Play IT Loud - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

NME magazine reviewed the album upon release. "Aggressive - that's what the music and vocalising of Slade seems to be, though they vary the volume with great skill, at times quiet, then turning it up and shouting at the listener as in "Know Who You Are". They also bark out a love song to "Angelina", and get a good rhythm going with handclaps on "Dirty Joker", and on "Sweet Box" they attack the music ferociously with guitars and voices. Of the more tuneful items (and the tune isn't given much of a chance on most tracks) is "Could I". The lead vocalist is inclined to shout too much, but then, maybe that is the appeal of the group. Pity their names and the instruments they play aren't mentioned on the sleeve, where only their pictures appear. Chas Chandler gets the credit of producing."

In August 1991, Q Magazine reviewed CD re-issues of Beginnings, Play It Loud and Slade Alive! in one review, using the opening line "Three re-issues from the Slade archive that cover their pre-Merry Xmas japery". For Play It Loud, a rating of two stars was given, with the review stating "By 1970's Play It Loud, they'd dropped the 'Ambrose' and succumbed to record company ideas, adopting skinhead garb, while giving their sound a tighter groove, best illustrated by the single of that moment, 'The Shape of Things to Come', which led the music press into clamour for non-glamour and a Next Big Thing tag. Some 20 years on, the track still sounds exciting and belligerent but the rest lacks real fire."

Record Mirror magazine reviewed the single "Know Who You Are" upon release, "Chas Chandler, ex-Animal bassist, states categorically that this group will make it. But then he's said that before about Jimi Hendrix. Lost momentarily in a skinhead scene, this group is basically most musicianly. This is a strange, staccato sort of production, lead voice stamping, as in bovver boots, on the lyrics. Stark simplicity behind. The effect is very good indeed. Darn near slayed me - chart chance."

NME reviewed the "Know Who You Are" single upon release, "A powerful item from the skinhead group, making its Polydor debut. The lyric is forcefully delivered, virtually snarled at time. It's a hard-hitting piece of philosophy with a walloping beat, which explodes into a wall of sound in the title hook. Insistent and gripping, but limited in its appeal."

NME reviewed the "Shape of Things To Come" single upon release, "The Midlands group whose main claim to fame is their skinheads. But in this rip-roaring rocker, the quartet also display abundant musicial ability. The fervently shouted solo vocal rides above the thunderous beat and raucous guitar sounds, to create a dynamism and a fiery attack reminiscent of the early days of The Who."

The fan trivia of the title order is upside-down and includes a twist at the end of the album similar to a Jig-Saw Puzzle arranged within the production. The order for listening is Side One: Sweet Box, Dirty Joker, Angelina, Pouk Hill, I Remember, Know Who You Are, Side Two: The Shape of Things To Come, One Way Hotel, Could I, Raven, See Us Here, Dapple Rose. Backward song titles improve the overall impression of the album, probably, as originally conceived by the band, although, The Shape of Things to Come, appears to be the best hit title opening, and other arrangements are possible.