesy as their evolution continued. There’s a live version of “I Won’t Cut My Hair” that’s just crazy. Jesper Binzer just goes off on the vocals, it’s just a taste of how their live shows were just bat-shit crazy too. The uptempo “Isn’t That Wild” is also on here.
“No Fuel…” has been one of my personal all-time favorite rock albums so of course I had to look for which songs made the cut. Of course “Sleeping My Day Away” led off the double set. “Point Of View” and a live version of “Jihad” were also on here. Missing were “Girl Nation”, the second single, and “Rim Of Hell”. I guess when you have 12 albums out you have to narrow it down somehow to get a fair representation of you legacy.
“Riskin’ It All” in 1991 was their last international major label release. If any of the 80’s bands could have survived the grunge/alt scene these guys could have, but this album was just a slightly softer version of “No Fuel…”. I still thoroughly enjoyed the album, but in retrospect, maybe they should have gone to their early sound when they were truly more of an Alternative band. Hindsight is 20/20 of course and as I mentioned earlier they had already been labeled as an 80’s band, which was ridiculous. Listen to D-A-D, Def Leppard and Poison back to back, very few similarities if you have any ability to decipher what you’re hearing, but I digress. “Grow Or Pay”, “Bad Craziness” and “Laugh And A Half” are the tracks represented.
So after Warner decided not to keep moving forward with the band there’s a little gap of four years before 1995’s “Helpyourselfish” was released. At the time I was hoping for something closer to their previous couple of album but over time I really like this album a lot. It’s heavier, darker and yes, more “grunge” based to some degree. Unfortunately “Reconstrucdead” is the only song from the album on here.
“Simpatico” came out in 1997 and leaned more into the Alternative sound. I would call the album more experimental and even though I didn’t love everything on the album I could appreciate their talents. “Home Alone 4” is the only track on this compilation.
“Everything Glows” was their first album of the new millennium and their first with new (current drummer) Laust Sonne. They moved more into a mainstream and adult sound on this album and even though there’s some strong writing I personally wasn’t crazy about their sound on this one. Regardless, the title track, “Nineteenhundredandyesterday” and the most unique track on the album “Evil Twin” made the cut.
In 2002 D-A-D released “Soft Dogs”, which is one album I’m not as familiar with. Only the title track was put on the album.
It 2005 “Scare Yourself” was released, and in my opinion their best album of the 2000’s. I was sad to see that one of their more memorable cuts in their library “A Good Day (To Give It Up)” was left off the album. It wasn’t actually released so that’s my problem not theirs lol. The title track for “Scare Yourself’ was the only cut on their “Best Of Collection”.
Another album I really like was 2008’s “Monster Philosophy”, but only the title track made the cut, which is unfortunate, but again, you only have so much time and so many songs. This album had a wide variety of stuff on it if you want to hear different sides of the band.
“DIC·NII·LAN·DAFT·ERD·ARK” from 2011 only had one song on here as well, but it’s a solid cut “I Want What She’s Got”. The final cuts come from their last studio album put out in 2019. “Burning Star” and the title track to “A Prayer For The Loud” were included.
So now you know what’s on the album, and I would say this is pretty fair representation of the band. They have heavier stuff that didn’t get on here, but this was mostly an album of “singles”. The benefit of having this one is that you get a good taste of the band and the different eras in one compilation. You can hear what I love about the band, their uniqueness and amazing song-writing ability.
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https://d-a-d.com/
https://www.afm-records.de/en/d/83-d-a-d-2.html
