Urge Overkill-Exit The Dragon (1995)
Artist: Urge Overkill
Title: Exit The Dragon
Label: Geffen
Format: CD
Cat #: GEFD 24818
Year of Release: 1995
Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1995
Listed Condition: VG+/VG+
Sell Date: 8/28/25
Sell Price: $3.09
Discogs Last Sold: 6/27/25 VG+/VG+ $3.00
Low: $0.77
Median: $2.20
Average: $3.13
High: $10.00
Current low price: $1.98
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 46
Have/Want: 613/32
Where Sold: Glen Allen, VA
Time it took to sell: 15 years
Where and When Bought: used Sounds NYC $8.99 sticker still on it
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B
Sad To See It Go: No
Exit The Dragon is a weird record to me. At the time it came out I bought it used for $8.99 probably the month it came out. I don't remember playing it beyond once and not liking it all that much. This, considering I loved pretty much everything the band put out before Exit The Dragon. Urge went on hiatus after that for over a decade, so I never got to reconsider the songs live over years. I'm still overdue to hear 2011's "new one" Rock 'n' Roll Submarine not to mention the next and last one, 2022's Oui. I'll get around to it someday.
That said, maybe I heard Exit The Dragon little more than I remember. Although I felt like I was breaking out a brand-new Urge record most of the time, there were songs that I remembered from long ago. "Need Some Air" in particular with its insistent title refrain, but also acoustic ballad into chorus pedal into 60's pop that was "View of the Rain." Oh duh, that one was on the No Alternative comp before this came out and called "Take A Walk," so that doesn't count. The songs that were videos were "The Break" and "Somebody Else's Body" but I never saw them until today and never knew those tracks were "singles."
I would say this album is far better after putting some focused listens into it. Since it comes from the era where every major label CD was ultimately a double album, it is LONG. As if to add insult to injury it closes with the 8:47 "Digital Black Epilogue." This was not something that was typical of Urge--their albums were usually fairly short. The last major, Saturation, only was a single album and the Touch n' Go years which produced albums consistently under 40 minutes. Saturation was a very strong major label commercial alt rock record from a band with a very solid run. It was hard to follow that up. The prior records all had instant hits and this one required time. The last one they had like that for me was Jesus Urge Superstar back in '89 and that one grew on me in a big way. That was initially a vinyl only album that got tacked on to the excellent Americruiser EP on CD.
Only 30 years to decide I like this. See you in 2041 for the next one.
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