This is a really strange compilation, which I assume is just a money making exercise.
Look – the songs are great, and there are some strange choices, but you have to wonder who would buy this if they had all of Sabbath's stuff already?
What? People like me? Oh yes. I guess you are right...
Rating : Another 'sorta' best-of. 4/5.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
122. Helloween / Better Than Raw. 1998. 3/5.
This album falls into a strange bracket for this band. After the falling-out phase that came from Pink Bubbles Go Ape and the atrocious Chameleon, a change of personnel had brought two further studio albums and a live album that had well and truly gotten the band back on track.
Here however a change is in the air, which succeeds on all levels on the album that FOLLOWS this release. For me, though, Better Than Raw doesn't click at all. The songs seem a bit rushed, with little in the way of a hook to drag you into the album.
The first single, Hey Lord, has a very radio feel about it, but also sounds out of place in the mix of the album. It is probably just me, but there doesn't appear to be a lot of cohesion in the song writing, or the arrangement of the songs themselves.
Perhaps I am being a bit picky. I don't know for sure. I do know that from the time I bought this album it just didn't sit right. Having given it three straight listens again today, my opinion remains the same.
Rating : There is not a lot here that grabs my attention. However, that doesn't make it an altogether poor album. Just a disappointing one in my book. 3/5.
Here however a change is in the air, which succeeds on all levels on the album that FOLLOWS this release. For me, though, Better Than Raw doesn't click at all. The songs seem a bit rushed, with little in the way of a hook to drag you into the album.
The first single, Hey Lord, has a very radio feel about it, but also sounds out of place in the mix of the album. It is probably just me, but there doesn't appear to be a lot of cohesion in the song writing, or the arrangement of the songs themselves.
Perhaps I am being a bit picky. I don't know for sure. I do know that from the time I bought this album it just didn't sit right. Having given it three straight listens again today, my opinion remains the same.
Rating : There is not a lot here that grabs my attention. However, that doesn't make it an altogether poor album. Just a disappointing one in my book. 3/5.
121. Y&T / The Best Of Y&T (1981-1985). 1990. 4/5.
Here is another Best Of that was released when there were more albums to come from the band – but here they got it spot on.
No one could deny that Y&T's glory days were between the years of 1981 and 1985, and this collection captures the best that the band released.
You can choose your own favourites out of those on the album sleeve. I loved the album Mean Streak, and all the songs on it. Mean Streak, Midnight In Tokyo, Hang 'Em High, Hurricane and Black Tiger probably classify as my favourites from this collection.
Good albums were still to come – 1987's Contagious is another of my favourites – but certainly the best they came up with finds itself here in the glory years of the early-to-mid-80's.
Rating : An excellent collection that shows off the best that this band could produce. 4/5.
No one could deny that Y&T's glory days were between the years of 1981 and 1985, and this collection captures the best that the band released.
You can choose your own favourites out of those on the album sleeve. I loved the album Mean Streak, and all the songs on it. Mean Streak, Midnight In Tokyo, Hang 'Em High, Hurricane and Black Tiger probably classify as my favourites from this collection.
Good albums were still to come – 1987's Contagious is another of my favourites – but certainly the best they came up with finds itself here in the glory years of the early-to-mid-80's.
Rating : An excellent collection that shows off the best that this band could produce. 4/5.
120. Van Halen / The Best Of Van Halen, Volume 1. 1996. 4/5.
There is no argument from me that Van Halen are a great band, and that early on they were one of the front runners when it came to guitar bands. Hundreds of bands that have made it since can than k Van Halen for their influence upon the scene.
To me, however, I still think they were a little bit hit and miss. They had some great stuff, but they also had some stuff that still makes me sit there and think “What the hell were they thinking there?!”
This Best Of is a bit like that as well. There are some brilliant songs on here, from both the DLR era (Ain't Talking 'Bout Love, Unchained, Jump, Panama) and the Hagar era (Dreams, Why Can't This Be Love, Can't Stop Loving You), but others are just lukewarm offerings.
They were also very optomistic with the title. Only VHIII was released following this, and that has been 10 years now since this came out...
Rating : Great tunes from a great band, but not the best they could offer. 4/5.
To me, however, I still think they were a little bit hit and miss. They had some great stuff, but they also had some stuff that still makes me sit there and think “What the hell were they thinking there?!”
This Best Of is a bit like that as well. There are some brilliant songs on here, from both the DLR era (Ain't Talking 'Bout Love, Unchained, Jump, Panama) and the Hagar era (Dreams, Why Can't This Be Love, Can't Stop Loving You), but others are just lukewarm offerings.
They were also very optomistic with the title. Only VHIII was released following this, and that has been 10 years now since this came out...
Rating : Great tunes from a great band, but not the best they could offer. 4/5.
119. Iron Maiden / Best Of The B-Sides. 2002. 3/5.
This was the third and final double disc from the Eddie's Archive collection, and it holds some interest without getting too excited about it.
I mean, let's face it. Most of us had this material from when they released the Ten Years singles collection in 1990, with all the singles re-released. So the first disc would appear superfluous.
The real point is this – there is a reason all of these songs were on the B-side of singles... they are mostly very ordinary songs. They were songs that were culled from albums before their release, they are cover songs the band did in the studio to fill the back end of 7” and 12” singles, or they are muck-around things done in lay times while recording.
OK, some have some historical significance, and a couple are outstanding (Reach Out, sung by Adrian Smith, is the prime example here), but the rest are the kind of songs you'll listen to once, and then file away for some time when you have absolutely nothing else to listen to.
Rating : As an album, it does not rate highly. But it is not designed that way, it is just a collection of songs of interest to real fans. But not of eternal interest... 3/5.
I mean, let's face it. Most of us had this material from when they released the Ten Years singles collection in 1990, with all the singles re-released. So the first disc would appear superfluous.
The real point is this – there is a reason all of these songs were on the B-side of singles... they are mostly very ordinary songs. They were songs that were culled from albums before their release, they are cover songs the band did in the studio to fill the back end of 7” and 12” singles, or they are muck-around things done in lay times while recording.
OK, some have some historical significance, and a couple are outstanding (Reach Out, sung by Adrian Smith, is the prime example here), but the rest are the kind of songs you'll listen to once, and then file away for some time when you have absolutely nothing else to listen to.
Rating : As an album, it does not rate highly. But it is not designed that way, it is just a collection of songs of interest to real fans. But not of eternal interest... 3/5.
118. Iron Maiden / Best Of The Beast. 1996. 5/5.
I guess the band, or the record company, or both, thought that it was time that a best-of package came out. After ten albums, that's fair enough.
The two disc package contains a cross section of songs from Maiden's history – though with no real rhyme or reason behind the selections. A new song, Virus, is also part of the package, and it is a shame this song gets lost in the history of the band by only being found on this compilation. There are live versions of some songs as well. At the conclusion of the second disc, fans are treated to versions of songs off the rare Soundhouse Tapes EP, which catapaulted the band to their initial record contract.
This was a difficult time in Maiden's history. Dickinson had left, Blaze was entrenched but fans were lukewarm. This may have been an attempt to appease all before the next album arrived.
Rating : Now – it is a difficult thing to put out a best-of album for a band like Maiden, and please everyone. Impossible, even. And that is true here. But you can't deny how great the songs are that HAVE been included, so what else can you rate it? 5/5
The two disc package contains a cross section of songs from Maiden's history – though with no real rhyme or reason behind the selections. A new song, Virus, is also part of the package, and it is a shame this song gets lost in the history of the band by only being found on this compilation. There are live versions of some songs as well. At the conclusion of the second disc, fans are treated to versions of songs off the rare Soundhouse Tapes EP, which catapaulted the band to their initial record contract.
This was a difficult time in Maiden's history. Dickinson had left, Blaze was entrenched but fans were lukewarm. This may have been an attempt to appease all before the next album arrived.
Rating : Now – it is a difficult thing to put out a best-of album for a band like Maiden, and please everyone. Impossible, even. And that is true here. But you can't deny how great the songs are that HAVE been included, so what else can you rate it? 5/5
117. Rainbow / The Best Of Rainbow. 1981. 5/5.
This is an excellent compilation of the formative years of Rainbow, and the songs that made them the group they were.
Formed when Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple, and picked up a rising star in Ronnie James Dio, this double CD features the best songs from Rainbow's first five albums.
OK – so it is close to their best. I have a problem with Tarot Woman not being included here, but I guess everyone has their own choices. What this album does show is the wonderful force that Blackmore and Dio made as a writing team – Stargazer, Man On The Silver Mountain, Long Live Rock And Roll, Kill The King, Gates Of Babylon... and the list goes on.
It also makes you wonder what may have happened if Graham Bonnet had stayed with the group. His one release as vocalist, Down To Earth, contains great hits like Eyes Of The World, All Night long and Since You Been Gone.
Joe Lynn Turner gets a couple of token songs tacked on, with Difficult To Cure having only just been released when this came out, but he contributed just as much as these other two to Rainbow's legend in coming years.
Memories : I remember Rainbow getting me through a lot of the early stage of Uni in 1988. Think I had listen to Dio to death, and put this album on one day, and didn't take it off for about two months. Kill the King, A Light In The Black and Gates Of Babylon in particular were songs that helped me out a lot at the time.
Rating : Though there were more albums to come, and there has not been a definitive best-of done since, this is pretty much as good as you can get anyway. 5/5.
Formed when Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple, and picked up a rising star in Ronnie James Dio, this double CD features the best songs from Rainbow's first five albums.
OK – so it is close to their best. I have a problem with Tarot Woman not being included here, but I guess everyone has their own choices. What this album does show is the wonderful force that Blackmore and Dio made as a writing team – Stargazer, Man On The Silver Mountain, Long Live Rock And Roll, Kill The King, Gates Of Babylon... and the list goes on.
It also makes you wonder what may have happened if Graham Bonnet had stayed with the group. His one release as vocalist, Down To Earth, contains great hits like Eyes Of The World, All Night long and Since You Been Gone.
Joe Lynn Turner gets a couple of token songs tacked on, with Difficult To Cure having only just been released when this came out, but he contributed just as much as these other two to Rainbow's legend in coming years.
Memories : I remember Rainbow getting me through a lot of the early stage of Uni in 1988. Think I had listen to Dio to death, and put this album on one day, and didn't take it off for about two months. Kill the King, A Light In The Black and Gates Of Babylon in particular were songs that helped me out a lot at the time.
Rating : Though there were more albums to come, and there has not been a definitive best-of done since, this is pretty much as good as you can get anyway. 5/5.
Friday, March 03, 2006
116. Black Sabbath / The Best Of Black Sabbath. 2000. 5/5.
OK. There is one thing that gets my nose out of joint about this.
Firstly, this is not a best of Sabbath compilation. It is a best of Sabbath with Ozzy, with a couple of Dio songs and a Gillan song tacked on at the end. There is no record of Glenn Hughes, Ray Gillen, Tony Martin, and the number of other musicians who played apart from Iommi, Geezer and Bill Ward. It really should be titled The Best Of Black Sabbath 1970-1978. Then it would be more accurate.
Getting past that, this is a wonderful compilation. The record of the band that made heavy metal what it is. Every song is like a page of history. You can almost pin point which bands in todays music have grown up listening to which song, and how it inspired them.
Each grinding riff, every beefy bass line, every pounding drum roll, every screaming vocal, just let's you know that it is Black Sabbath in their element. Some of the greatest songs ever written lie within the case of this album. Until you sit down and listen to them all again, in remastered glory, you don't know how influential they have been.
Though they have been sadly neglected in this, one should not forget that this band continued until 1998 – almost 20 years with different members. They were influential too, and deserve their own recognition at some stage.
Rating : As a tribute to the original Black Sabbath, this is a testament to their greatness. 5/5.
Firstly, this is not a best of Sabbath compilation. It is a best of Sabbath with Ozzy, with a couple of Dio songs and a Gillan song tacked on at the end. There is no record of Glenn Hughes, Ray Gillen, Tony Martin, and the number of other musicians who played apart from Iommi, Geezer and Bill Ward. It really should be titled The Best Of Black Sabbath 1970-1978. Then it would be more accurate.
Getting past that, this is a wonderful compilation. The record of the band that made heavy metal what it is. Every song is like a page of history. You can almost pin point which bands in todays music have grown up listening to which song, and how it inspired them.
Each grinding riff, every beefy bass line, every pounding drum roll, every screaming vocal, just let's you know that it is Black Sabbath in their element. Some of the greatest songs ever written lie within the case of this album. Until you sit down and listen to them all again, in remastered glory, you don't know how influential they have been.
Though they have been sadly neglected in this, one should not forget that this band continued until 1998 – almost 20 years with different members. They were influential too, and deserve their own recognition at some stage.
Rating : As a tribute to the original Black Sabbath, this is a testament to their greatness. 5/5.
115. Yngwie J. Malmsteen / The Best Of 1990-1999. 2000. 3.5/5
You will never convince me that Yngwie's best decade was NOT the 80's. His best albums are from that time, and as I have probably documented elsewhere, after Eclipse I lost interest for a decade.
This just looks like another money spinner from the outside. I mightn't be an expert on what Ynwgie did in this decade, but I know he had better songs than these on his albums, and they don't make an appearance here. The album is fine, don't get me wrong. He is still great at what he does. But let's face it – when a 'greatest hits' package is lifted by the appearance of two songs, one being Rising Force, which he wrote and released in the 80's (yes, the live performance is from the 90's...) and the other is a live performance of a cover song (Rainbow's brilliant Gates Of Babylon), you'd have to start thinking that they were clutching at straws.
Rating : It's OK, and most of the material is good. But I can't get past those two songs I mentioned. The best two songs on the album, and realistically they shouldn't be there!! 3.5/5.
This just looks like another money spinner from the outside. I mightn't be an expert on what Ynwgie did in this decade, but I know he had better songs than these on his albums, and they don't make an appearance here. The album is fine, don't get me wrong. He is still great at what he does. But let's face it – when a 'greatest hits' package is lifted by the appearance of two songs, one being Rising Force, which he wrote and released in the 80's (yes, the live performance is from the 90's...) and the other is a live performance of a cover song (Rainbow's brilliant Gates Of Babylon), you'd have to start thinking that they were clutching at straws.
Rating : It's OK, and most of the material is good. But I can't get past those two songs I mentioned. The best two songs on the album, and realistically they shouldn't be there!! 3.5/5.
114. Helloween / The Best, The Rest, The Rare. 1991. 4/5.
The album contains material from the three albums to date, songs such as "Ride the Sky" from Walls of Jericho, "Future World" and "Halloween" from Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I and "I Want Out", "Dr Stein" and "Keeper of the Seven Keys" from Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II. The remaining songs are either bonus tracks from Japanese editions or B sides from singles. They include the bonus songs such as "Judas" with Kai Hansen singing, "Livin' Ain't No Crime", "Save Us", "Savage" and "Don't Run For Cover", as well as a re-recorded version of "Victim of Fate" with Michael Kiske singing, which to me takes all of the sting out of a great song. At the time of this album's release, most of these songs were almost impossible to find in Australia, and thus this release was well worth purchasing because of the spasity of these songs. Of course since then, with multiple re-releases of albums and singles, all of these songs can be found everywhere.
Thus this is not a greatest hits album, but a collection of memorabilia from the first great age of Helloween. Its release marked the end of this first age, and signalled troubled times in the immediate future.
Rating: Give me wings to fly!! 4/5.
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