Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Helmet
Helmet tabs Helmet discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Helmet guitar tabs

CD reviews

Betty

Helmet - Betty Audio CD

A fair review of the Helmet "Betty" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Helmet reviews here, or go back to the Helmet tabs.

Band: Helmet
Title: Betty
Rating:

Release Date: 1994-06-21
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Wilma's Rainbow 2: I Know 3: Biscuits for Smut 4: Milquetoast 5: Tic 6: Rollo 7: Street Crab 8: Clean 9: Vaccination 10: Beautiful Love 11: Speechless 12: Silver Hawaiian 13: Overrated 14: Sam Hell

Investigating Betty
This is an album that is not so much written and produced, as it is composed and carefully played. Arriving on the scene 2 years after the seminal, pile-driving riff-heavy masterpiece Meantime, Betty challenged all that had come before it. The techniques and themes at work are still reminiscent of earlier Helmet- the drop-D tuning, drill press riffs, building, holding and releasing tension. Rather, it is the way these elements are arranged that make the difference. Make no mistake, first time listeners expecting the full-on frontal assault of Strap it On, or a reprise of Meantime will be disappointed. However, repeat listeners who have the patience and frame of mind will be rewarded with what is one of the best CDs of the 90s. The inscrutable lyrics of "I Know", the enigmatic "Tic", and the amenable "Clean" are better than anything ever written by the Beatles. All of Helmet's famous elements are here, heck, even down to the hilarious, jangling "Sam Hell". This is a master work of its era that rewards careful listening, and whose appeal is sure to grow with time. Betty is a fine gal indeed.

A Near Miss!
A great album if you remove the filler,("Biscuits for Smut","Beautiful Love","The Silver Hawaiian",and "Sam Hell". Helmet's third album. ). Not as great as Meantime but close.

Betty Rocks
Almost every song is awesome. This is a great CD. Any self-respecting rock music lover should have this CD in his or her collection. I was lucky enough to grow up in the '90s when this CD first came out. I listen to it now and the music brings back a lot of good memories.

Betty (1994)
There is Helmet, and there is TOOL, and both were introduced to me by my friend Chris who currently plays in the LA based band My Ruin. There are two bands I associate with one person. Borrowing ''Undertow'' and ''Betty'' won these two bands a brand new fan. So I cannot think of either band without thinking of my friend Chris, and his great taste in music.

I purchased ''Betty'' after borrowing it. I also went out and bought their earlier albums 'Meantime' and 'Strap It On'. 'Strap It On' definitely being the hardcore of the 3, 'Meantime' smoothing it out some, but by 'Betty' and the encouragement to get Page Hamilton to sing, you have a great album. One of my favourites from the 90's, and definitely one of its best.

One thing that always worked against Helmet, was the fact that Page Hamilton was a studied Jazz player always seemed to get in the way of what he was doing in Helmet. I've even done it just there in this review. But I cannot remember a single article about Helmet that did not mention ''Hamilton studied Jazz at. . . . but plays hard rock . . . . . ''. It got in the way of what was going on or what was expected to be heard from a Helmet album. Or that Hamilton was selling you short by not playing Jazz and seemingly giving you ''low entertainment'' music, beneath him, and supposedly crawling on the ground to be listened to by you. And I've always believed ''Beautiful Love'' was Hamilton's reaction to this whole media phenomenon of displaying his credentials. I haven't read that it was, or familiar enough with Hamiltion's reaction to this unneeded press coverage, but ''Beautiful Love'' seemed to be a big f*** you to what kept trailing every Helmet release. And by the way, Hamilton's a great jazz player.

Another huge pull to this album, particularly if you're a drummer, is the work of John Stanier. He does some phenomenal drumming on this album, and from that you'd expect he's doing Gene Krupa rolls, or Danny Carey fills, or Neil Peart syncopated beats. He's not. He's doing something that's as no frills as it can be, but he makes every song absolutely special. ''Rollo'' being a prime example of how good he is as a drummer. Stanier was a huge influence on the way I wrote drum parts for heavier edged music that I write. More than 10 years after Betty, Stanier's style still shows up in my own compositions. He is truly a fantastic drummer, but listen to ''Milquetoast'', ''Street Crab'' or ''Vaccination'' for proof. Whenever listing my favourite drummers, Stanier is always in that Top 10. Underrated. Unsung.

The album itself is practically perfect from beginning to end. Hamilton's singing I associate with that of an Ace Frehley or Jimi Hendrix. No they are not the greatest singers, but they have something that truly brings across they mean what they sing, and the occasionally flat note or rawness only lends to what the song is doing. I cannot think of ''Biscuits For Smut'' with a more refined vocal. And I may sing the chorus of ''Vaccination'' as opposed to screaming or growling it, but I don't think it sounds better or improves it in any way.

Fans of 'Strap It On' may not find the Helmet they were accustomed to on ''Betty''. Though an echo of it remains in the song ''Tic''. This collection of songs is more in line with where Meantime's 'Unsung' was going, but vastly improved and more memorable. Or that may be just me, and how much affection I have for ''Betty''. As said, its practically a perfect album, my only regret is not having the vinyl version with the extra songs on it. But I'll be looking for it for sure, preferring vinyl over CD anyway.

The songs themselves Amazon does not allow enough words for. Opening up with ''Wilma's Rainbow'' is at least 200 words there that could be written. And the album just keeps delivering after this opening statement. ''Clean'' has long been a favourite song from this album, but then I think of ''Street Crab'' and automatically change my mind. It's an album where every song is a favourite, and those albums are pretty rare to find. We sometimes give our ''less favoured'' tracks other hits or an entire miss, and I always believe reappraisal is something that should be applied to any artist or song. But ''Betty'' has no favourite tracks or those I consider 'filler'. Even the ''The Silver Hawaiian'' would have been a great direction for Helmet to have gone in with Bogdan in the band. They could have formed a completely different enterprise doing Hard Hip Hop Rock, calling themselves whatever they felt like, and been equally as successful at it and sounding at home. Bogdan & Stanier were a phenomenal rhythm section, and ''The Silver Hawaiian'' showcases this better than any other song on ''Betty''.

This is an album I can highly, highly recommend. To me it's one of the most important albums of the 90's, from a definitely unsung band.

.

Betty CD release missing three tracks...why?
Anyone know why? Minus one star for that unforgivable omission. The songs "Flushings" "Thick" and "Pariah" which appear on the vinyl version of this album do not appear on the CD.

In any case,it's an awesome album. . . WHATEVER form you buy it in.

You can see a complete list of all Helmet discography, or go back to the Helmet tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.