Customer Reviews

Essential Adam Ant

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Confessing that you like Adam Ant still won't win you credibility points in a few elite circles, but the truth remains that he was one of pop music's most vibrant figures in the last 25 years. Often a collaboration with guitarist Marco Pirroni, the music of Adam Ant (born Stuart Leslie Goddard) was a hybrid of punk rock, African tribal rhythms, and pop sensibilities that dominated the UK charts for much of the early 1980s. And though his popularity waned by the release of 1985's flop "Vive Le Rock," fans were still humming to many of his hits. Speaking of hits, "Essential Adam Ant" is a collection of his work from 1979 right up to 1995's "Wonderful." Digitally remastered for superior sound, these hits give me back some fond memories of the good old days. The most familiar track is the Top 20 hit "Goody Two Shoes," but there are other fun tunes like "Stand and Deliver," "Desperate but Not Serious," and the Phil Collins-produced "Strip." While the previous compilation "Antics in the Forbidden Zone" has more tracks, "Essential" covers his material more comprehensively and includes his work from the 1990s. My only gripe is that it could have dug deeper into his punk roots and included "Kick," "Whip in My Valise," and "Cartrouble." It's unlikely that he'll ever make such a big splash as he did 20 years ago, but we can always turn to this disc as a reminder of why he was so popular in the first place.

For the individual who just "likes" Adam and is not an Antmaniac this maks for a nifty purchase (as do a great deal from the desperate "Essential" series). However there are a couple of head-scratchers in terms of song selection and omissions from the collection. The inclusion of "Physical (You're So)" is a bit questionable seeing as "Cartrouble" (a classic catchy single featuring the debut of Marco) should have been neatly placed after "Zerox" and "Vive Le Rock" (a record company error made this should-have-been-hit single exactly that) should have been sequenced after "Apollo 9". However neither of these singles are included here and are somewhat important in presenting a complete, accurate and essential Ant collection.

Later period Adam songs like "Room At The Top" and "Wonderful" are lone representations of the albums they were culled from. Perhaps other singles from these albums ("Can't Set Rules About Love", "Rough Stuff", "Gotta Be A Sin" and "Beautiful Dream") would have possibly made these songs not seem so out of place and different from earlier Ant material but I digress.

It is nice to have an American collection of remastered Ant material (a first indeed). This collection is somewhat similar to The Very Best Of Adam And The Ants which came out a year or so earlier. But for a nice collection of (almost) complete essential Ant music I suppose this makes a nice little purchase.

I'm really not sure what the purpose of this Disc is, other than as an Adam Ant filler for those collectors who need to add more to their collection. This is a slightly scaled down version of the truly best of "Antics in the Forbidden Zone" which detailed Adam Ant's career up until the bombastic "Apollo 9" album. "Essential" adds the 1990 single "Room at the Top" from "Manners & Physique" album and "Wonderful" from the 1995 "Wonderful" album. These two songs are not really worth the cost of admission and I think are probably the weakest songs on those two albums, anyway. And of course "Essential" ignores the unreleased 1993 album "Persuasion" which had some really good songs on it. If you want later period Adam Ant, "Manners" is really good and "Wonderful" is, well, less than wonderful, but still a worthwhile Adam Ant. If you want an introduction to Adam Ant, the chronologically catalogued "Antics" is great and a more complete collection!

As a huge Adam Ant fan, I not only like the songs that made the Billboard Hot 100, I also like some of his other songs that had videos that were played quite often on MTV and other video outlets, but did not quite make the charts. Those songs are "Vive Le Rock" (the follow up to "Apollo 9"), "Rough Stuff" (the follow up to "Room at the Top"), and "Won't Take That Talk" (the follow up to "Wonderful"). No, these songs weren't huge hits, but his fans know them and love them. For the casual listener who just wants the hits, this CD will suffice. For the hardcore fans, it comes up a little short.

My 20+ years of adoration for this man and his music would only warrant 5 stars.
1978- Zerox (Punk Era)If you recall the late 70s it was filled with disco and manilo, and this was just so opposite of that.
1980- Kings of the Wild Frontier,Dog Eat Dog,Antmusic,Your'e So Physical- All of these tracks are strong and original.
1981- Stand and Deliver, Prince Charming
1982-Friend or Foe, Goody 2 Shoes, Desperate but Not Serious,Place in the Country - Signature sound of the "80s"
1983- Strip, Puss n' Boots
1985- Apollo 9
1990- Room At The Top
1995- Wonderful - Excellent song! One of my all time favs.

** I do like this collection but I would have preferred a few different tracks. I think that they should have ditched the Apollo 9 track, and used the version from Live-Aid because it was/is infinately better.
** Can't Set Rules About Love should have been on this instead of Room at the Top, if they had to pick one from that album.
** Vampires and Beautiful Dream should have been considered from the Wonderful CD.

The early stuff is the best, but overall a nice collection.

Adam Ant is one of the greatest pop-punk artists of all time. This CD is lacking some of the early greats like Whip in My Valise or Rancheros... I recomend Antics in the Forbidden zone before this album. The only great addition to this album is Wonderful. All of Adam's work is fun, upbeat and fantastic.... think Clash with a horn section and less of a heavy bass line. Good stuff.

This comprehensive collection includes all of his more familiar songs with the addition of his post 80's hits. Great compilation of one of the best pop artists ever! Takes me back to being 12 years old and completely in love with him.

I didn't care much for Adam Ant in the 1980's. At the time, I was a big fan of Tom Petty, John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen. For all their faults, these rockers could still go on stage without much in the way of stage show, just play their music and blow the roof off the concert hall. So a funny little English band that dressed up like Peter Pan's "lost boys" and danced themselves silly in the videos seemed irrelevant. At this remove, I think I was too hard on Adam.

Going back and listening to this CD convinced me that as Ant's meteor burned brightly in the sky before falling to earth he made some amusing records. The key seems to be the intense rhythm patterns and drumming. As such from Ant's KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER to his "retirement" in 1985 after Live Aid, he delivered a collection of fun and witty songs. As it turned out, Adam Ant was not to set rock and roll on new, uncharted paths and in the larger scheme of things neither did he matter. But then very few do.

Later Adam did try to make a come back and indeed he did finally score with the fantastic "Wonderful" in 1995. But overall Adam has not faired well since his retirement. Unfortunately while he was huge in England he only made a minor impact in America. Sadly we hear that Adam has been suffering from mental problems and has been in and out of trouble and a series of "rest homes". This is too bad.

Many of us would have given our right arm just to have one record reach the top of the charts and have people all over the world remember fondly all over the world years later. Adam Ant placed several entertaining records in the rock and roll vocabulary. Amazingly they still stand up. This is an excellent sampler and a great little window on the early 1980's.

Adam and The Ants were probably more exciting than their actual music, but while they were shaking people up with their antics, they were great fun. Their lone really good album, "Kings Of The Wild Frontier," is well represented here, but with the exception of updating the song list to include a couple of later day 80's and 90's songs, it's hard to call any of this music "essential." The digital remaster does enhance the flat sounding CD's from Ant's career, and maybe a notch better than "Antics." I'm also grateful that someone realized that, historically, "Dirk Wears White Sox" smelled of old laundry, and limited this collection solely to "Zerox" from his formative period.

If you remember the post-"Dirk" videos and songs fondly, this is an entertaining byproduct of the video happy era when "Antmusic" lured in hip college and high schoolers (I was a college junior at the time). So to my tastes, I'd had wished for "Beat My Guest" over the vile annoyance of "Ant Rap" and the inclusion of "Vive Le Rock" from the album of the same name. Had that been the track listing, I may have bumped the CD up a star. But like most of the many labels "Essential/Millenium" styled series, there seems to be an unwritten rule to give not quite everything worth having on each disc.

These days, Adam's personal problems are certainly overshadowing his days of rock and roll notoriety. But there's just no denying it, when Adam and secret weapon/guitarist Marco were in their prime, they racked up a string of hooky singles that most song writers would sell their beads and makeup for. Even his last two hits (the dance heavy "Room At The Top" and the dreamy "Wonderful") have a certain charm that belie Adam's 15 year run as a record maker.

This has all your favorite songs by Adam Ant!! I'm so glad he came out with this CD, it brings back great memories!!