''Extreme'' is the first studio album by the American glam metal band Extreme, released in 1989 by

A&M Records A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...

. The album reached No. 80 on the ''Billboard'' 200, and produced the minor Mainstream Rock hit "Kid Ego". The single "Play with Me" is featured on the soundtrack for the comedy film '' Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'', an opening episode of season 4 of '' Stranger Things'', and the 2007 rhythm game, '' Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s''.

Music

The album has been primarily described as glam metal, but has also been described as funk-metal, and

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

Reception

The album sold modestly well at around 300,000 units, and was favored by heavy metal fans, but did not achieve significant mainstream success. Three of the album's singles, "Little Girls", "Kid Ego", and "Mutha (Don't Wanna Go to School Today)", received medium airplay on '' Headbangers Ball''. Extreme was met with mixed reception. AllMusic gave the album three stars saying,"Extreme's first album shows the band struggling to shed their influences, particularly Van Halen, and develop a style of their own; consequently, it's wildly uneven, but guitarist

Nuno Bettencourt Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt (born September 20, 1966) is a Portuguese-American guitarist. He became known as the lead guitarist of the Boston rock band Extreme. Bettencourt has recorded a solo album and has founded rock bands including ...

is always worth hearing". In his review for '' Extreme II: Pornograffitti'', Bryan Rolli called their debut album "rote glam metal". ''Rolling Stone'' writer Kim Neely gave the album three stars, but called it an "extremely good listen".

Track listing

All songs written by Cherone & Bettencourt, except "Mutha (Don't Wanna Go to School Today)" by Cherone, LeBeaux & Hunt.

Personnel

* Pat Badger –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, backing vocals *

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, backing vocals, percussion, orchestration, mixing * Gary Cherone – lead & backing vocals, design, logo design * Paul Geary –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, percussion, backing vocals, logo design ;Additional musicians * The Lollipop Kids – background vocals (tracks 5, 11) * Rapheal May – harmonica (track 1) ;Production * Mack – producer on all tracks, except 2, 3 and 4, engineer, mixing * Bob St. John – engineer, mixing * Nigel Green – mixing on tracks 2, 3 and 4 * Howie Weinberg – mastering at Masterdisk, New York * Jeff Gold – art direction * Harris Savides – photography

Charts

Accolades

References

{{Authority control 1989 debut albums Albums produced by Reinhold Mack A&M Records albums Extreme (band) albums Funk metal albums Hard rock albums by American artists