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List Price: $7.99 | | Label: Sony
Salesrank: 18351
Released: March 19, 2002 |
| Our Price: $5.38 |
| Used Price: $3.76 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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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
10. All Fired Up [*]
11. Locked In [Live][*]
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.
Usually I don't conform! 
2009-11-30 - Usually I don't conform to what other people think, I have my own mind, but this time priest really don't deliver the goods. A very poor album is turbo. The only decent songs here are out in the cold, reckless and maybe locked in. 1.5 stars. Parental guidance brings it down to a 1.5 star album.
Priest Fans Left 'Out In The Cold'? 
2009-06-25 - (Written By Metalhead Ted)
1986 was a great time to be in high school, but the Metal scene had changed so much by then. Bon Jovi, Poison, and Europe ruled the radio and
also M-TV. Priest had been on a creative peak with several amazing albums behind them and comfortable being a household and brand name for Heavy Metal. The 'serious' groups of the 70's hated being called 'Heavy Metal'
but Priest embraced it and ran with it all the way to the bank. I won't use the term 'sellouts' because Preist has never sold out like Van Halen/Motley Crue/ Ratt/ or Kiss. They are guilty, however, of "Twin Turbos"...That was the bright idea they had for an epic, bloated, double-album which would wipe out those old 70's rock cliches for good and take us down another highway all in the name of the future of Heavy Metal!
I have to give them credit for trying something new. But that highway is littered with the corpses of those Rock bands that decided to "change their sound" or to "introduce our fans to another side of us as a band".
( Just look what happened to Metallica, Rush, or Van Halen!) So Priest forged ahead with their bigger hair, flashier wardrobe, bigger set-pieces/codpieces, and guitar-synthesizers! This will sound familar, but only 2 tracks from this album stand out as great: "Turbo" the title-track and "Out in the Cold" the power-ballad from hell. I still get chills ( in a good way) hearing Rob sing that one live. But that "double-album" idea fell short and it does sound like a few of those tracks on "Ram It Down"
were leftover spare-parts from the Twin-Turbo Motorcycle Machine of Death.
So after the exhaust cleared, the album was a big seller and the video got played on M-TV ( complete with cheesey miniature-metal skeletons who danced and played and jerked themselves off riding motorcycles in the desert) Original Priest fans were stunned at how the band had morphed into a parody of KISS without makeup and recorded unforgivable tracks like "Parental Guidance" and "Rock You All Around the World"...The good news is that they learned from their mistakes and would never second guess what their fans truly wanted to hear and see. If Priest was out of touch with their fans as the critics kept saying-It was the one and only time it happened. I see that the newer fans today seem to like Turbo more
than we did at the time which is good. It's not as bad as what Bon Jovi or Nelson or Kiss or Damn Yankees put out at that time. The 2 Bonus Tracks later added are the weak "All Fired Up" and a live version of "Locked In". Ironically, in that video of Locked In, Halford seems excited as the hot and kinky blonde cave-girl locks him in a steel cage. Do Glenn and K.K. rescue him in time for the show? You'll have to see for yourself.
Glam Metal
2009-05-31 - THis is an under rated album by Priest because it is viewed as a sell out. Went platinum on name recognition alone. The songs are much more pop oriented, using synth guitars and processed vocals. Still, not a bad album but their age was starting to show.
Judas Priest's Glam Metal Masterpiece 
2009-04-29 - This is Judas Priest's 10th album from 1986, and, the way I see it, is one of the best albums they've ever made.
Turbo is just a little different than other Judas Priest albums. It's still heavy, pure metal, but the band has much more polished, more developed melodies on this album than on most of their others. It's basically glam metal, which is NOT a bad thing. There are some EXCELLENT synthesizer accents in these songs, especially in "Turbo Lover" and in the ballad "Out in the Cold." However, the synths are balanced very well with the rest of the music, and the guitars are still dominant, as they should be in metal. The way that Rob Halford's vocal melodies intertwine with the guitar work is beautiful and makes every song sound unique. There are also some excellent shredding guitar solos here, provided by Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing.
Every single track on this album is exceptionally strong, and they're all very memorable and catchy. Judas Priest has never been afraid to experiment with their sound, and Turbo is a very successful result of that.
