Customer Reviews

Greatest Mrs - Best of

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

 

 

With a band that could rock your butt off and then give you some of the most heartfelt ballads and then add some synth, they always kept you wondering. To the press and the critics the acoustic love song 'Love Is On The Way' will forever define the band. This is sad bacause Saigon Kick fans know that there was far more to the band than that song. This cd takes the music of a glorious career and gives you a sample of everything the band had to offer. Jason Bieler is one of the greatest musicians of the modern era. His guitar solors are blistering and the riff to the harder songs make you stand up and take notice that you are listening to something truly special. Matt Kramer (while in the band) had a vocal presence that many vocalists only dream of. Even when he left the band and Bieler took over vocals, he proved a worthy replacement.
The rock ballads 'Love Is On The Way', All I Want Is You', 'Colors' and 'I Love You', carry you away to a different world (which is exactly what a ballad is supposed to do). Tracks like 'Hostile Youth', 'The Lizard' and 'One Step Closer' rock you hard and demand your attention. 'Water' throws a total curve ball at you and almost has a Prince vibe to it. The newest track not on the band's other discs 'Hey! Hey! Hey!, is a fun fist pounding rock anthem (do you remember when rock was still fun?). This album spans the carrer of one of the greatest musical and lyrical bands to have come around in a long time. The purchase of this disc will only leave you wanting more Kick. So fill your collection by buying "Saigon Kick", "The Lizard", "Water" and "Devil In The Details". There are a pair of imports out there as well.
I will leave you with this note. If you want a record that you can play over and over again, this is your band. If you want the same boring every song sounds the same disc, then go buy one of todays rock artists. Saigon Kick is one of the greatest bands to have come and gone. So purchase and enjoy!!![.]

Now, let me start by saying that I do not own this album, however, I do own all of the studio releases, and there are no 'unreleased' songs on here, so I've heard them all. Saigon kick is an extremely underrated band. The reason I only give this album a 4 our of 5 is because there are some huge omissions for an album titled the 'best of'. I was really shocked that the song 'Still the One' was not put on this album. It was never released on any of the studio albums, and it is certainly one of their best (and possibly their last recorded song). Some other tracks that should have made it are 'Meet Your Maker' and 'Jehovah' (from the import album Bastards); 'Dizzy's Vine' (the last song recorded with original singer Matt Kramer), 'Spot Him A Beer' and 'You and I' (from Moments From the Fringe ); 'Sunshine' and 'Afraid' (from Devil in the Details); 'When You Were Mine' (from Water); 'Feel the Same Way', 'Freedom', and 'All Alright' (from The Lizard); and finally, 'My Life' (which includes a kazoo harmony) and 'Love Of God' (from Saigon Kick).

I've been following Saigon Kick's music since I heard 'Love Is On The Way', as well as Jason Bieler's music in general. I think it is a disgrace that the band is known most widely as "that 80's hair band that did 'Love Is On The Way'", especially since none of their albums were released before 1991, with the last studio release 'Bastards' coming out in 1999. There was so much more to the band than that one song, even though I admit that was the song that made me go out and buy 'The Lizard' album.

I was a little shocked when 'Water' was released and Matt Kramer had left the band. The way he and Jason harmonized together was amazing. As I told someone when discussing the band in the early days, "Power chords and harmony, who knew they could sound THAT good together?". They put on a good show, too. I saw them open for Extreme and was impressed with the live sound.

Jason did a great job taking over for Matt on vocals, and the music changed a bit, I think more to Jason's style. Now, I think he is an extremely talented musician and songwriter (and is apparently doing pretty well producing albums with his brother), but from what I've read about him and given the progression of the band and different members, I think he's probably a control freak and difficult to make music with. But, when it comes to the music, I really don't care...except that maybe if he hadn't been, he'd still be making music. He released a solo album after Saigon Kick that, had it gotten any air time, no doubt would have gone platinum. If you're a real Saigon Kick fan, you need to find a way to get this album. The name of the album is 'Houston, We Have a Problem' (yeah, about as overrused as "you had me at...") by, simply, Jason. Amazingly, I can't even find a reference to this album online anywhere, so good luck finding it. You may be relegated to finding his songs to download. I also have a host of unreleasead Saigon Kick and Jason songs that I downloaded from a website dedicated to and, I believe, partially run by Jason (the site no longer exists...sigh). If you're familiar with 'Super Transatlantic', Jason was also a member of that short-lived band.

So, all this to say, if you like Saigon Kick and don't want to shell out the money to buy all of their albums, I definitely recommend this one to give you a good and very ejoyable, albeit small, sampling of what they were capable of.

Great CD, although I recommend buying the first two SK cd's instead of the Greatest Hits, you'll get more good songs and will love them both. Matt Kramer and Phil Varone ARE this band...making The Lizard and self-titled CD's the best put out so far. So pick up those two. Also, Saigon Kick is currently on tour with original bassist Tom Defile, and new guitarist Jeff Blando (Slaughter), so go check em out!

Anyone who is a SK fan must own this, and if you're not and want to broaden your listening taste, you will not be dissapointed!

Here's a great sampling from a rather forgotten blast from the musical past, Saigon Kick. Its a shame that this happens, too, because I would state that all of Saigon Kick's albums and the stages they went through, from their somewhat heavier/somewhat more controversially beloved beginnings to their last release that combined electronics and their wonderful vocal usages, are interesting notations. Still, many fans found Water and Devil in the Details betrayals of what they liked most about SK, not to mention the fact that the two lead influence collapsed back into the one-man singer sea.

The new addition on this album, "Hey,Hey,Hey," is not one of my favorite pieces that the band has released into circulation, making me a little annoyed at the product in some ways. It really isn't reflectant of the band and their abilities at all. Still, the range of influences, coming from Saigon Kick, The Lizard, Water, and Devil in the Details are well arranged and are a nice selection to make a "best of" out of. The only thing I would have left out of it would have been the live songs, because I'm not really a fan of the live songs, and the additions I would have added would have been those that echo a little more depravity in the works, including "Sentimental Girl" (Water), "My Dog" (The Lizard), "Peppermint Tribe" (Water), and "Month of Sundays" (Saigon Kick). Any of those would have shown more of the oddity that the band can add to their songs, which is echoed somewhat in the lyrical innerworkings of "coming Home" (placed, if anyone's interested, in the rather funny to watch "Stone Cold, " featuring Brain Bosworth as an "actor" instead of a "football player") and the "Lizard," the angst within "hostile Youth," and the things someone would be willing to do for love in "Close to you."

For anyone interested in a multiply faceted approach to the layers of Saigon Kickology 101, this works pretty well. Still, if you are someone with the flavors already in the collection, you might want to bypass this stepping stone altogether and relive the dementia of the bands wonder years with your already wondrous collection. As a band, most highly recommended!

One of the most underrated and overlooked bands from the early 90's hard rock scene, Saigon Kick probably would have been hailed as visionary had they emerged a year or two later from Seattle, but instead the Beatles-influenced band was lumped into the "hair metal" category and soon forgotten. Like Extreme and Enuff Znuff, the innovative Saigon Kick had a lot more to offer than spandex and hairspray.

Greatest Mrs. features 15 songs taken from Saigon Kick's studio albums followed by three live tracks. The studio material, presented chronologically, consists of three songs from 1990's Saigon Kick, four from 1992's The Lizard (including the band's only real hit "Love Is On the Way"), four from 1993's Water, three from 1995's Devil In the Details and a single song from 1998's Moments From the Fringe. The live songs - "Suzy", "What Do You Do" and "Ugly" - are all from the debut.

Greatest Mrs. does a pretty good job chronicling the band's progress, and it covers all the bases, though I think "Spanish Rain" and the Bowie cover "Space Oddity" are glaring omissions. Then there's the sound quality. Even by 1998 standards it's just not as good as it should be. I bought the collection hoping to hear remastered material, but if any cleanup has been done, it's minimal. It's definitely not on par with the average 20th Century Masters Best Of collection.

Sound issues aside, it's hard to knock a packed collection of great material from a far too often overlooked band. Greatest Mrs. is a great jumping-on point for new listeners, and works out well for fans that might not feel compelled to own all of the band's studio output. Longtime fans that do own the individual albums won't get much out of this release, unless you're dying to hear those live tracks.

A Must Buy For Any Saigon Fan!!! A Lot Of Tracks From Previous Releases Though...