Pat Benatar - Live From Earth

Released in 1983

After releasing four studio albums Pat Benatar chose to do with her fifth album, Live From Earth, what many rock and metal acts do when they want to profit from a new release without actually creating new material: she released a live album. I realize that came perilously close to being a backhanded statement, so I'll acknowledge that there are many fans that very much enjoy having as authentic and live an experience they can away from an actual stadium. Though some artists abuse their fans with repeated and unnecessary live albums, released responsibly there's a place for them.

So with all that absolutely irrelevant commentary aside, I'm glad to say that Live From Earth is a very strong live album. Actually, it's not completely live since there are two new studio tracks tagged onto the end: Love is a Battlefield and Lipstick Lies.

I'm not going to bother choosing highlights from this album since live recordings generally consist of regurgitated material. I can say that the track selection was top notch, not just because the selection included many of her best hits but also because the song choice provided a perfect demonstration of her vocal versatility and range. Now for the negatives…

At times the sound mixing is flawed, causing the instrumentation to almost drown out Pat Benatar's vocals (and with a voice as powerful as hers, that's hard to do!). In addition occasionally the guitar work will lose some of its distinction and resemble a wall of sound. Now both of the above flaws are the nature of the beast for live albums (one of the reasons I prefer studio works), so they shouldn't detract you from Live From Earth if you enjoy live releases. The issues exist, but they're not terribly distracting nor are they worse than most live albums.

Stylistically for the most part the songs are what you would come to expect. Pat Benatar's passionate vocals during the live performances show she is a real rocker, not a studio creation. The only gripe I have (and perhaps I'm getting nitpicky) is that Benatar's musicians chose to speed the tempo of Hit Me With Your Best Shot, and despite the fact Pat was able to keep up it sounded unnatural. Perhaps that's because I grew familiar with the original, so the accelerated version takes some getting used to.

How about the two studio releases? Well, if you grew up in the 80's you would already know that Love is a Battlefield performed extremely well on the radios. Lipstick Lies, while not as catchy as Love is a Battlefield, is also a darn good rock song.

Overall even though I'm generally not the fondest of live albums I can happily say I enjoyed Live From Earth. It's an absolute must for Benatar fans that enjoy live recordings, and a solid addition for the rest.

Rating: 7 stars

Track List Fire and Ice Looking for a Stranger I Want Out We Live for Love Hell Is for Children Hit Me With Your Best Shot Promises in the Dark Heartbreaker Love Is a Battlefield Lipstick Lies

CD

DVD

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