Saturday Shuffle: Soil, Jackyl, Brand New Sin, Iron Maiden, Megadeth

Today I launch a new weekly feature here that serves little point other than maybe occasionally embarrassing me or making me remember a record I’ve forgotten about.

I call it the Saturday Shuffle, and it goes like this: I’ll put my music collection on shuffle and comment each week on the first five songs that come blasting out of the speakers. No skips, no hedging over potentially embarrassing tunes that might pop up. The only songs that I’ll skip are duplicates that I’ve covered before. I hope you enjoy it, maybe find something that you’ve not heard or forgotten or possibly get an occasional laugh.

And away we go:

“Pick Me Up,” Soil. From the album True Self (2006). Though I liked Soil’s early stuff, I didn’t spend a lot of time with True Self and haven’t revisited it recently, so this song is coming at me kind of fresh. There’s a nice riff to open the song, and it’s kind of catchy. It certainly reminds me of something from Scars, which I really liked. Maybe I should revisit this album.

“Push Comes to Shove,” Jackyl. From the album Push Comes to Shove (1994). I wasn’t as sold on Jackyl’s second album as I was on their debut. I liked it, but thought there was a good bit more filler overall. The title track, though, is just an awesome, grooving piece of hard rock. I’m sorely tempted to repeat this two or three times, but I’ve got to move on. Another record that’s destined to make its way back into my regular rotation.

“Dead Man Walking,” Brand New Sin. From the album Recipe for Disaster (2005). I absolutely loved this record when it came out, but haven’t listened to it in years, and Brand New Sin’s more recent work hasn’t done much for me. “Dead Man Walking” was never one of my favorite songs on the record, and it still isn’t. There’s a decent groove to it, but it’s not as catchy as some of the other Southern-flavored hard rock on the record.

“Prodigal Son,” Iron Maiden. From the album Killers (1981). Oh, man, my absolute favorite tune of the Di’Anno era of Iron Maiden. Yes, it’s a ballad of sorts. Imagine that. I just love the mystical nature of this song, and that electric guitar lick between the lines of the verse is killer. Just an awesome, awesome tune.

“Victory,” Megadeth. From the album Youthanasia (1994). When Youthanasia, one of my least favorite Megadeth albums came out, “Victory” was one of my favorite songs. It’s a shout-out tune that references just about every thing the band had done to that point in the lyrics. From the perspective of 20 more years, it seems a little silly, but I’m still sitting here bobbing my head to it.