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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Simply a lot of fun, January 25, 2002
This album was a non-serious breath of fresh air that came out right as grunge was taking over the rock universe in the early '90s. How can you not get a kick out of a track like the rocking leadoff track "Neighbor" with lines like "My kid's a punk, and I'm a drunk"? Nothing to be taken seriously here, as in their big hit "Everything About You"--as in "I hate everything about you." Funny stuff for sure. For a more serious track, the remake of "Cats In The Cradle" is a nice ballad (although I'm sure purists who love the original hate it). Besides these three radio hits, tracks like "Goddamn Devil" and "I'll Keep Tryin'" really rock, and "Mr. Recordman" is a nice, somewhat mellow track to end the album. Overall, the album is pretty heavy with not many ballads. If these guys had come on the scene a few years earlier, they definitely would have had a longer, more successful career. They just arrived on the scene with this style of music at the wrong time.
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I guess some things just can't compete with Blizzard Beasts, February 3, 2005
Before you decide whether to call someone's opinion helpful, read their other reviews. This CD was not overlooked in its time and yes, millions of people did in fact buy it. It is incredibly funny and the band is moderately musically talented. The lyrics are inane but the riffs and solos are top-notch.
As far as posterity goes, people will probably not buy a million more copies of this CD in the future. However, they will remember a few songs on it with a nod and maybe a chuckle. That's more than we can say for anything Overkill or Hollowman has produced or ever will produce.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A couple of good songs, but not a very strong album overall, July 10, 2009
Emerging just as the hair metal scene was winding down, Ugly Kid Joe was something of a wild card in the scene. They weren't as image conscious as the Hollywood bands, had a goofy, joke-y vibe that made it hard to take them seriously, and seemed to change styles from hair metal to funk rock to rap rock with every song. The band enjoyed a brief period of popularity from the success of their hit single "Everything About You" (from the As Ugly as They Wanna Be EP). That popularity was extended (again, briefly) by their first full-length album America's Least Wanted, which featured a major hit in the mellow cover of Harry Chapin's "Cat's In the Cradle".
Unfortunately, "Cat's In the Cradle" is really the only noteworthy song on America's Least Wanted. Sure, they tacked on "Everything About You" again (for those that didn't bother with the EP, I suppose) and scored a minor hit with the obnoxious "Neighbor" (thanks more to the Twisted Sister-style video than the actual song), but the rest of the album is pretty forgettable. The band never really establishes their sound, and songwriting is just not their main strength.
Ugly Kid Joe was another casualty of the grunge era, and it's not too hard to see why. If you run across America's Least Wanted in a dollar bin - and believe me, you will - by all means give it a spin. "Cat's In the Cradle" is worth adding to your MP3 library, as is "G*ddamn Devil" since it boasts backing vocals by Judas Priest's Rob Halford. Other than that (and maybe "Everything About You" as a guilty pleasure), you probably won't get much out of this one.
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