Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Since the early 90's Better Than Ezra has been around and making good music that, for the most part, has flown under a lot of people's radar. They have definitely gathered a cult following that has allowed them four terrific albums (excluding artifakt), a live album and now finally a Greatest Hits package.

On this release fans can find many of the favourite songs the band is "known" for. Such songs include the mega-hit "Good", along with other crowd pleasers "Desperately Wanting", "At The Stars" and the song some people know due to a McDonald's commercial, "Extra Ordinary". Included are also some of the more rare releases that could formerly only be found on web-site-avalible "artifakt" album; "Tremble" and "Wallflower".

This Greatest Hits package couldn't be complete if it weren't for some revamped songs and a new release. On this note, the band has re-recorded two songs from the debut album "Deluxe" for the listeners enjoyment. Here, they have included the version, that could previously only be found live that has been dubbed by BTE fans as the "Voodoo Remix" of "Porcelain", which is much more savvy and blues driven. Also they have updated a concert favourite in "This Time of Year", which here is also including part of the song "Get You In". A cover of the James song "Laid" is the newest offering on the album, which starts off sounding like they have fused together that song with AC/DC's "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)".

This Greatest Hits package goes from start to finish with some of the best songs Better Than Ezra have recorded over the span of their careers. Instead of just taking the songs off of the original albums, they have also included several "single versions" of songs that mix things up a bit. The only draw backs to the album, however, are that the songs don't flow as well as they could due to the order they are put in. Also being redundant is small problem; most of these songs are also included in the recent release of the "Live at House of Blues" album. Those, along with an aparent technical problem on the song "Rosealia" that leaves a terrible scratch sounding noise in the right track, are the only problems with this album.

If a person remembers the wonder years where "Good" was played time and time again on the radio and wonders what happened to the band, this is for you. Also, if someone has told you about BTE and you're wondering what they're all about, this is also for you. Or, if you're simply a huge fan and want to own anything by the band that you can get your hands on, this is undoubtably for you.

I like Better Than Ezra, I really do. I own CD's of "Deluxe" and "Friction, Baby", and if you don't yet have any BTE cd's, I'd recommend you buy those two instead of springing for this disappointing-sounding comp. There's a lot of good music on those two CD's that you'll be missing out on by going the 'greatest hits' route, plus a couple of the remixes on this CD are WORSE than the original versions! Cases in point:
- Porcelain: Take a sensitive, well-arranged piece of music as it appears on "Deluxe", and trash it up beyond recognition with an arrangement that's so out of character with the lyrics it's sadly funny - you have the "voodoo remix" that appears here. Pretty pitiful.
- "In The Blood": What's with all the extra noises here? The original song (again on "Deluxe") is much less cluttered and simply works better than the version on this comp.
You get the idea. My opinion is this: If you like BTE, make sure you at least have "Deluxe" and "Friction" in your collection. And if you just want one CD of theirs, then choose whichever of those you like. But don't cheat yourself by making this the only collection of BTE's music you own - they're really much Better Than This.

Just thought I'd let someone know that there's 16, not 15 tracks on this disc (I didn't have the box in front of me, but I was trying to find the track listings while I listened, and I realized a lot were like one off).

The 5th track is actually "Live Again" and then the rest of the tracks follow in the same order after that. I'm not sure why this error occurred on Amazon, but I hope someone fixes it. I'm pretty sure the back of my box is accurate though, or I would have noticed the first time I heard it...

It's my first Better Than Ezra purchase. I think it's great. I'll probably end up buying some other Better Than Ezra discs. I do wish Amazon would pack CD's better though. The Jewel Case arrived all smashed up. The CD has a big scratch near the edge which doesn't seem to come into play...Pete

I remember hearing songs like "Into the Bleed" and "Desperately Wanting" on the radio back in the day, so when i wanted to get an introduction to the band, I bought this as kind of a compass. What i found is that half of this album has some really good songs while the other songs are average at best.

When you put out a greatest hits package and half the songs aren't bad but they aren't that great either, it sends the message that you should stop at the greatest hits album and not look at the band's repertoire. Literally almost half of the songs sound amazing but the other half sound on the generic side. I never really liked the song "Good" in the first place but I expected their greatest hits to wow me a little bit more than it did; and it should not be an absurd expectation that a greatest hits album should have "cut-above" songs (an example of this caliber that's present is "King of New Orleans").

And so my final word is if I could give this 3.5 for the good songs I would but I'll give it 4 because like I said half of it's not bad, it's just easy to forget. I recommend this cd to anyone who likes alternative music, but I suggest you buy it at a cheap price as I did.

Another musical phenom from NOLA. Loved em at Jazz fest love em on CD

I love this CD. Its not too hard, not too soft, and all the songs are snappy, upbeat and great to sing along with. It's great for driving. Takes me back to the salad days of the 90's.

To be honest, I bought this because of the song "Laid", but find that I like or am familiar with the other songs.

I really enjoyed this band back in my early college days and unfortunately along the way a few of my CDs went missing. I was excited to find this album and it hasn't let me down. I have thoroughly enjoyed it and it has all of the old songs I really enjoyed.

Great album for someone that is even a little interested in the band. You'll get hooked in no time.

Everyone says that this album pretty much sucks and doesnt cover enough of bte's greater songs. But they had a lot of good songs! These are just the big radio lover's favorites other than laid and porcelain which are brand new (porclain's original version is found on deluxe) but this is a great starter album for anyone getting into the older bte! I mean it has wallflower and tremble on it and those are very hard to get since the artifakt album is rare and if you do find it, it costs a lot of money! Plus you have a lot of cool mixes and stuff here and i can tell that this time of year's new version was probably done around the time of closer because it sounds sort of like something off of that cd and it has the lyrics to get you in somewhere in the song...and also it has a lot of songs that werent as popular on the radio such as porcelain and the new versions of a lot of older hits! But still you need to have before the robots and deluxe somewhere in your collection because they are very good as well. And i must say this is a great opprotunity to get this cd for a decent price because for a popular greatest hits album this thing sure is hard to find! And even if you have all the other albums do not hesitate because the songs are different then what they use to be back in the 90's. This is a must-have for any ezra fan!