Customer Reviews

40 Seasons: The Best Of Skid Row

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Excellent compilation of the greatest hits from this rock band.

Skid Row was one of the most talented "hair" bands to come out of the late 80's. They stuck around til the mid 90's and they still have quite a following, with Sebastian Bach's new role on Broadway and solo projects.

With that said, this album is sadly missing perhaps Skid Row's best 2 songs of all-time, in "Wasted Time" and "In a Darkened Room". Why they left these two tracks off is beyond me. Instead, they put a terrible "Beat Yourself Blind (LIVE)" and a mediocre at best "Psycho Love" in their place.

I liked the fact that they threw a few unreleased tracks on there, but to leave off "Wasted Time" and "In a Darkened Room" was the ultimate of sins. In my opinion, here were Skid Row's greatest Hits:

1. Youth Gone Wild 2. 18 and Life 3. I Remember You 4. Midnight/Tornado 5. Monkey Business 6. Quicksand Jesus 7. In a Darkened Room 8. Wasted Time 9. Firesign 10. Eileen 11. Into Another 12. Breakin' Down 13. Psycho Therapy

No need for any other songs, because none of their others are "greatest hits" worthy. They had some other good songs, but these should undoubedly be on the album. In addition to the two songs they left off that was ridiculous, they should have also included "Midnight/Tornado", "Firesign", "Eileen", and maybe "Psycho Therapy" (I liked it).

By leaving off so many key songs, I can't give this album more than three stars.

This is definitely an excellent compilation of Skid Row's best hits, but I don't understand how they (apparently Rachel Bolan) could have left off "Wasted Time". Perhaps it is just personal preference or my own taste, but that is my favorite Skid Row song. It's a hard-rocking song that tugs at you like a ballad. It was a big mistake leaving this off of the album!

I've just recently bought this, along with Dokken very best, and I choose to review them at the same time because they have a couple of things in common, some different things, and certainly, different impact on listener. First of all, I have to say that I was a MAJOR fan of Skid Row (i no longer support their updated, Bach-less line-up), so I have all their records and like them all (even if Slave To the Grind remains not only my favorite, but also one of my top 10 favorites altogether). So I HAD to have this compilation. After a week of continuous listening, here are my observations, itemized, of course:

-"Best of" vs "Greatest Hits": even thought most record label execs are brainless enough not to know the difference between the 2 (other than semantics), the fact remains that both are different: a "best of" includes the band's favorites, a "greatest" includes whatever hits they had on the radio. On that regard, "40 Seasons" lies closer to a greatest hits.

-Running order(chronological vs. impact): this compilation is horrible in that respect. Records, whether they are live, studio or compilations, MUST have a running order that grabs the listener by the throat. Dokken's is brilliant! This one is horrible: even if i love "Youth Gone Wild", it is not an opening song! Not only that, but that song was THE closing song on a nightly basis during the band's career! It is almost blasphemy!! And to follow that with "18 and life"...c'mon, give me a break! This compilation should have had a random, impact based running order, and "My Enemy" or "Monkey Business" should've been the opening songs...

-Album representation: it is fairly good, but one question arises: if their debut record was their most successful, how come only 4 songs are included here, while subhuman race, their least successful, has 5 songs?
-Subhuman Race: it is fairly obvious to me that the band was unhappy with the way this record turned out. Want proof? None of the songs from that record is included in its original form. Fear not, the remixes are barely noticeable (little twists on guitars and vocals), the live version of "Beat yourself blind" is great and even the demo version of "Frozen" is great, quite different from the album version (which i prefer), but good...

-Unreleased songs: the real treat for longtime fans! Both are great! I still don't get why they were not included on the original records they were intended for...

-Band involvement: another miss!Only Rachel Bolan had any say here, and that is never a good thing, which is an aspect this compilation shares with the Dokken one. There are at least 2 songs here that I have reasonable doubts as to what the heck they are doing here: "Psycho Love" and "Piece of Me". Don't get me wrong, as i mentioned before, I love every single piece of music the band ever made, but... where are "Riot Act" (Skid Row's greatest live song!), "Wasted Time", "In a darkened room"? Nowhere to be found,here! Since Rachel was the only band member involved, he overlooked those gems in favor of 2 of his own songs. That IS BLASPHEMY!!!

All in all, the compilation does have its moments, and my instincts tell me that it won't be long before Rhino Records graces us with another one of their "Essential" compilations. Let's just hope they take some of these observations (and I mean the observations of all the other customers/fans who have submitted their reviews) in mind next time...

This CD should have included Big Guns. That is one of the best Skid Row songs ever, and this CD does not have it. Also, there are too many remixes and unreleased versions. Why can't it just stick to the only two decent albums this band ever released: Skid Row and Slave To The Grind. So therefore, this could have been a GREAT greatest hits CD, while it ends up being a mediocre one.

As a musician in the Bay Area, we are constantly on the look out for good quality hard sounding music to supplement our ideas in terms of what music, we of course would like to hear. With that I was turned on to this CD and Bach by a band mate who had also turned me onto much of Stephen Pearcy's (former frontman of RATT - when RATT was cool) work of the 70's & 80's. Sebastian Bach (former frontman of Skid Row) is literally a piece of work & I do mean that in a complimenting way. A lot has been said & written about him, mostly false, but he is somewhat of an enigma. An egotist, YES! but as with all true (& premiere) rock stars like Pearcy, Neil, & Rose - he has to be. He has a tremendous voice with incredible range (which is rare) - this is heard right fr. the start, & right out of the chute on this CD. He also has one of the best looks in the rock scene. He's extremely good looking which adds to his high energy stage presence! If you are a metal fan, this CD is for you -- the 2 stand out songs are: Youth Gone Wild & -- Forever ... which give you a great taste of his talent as well as the talent of the band as a whole. Bach and Skid Row (of the 80's) were greatly underrated back then in terms of their place in the select few Olympian metal bands, and unfortunately this band (of back then) may still quite possibly be so today ... but get your hands on this one & spread the word!

Harken back to the days of Sebastian Bach's over the top vocals....and those rip roaring metal guitars that made you throw your fist in the air in pure rebellion !! The "youth" were "wild" and they lead a legion of fun seeking teens through the heights of the 80's. The neat thing about Skid Row was that they truly had talent....they didn't rely on stage antics or costumes to carry them....they were raw, jagged wires that understood how to pump up a crowd !! Songs like "18 and Life", "I'll Remeber You", "Quicksand Jesus" and of course "Youth Gone Wild" will remain in hearts and minds of those that grew up on "heavy metal"......buy this one just for the sheer guilty pleasure of it all and crank it up in the car....the guy at the stop light next to you will enjoy the show !!

What's here is all good. The reason for the 3 star rating is for what's not here. It's missing "Wasted Time", and "In A Darkened Room" from the second album Slave To The Grind. They could've added "Big Guns", Sweet Little Sister", "Makin' A Mess", or "Here I Am" from their first. At least one song from the B-sides EP should've made it on (Rachel's version of "Psycho Therepy" would've been great). The remixes of the Subhuman Race songs sound the same to me, other than "Breakin' Down" which they should've just left alone. "Forever" and "Fire In The Hole" are both ok previously unreleased tracks. This is a good cd, but with only 3 full length albums out, it's more worthwhile to get those instead.

40 Seasons is good, in my head but is missing Wasted Time and In A Darkened Room. And something from the EP would have been good. The "remix" versions of My Enemy, Into Another, Breakin' Down sound identical to the regular version, and Frozen demo is a 100 times better than the version on Subhuman Race. Beat Yourself Blind is awesome live but doesn't get too much response from the fans and oh, what a coincidence that at the end, it says "Mr. Rachel Bolan". This is really Bolan picking out songs that make him look good. This is the last of the almighty original Skid Row, so get it.

This is an excelent album. It shows how skid row can range from an almost melodic group of musicians all the way through to some hard rock almost heavy metal tracks showing some real power! Buy this if you like any skid row, guns n roses, Aerosmith or any good music! It rocks!!