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List Price: $5.98 | | Label: Sony
Salesrank: 617090
Released: October 17, 1990 |
| Our Price: $15.00 |
| Used Price: $0.03 |
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| Media: Audio Cassette |
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Turbo Track Listing:
1. Turbo Lover
2. Locked In
3. Private Property
4. Parental Guidance
5. Rock You All Around the World
6. Out in the Cold
7. Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days
8. Hot for Love
9. Reckless
Turbo Reviews:
The perfect soundtrack for the mid-80s 
2009-12-09 - Generally speaking, by 1985 heavy metal had split into two factions -- hair/glam metal and thrash/power/black metal. The former was overtly commercial while the latter sneered at pop trappings. 70s metal bands had to choose which camp they'd occupy. Kiss, Scorpians, Van Halen, Whitesnake and Alice Cooper all took the hair metal route. Early 80s bands had the same dilemma. A perfect example would be Motley Crue: Their 1983 album SHOUT AT THE DEVIL was 100% pure heavy metal with an ultra-heavy, aggressive sound (for back then anyway), but their next album THEATRE OF PAIN (1985) took a painfully obvious glam turn.
From 1980-84 Judas Priest released four albums and sorta road the fence between these two factions, but by '85 they were ready for a stylistic experiment, especially in light of the fact that they had taken their brand of metal as far as it could possibly go by 1984. Although they had flirted with pop metal up to that point TURBO is a dyed-in-the-wool 80s hair metal album. It's almost as if they eyed Van Halen's hugely successful 1984 album and decided, "Hey, we can do that!" (Compare "Out in the Cold" to "I'll Wait").
The story goes that Priest came up with a double album concept called TWIN TURBOS, but the idea was ultimately axed by the studio execs in favor of putting all the more overtly commercial material on the initial album -- TURBO -- and the rest on a later release, which ended up being 1988's RAM IT DOWN. Although RAM IT DOWN is somewhat faster and heavier than the ultra-poppy TURBO they both sound like quintessential mid-80s hair metal to me, which is understandable since both essentially came from the same recording sessions.
Because both TURBO and RAM IT DOWN are clearly hair metal releases most hardcore Priest fans tend to look down on these cds as commercial sell-outs. But put yourself in the band's shoes in 1985 and it becomes clear why they took this turn: They had already released multiple albums full of innovative, blazing metal, much of it very serious and dark, especially all their incredible 70s releases. Now they were ready to come completely out of the darkness, so to speak, lighten up and have a blast -- not to mention, enjoy some financial gain. This is what TURBO is all about -- lightening up and having a good time, "It's time to par-tay!" This vibe is written all over TURBO from start to finish. In fact, TURBO captures the mid-80s spirit so well it plays like the perfect soundtrack for any 80's teen flick.
Without exception, every song on TURBO has 'hit' written all over it, so in that sense there are no bad songs, but my favorite numbers are "Reckless," "Out in the Cold" and "Locked In" followed closely by "Turbo Lover" (great lead solo!), "Hot for Love" and "Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days." The song titles themselves clearly indicate that Priest had decided to lighten up and just have fun this time out.
"Reckless" was asked to be on the "Top Gun" soundtrack, but the band declined, both because they thought the film would flop and because it would have meant leaving the song off TURBO; in fact, they didn't even know who Tom Cruise was at the time. In hindsight this was a bad decision since the film was a huge success and the soundtrack went on to sell over $5 million in the US (!). This explains why RAM IT DOWN released "Johnny B. Goode" for the movie of the same name in '88, but it was unfortunately a box office flop. Regardless, one listen to "Reckless" and anyone could see that it would have been perfect for the "Top Gun" soundtrack, which would have shot Judas Priest and TURBO into the stratosphere sales-wise with multi-platinum success.
As it turned out TURBO went gold immediately and platinum a year later, so it wasn't a financial failure, and it did lead to the band's most successful tour in '86 called the "Fuel for Life" tour. If there's any doubt to this check out the PRIEST...LIVE! segment of the ELECTRIC EYE dvd and you'll see that Priest were at the top of their game and the height of their popularity, full of energy and pizzazz; not to mention TURBO attracted the babes in droves. See the concert yourself for verification; also check out the short popular film "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" (it's hilarious!). Yet, despite its success, TURBO didn't bring in the multi-platinum sales anticipated and deserved.
I stayed far away from TURBO for years and years because I don't particularly like 80s hair metal; besides, just look at the cover and compare it to, say, SAD WINGS, SIN AFTER SIN or BRITISH STEEL. The cover just screams mid-80s party metal. But now I'm less one-dimensional and not always in the mood for dark, heavy, serious and moody. Sometimes I just want to lighten up and have a blast, to which TURBO fills the bill perfectly.
Give TURBO a fresh listen and re-evaluation. It's great for what it is and not the worthless turd many fans make it out to be, although you could say it's a victim of changes.
Judas Priest 
2009-06-09 - I love this album . Always have . Use to have it on cassette.
This album kicks *** !
Not Thier Best But Still Good
2009-02-09 - This was the album where Tipton and Downing started using guitar synthesizers. I think they pulled it off pretty good, but for the metal purist, they may come off as a bit "disco-y."
This is by no means their heaviest, or their most brilliant, but it is still good rock and has some decent songs on it. I think Turbo is by far the most prominent here, with Parental Guidance coming in a close second.
This is good metal, with a flair for electronics and they did a decent job. I'll continue to play the album when the mood strikes and I recommend it.
Better than you think
2007-03-24 - Turbo has to be one of the most unjustly maligned metal albums of all time. Listening to everyone complain, you'd think the band suddenly became Bon Jovi overnight. No, Turbo is not the same kind of metal album that British Steel was, but when you look at it objectively, it's not that far removed either.
The fact is; Turbo flat-out rocks! Yes, they added synthesizers, but I'd argue that they definitely didn't abuse them. Yes, there are a couple of goofier songs obviously meant to be "hits", but can you honestly tell me a song like "Parental Guidance" is that much different than "Breaking the Law"? This is an album with plenty of songs I would call "essential" Priest tracks, including "Turbo Lover", "Locked In", "Out in the Cold", hell, pretty much the whole second half of the album! Turbo doesn't have any more filler tracks than any other Priest album from that era.
Call it a sellout attempt if you will, but I find it amusing that Painkiller, the band's transparent attempt to "un-sellout" by giving people exactly what they wanted, is so highly regarded while their attempt to try something a bit different is so hated. Truth be told, I find myself playing Turbo a hell of a lot more often than any other Judas Priest album released after 1985.
Bottom Line: If you ignore the conventional wisdom about Turbo and listen to it on its own merits, I think you'll find it to be a perfectly worthy entry in the Judas Priest saga.
I can't stand the way you moving... 
2006-11-19 - So now we get 'Turbo', the worst album in the storied catalogue of Judas Priest! In 1986, Priest was at a crossroads, being that the more commercial success of their hard rock brethren made what seemed like their already tired direction ripe for a change. I mean after Van Halen, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Ratt and even Scorpions scored higher album sales, Priest, a major genre innovator, must have felt they were due for a payday. 'Turbo' is a pretty good mid-80's pop heavy metal record with hooks, melodies and fun, party time lyrics. But it is a lousy Judas Priest album. Is it really a Priest record anyway??? Guys in their mid-thirties complaining about "Parental Guidence"???? Rob Halford singing about "Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days"??? "Private Property"???? The worst has to be "Rock You All Around the World", talk about pandering to young America! I mean it makes me cringe that the same band that made 'Sad Wings of Destiny' ten years previous would turn out such crap. Compare 'Master of Puppets' to 'Turbo' and its not even funny. "Turbo Lover", "Out in the Cold" and "Reckless" are the best of a very bad bunch. Again, I am looking at 'Turbo' in the perspective of a long time Priest fan, to the uninitiated, the songs are about as good as most mainstream metal in the mid-'80s. And this is the best stuff they recorded during the summer of 1985, the rest made it on to 'Ram it Down' and those awful bonus tracks on the reissue albums. I don't blame the band for wanting to get paid but many a real fan was instantly alienated! The concert video release and the live album only added to the cheese factor from this era. It would take one more suckfest then a long over due return to form with 'Painkiller'.
