Customer Reviews

Fine Young Cannibals Finest

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

...FYC was quite a blip on the radar screen. They are a two hit wonder, with "She drives Me Crazy," and "Good Thing." I played "The Raw and the Cooked" until my sister took my tape from men, then forgot about them until I saw a replay of SNL on "Comedy Central." I tacked down this CD, which is a merger of two of their three CD's. Their third CD was "The Raw and The Remix," which had dance club remixes of their sophomore album.

This is a "Best of" collection, which means all of the [junk]tracks and filler is whittled away. This album is great and has the best tracks off of "Raw and Cooked," with their stellar cover of "Suspicious Minds" off of their jazzier freshman album.

The version of "Don't Look Back" is different from the original version: it has an added drum machine track which brings the song more into the FYC idiom, but drowns out the great guitar work on this great song. In fact, it could have been a third top ten hit.

The linear booklet is skimpy, and doesn't have any lyrics or notes. It is really just a filler paper. Any memories by Roland Gift or the lads about the group's quick life, and too-soon breakup would have been nice.

I like this CD, and hope to track down the other three CD's when I get my 80's Flashback fits.

I am a 16 year-old who used to never bother to listen to 80's music, preferring instead to stick with my own generation's pop music. However, one song I remember from when I was 6 years old sticks out in my mind, and that song, was of course, "She Drives Me Crazy" by The Fine Young Cannibals. I even saw a satire done of it on the show In Living Color, if anyone remembers that show that starred comedians like Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans, David Allen Grier, etc. The song was great, and suddenly last year I found a copy of The Raw and The Cooked from 1989. I listen to that song a lot, and I think Roland Gift's voice is incredibly enchanting. Now FYC's music in general is up there with my own generation's pop music in my book, hands down! The Finest is just a great compilation of good music from these 3 talented Britons who deserve fame even today.

This is a great CD! It just works. My wife and I agree on almost nothing about music. She's big into classical & jazz. Give me rock & folk. We both love this CD. I am currently listening to our recently acquired copy at the office. A second is on order for home. Need I say more?

...fans of FYC will enjoy this album; all the hit songs are here. However, since the group only released 2 albums, their eponymous debut and 1989's smash "The Raw and the Cooked, if you are a fan, you should buy both albums.

If you've forgotten how talented FYC is, give this CD a listen. It's definitely fine!

What most folks don't know, is that FYC, like General Public, was created from the ashes of The Englsh Beat (aka The Beat). David Steele and Andy Cox paired up with actor/musician Roland Gift to create a pop act that was never "suppossed" to last.

While the songs on this set are first rate, with only two full albums, you know you're only buying this for the three "new" tracks (The Flame, Take What I Can Get & Since You've Been Gone).

With only two albums to draw from, some might assume this "Best Of" would be a cd maxi-single, but they would only know the radio hits of course. Truth be known, both albums are very good though, especially "The Raw And The Cooked". In fact, I may actually prefer that album to this collection. However, this includes the best 6 of that albums 10 tracks, and eight more, including the second best cover ever of "Suspicious Minds". The first being from "Dwight Yoakam". Besides the two big hits on here, my other favorites are "Ever Fallen In Love", and the excellent "I'm Not The Man I Used To Be". It's hard to believe how long they've been broken up now, I guess they had their "fill".

This short-lived late-80s band produced some compelling musical hooks that are on display in this collection of greatest hits from a two-album career. Their style draws mostly from 60s to early-70s R&B, updated with crisper 80s bass and percussion. Lead singer Roland Gift sometimes sounds like Al Green, and has the genuine appeal of a sincere imitator.

The two best songs are "Good Thing" and "Take What I Can Get". "Good Thing" is driven by the repeated hammering of piano power chords. For you 60s fans unfamiliar with it, it has the pounding beat of "Can I Get a Witness?" and the chord progression of "Liar Liar, Pants on Fire", but it also has a snappy guitar, a great lead vocal, and I love that "dwee-dwee doo-be-doo" in the background. This song is so much fun, I like to play it twice in a row, and you can see the Cannibals perform it live in the movie "Tin Men". "Take What I Can Get" features Roland's best vocal, a nice melody and good brave lyrics about unrequited love. Other good songs are "Since You've Been Gone", and the rocking "Don't Look Back". Nice but not great are the echo-y "Funny How Love Is", the sweet, reggae-tinged "Tell Me What", "The Flame", and the best Al Green impersonation of all in "I'm Not the Man I Used to Be". "Couldn't Care More" is interesting - I thought I didn't like it at first, but it has grown on me. The rest of the songs are no better than listenable, including their hit "She Drives Me Crazy" and their reinterpretation of Elvis' "Suspicious Minds", a song not well suited to them.

I would summarize Fine Young Cannibals by paraphrasing Mother Goose: When they were good, they were very, very good, but they weren't good often enough or over a long enough period of time to compile a really classy retrospective. I like these guys, so I'd like to give them 4 stars, but when I compare this to other "4-star" music I've rated, this comes up short so I give them 3. But their best hooks are addictive and loads of fun, which is why I bought it.

I got this CD almost by mistake and I now can't believe how fantastic it is. I sort of remembered the song "She Drives Me Crazy". But now I am so enraptured with "Ever Fallen in Love" (Have you ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn't have fallen in love with? Yes!)

All the songs are so good. I just put their two "regular" CD's in my shopping cart and I plan to rent "Tin Men" tomorrow to see the live performance.

All I can say is WOW. I challenge you to stay still while this one is playing.

FYC have a great sad, melancholic but hopeful sound in their songs that comes from influences of Northern Soul, 60s records and ska and dub. Mix that in with the click of an occasional drum machine and you have this LP. The groups best song is not "She Drives Me Crazy"; they don't have a best song. Instead there are many songs that the success of one hit seemed to obscure from public eye. This is an English pub band that sings about drinking to escape the woes of love never found. There is a haunting desolation to some of their songs. And others of their songs, like "She Drives Me Crazy", are pure crap.