Extreme - III Sides to Every Story (1992)

III Sides To Every Story was the third album released by Boston funk-metal band Extreme.

Their most ambitious work, it is structured as a concept album in three sections labeled as "sides" — a play on the notion of "different sides to a story" and that of "sides" of an album (in LP and cassette media). The sides, mentioned in the song Cupid's Dead as "three sides to every story" are named "Yours", "Mine" and "The Truth", and each features a distinct musical style and lyrical imagery.

Yours is made of hard rock songs, the guitar-centric style the band has explored the most on their previous albums. Their funk-metal tendencies are present in tracks such as "Cupid's Dead", which also features a rap section performed by guest John Preziosa Jr. As a whole, this side deals with political subjects: war ("Warheads"), peace ("Rest In Peace"), government ("Politicalamity"), racism ("Color Me Blind"), media ("Cupid's Dead"). Summing up these matters, the side closes with "Peacemaker Die", a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., which features a recording of his famous I Have A Dream speech.

Mine, in total contrast, deals with introspective subjects. In accordance, the band departs from its guitar sound and experiments with different arrangements on this side, with Nuno Bettencourt taking on keyboards in addition to (and in some tracks, instead of) the guitar. The side opener "Seven Sundays" is a slow waltz with prominent keyboards and no guitars. "Tragic Comic" is a mostly acoustic track telling a light-hearted love story. "Our Father" is sung from the perspective of a child of an absent father. At "Stop The World", the album starts to dive into more philosophical questions, expressing existential doubts — a theme that leads to religion, with "God Isn't Dead?" (written with the verb form as an affirmation but with a question mark — the chorus says "Please tell me God isn't dead… I want to know") and "Don't Leave Me Alone", a dramatic plea. The latter was not included in the CD version due to lack of space; Nuno Bettencourt recalls leaving it out "was like cutting off my arm" [1]. Despite not being bound by the limitations of the CD format, the version of the album downloadable from iTunes also omits "Don't Leave Me Alone".

Finally, The Truth consists of a three-part opus, titled "Everything Under The Sun", ending the three-part album. This side nods to progressive rock not only in format but also in musical style, with changes in time signature and an intricate arrangement, featuring a 70-piece orchestra. Lyrically, the spiritual theme set up in the end of "Mine" is further developed and Christian imagery is very present. However, no final single "truth" is given — instead, the album builds up to a grand finale where the listener is left with a question: "Who Cares?".

In spite of being considered by the band to be their finest work, III Sides To Every Story was a commercial failure, since it did not feature a hit single such as "More Than Words", from its predecessor Pornograffitti. Also, the particular brand of hard rock that Extreme was known for was falling out of favor with the rise of the grunge movement around that time.
Wikipedia

The more I study "typical" hair metal bands, the more I realize that there were no "typical" hair metal bands. Underneath the makeup and big hair, there was talent aplenty. The vast majority of these bands were populated by very good musicians and, more importantly, knew how to write great songs. The band Extreme was no exception.

On their 1989 debut album, Extreme presented the listener with a sound that effectively mixed the guitar pyrotechnics of Van Halen, the swaggering hard rock of Aerosmith and the art-rock of Queen. Pornograffitti, their second album, built and expanded on the groundwork laid down by their debut, creating a masterpiece that was more than just "More Than Words" (a brilliant song but there was more to Extreme than that). Enter Extreme's third album, III Sides to Every Story.

Though they were hair metal, Extreme was more. They had elements of funk metal and progressive rock in their sound from the beginning and this was fully realized on III Sides to Every Story. III Sides is also a concept album divided up into three parts: Yours, Mine and the Truth. This album tackles just about every social and political problem you can think of and, in some ways, it is a bit pretentious and overbearing. But, if you take the songs one at a time, this album ends up being great.

Though III Sides to Every Story was an overambitious project and an often times pretentious album, I think Extreme succeeds here anyway. This album is just as strong and adventurous as Pornograffitti. Extreme successfully mixes hard rock and heavy metal with funk, pop and prog. Extreme has always had progressive tendencies in their music, even though most do not consider Extreme to be progressive. Prog is about musical innovation, not technical masturbation. And Extreme was certainly innovative. Hell, even those of you who have been misled into thinking that progressive bands need be technical, try and find a guitarist more technical than Bettencourt.
Joseph White (geocities.com)