Customer Reviews

Rheostatics - Greatest Hits

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This shouldn't be your first introduction to the Rheostatics. For that, you should listen to Melville or Whale Music. Once you know the Rheos, however, this will be a great part of your collection. You can tell this is an early album - it has a "recorded in the basement" quality to it. However, it has some gems, including Crescent Moon, Ditch Pigs, and, of course, the Ballad of Wendel Clark (Parts I and II). Give it a listen, but only after you have already heard the Rheostatics' other albums.

An idea for a clever title for their first album. "Greatest Hits" is NOT a collection of their greatest hits. It is easily their worst album, and thats saying something because I LOVE every other Rheos album. The best song on the CD (The Ballad of Wendell Clark) is on their DOUBLE LIVE album. Buy that instead.

- you want to see Martin without his sideburns or Dave Bidini with hair
- you would like to know if Dave Clark can eat tinfoil (yes)
- you are a rabid Tielli fan and need clues as to the origins of "OK by Me" and the "Double X" mythology.
- you already love the Rheos and can forgive them for being young and inexperienced.

This CD has some good moments on it, but as others have said, don't buy it if you have no idea what I'm talking about above. "Crescent Moon" is decent, "Canadian Wish" is a standout, and "Ditch Pigs", "OK by Me", and "Delta 88" are good songs too--the big mark against them is that the Rheos later made so much music that was, frankly, better.

The art is black and white, but I like Martin's tree, and of course the reconstruction of Christopher Jane at Shopper's World Albion will make any young Green Sprout giggly with delight.

Don't let the title fool you, this is the debut album from Toronto's Rheostatics. Recorded when the boys were but fresh-faced squirts in 1987, "Greatest Hits" is a fairly strong collection from a band just starting to find their sealegs. The songwriting is no where near as advanced as it would become on "Melville" or "Whale Music" but what it lacks in polish, it makes up for in boyish charm. I actually listened to this disc while crossing Canada on a Greyhound bus and it will always remind me of that crazy journey, knowing that the Rheo scripted many of the songs making the same trip themselves. The best tracks here (I think) are Canadian Dream, Higher and Higher and Public Square. And being a big Maple Leaf fan, I must mention The Ballad of Wendel Clark which managed to blend our beloved Captain, Etobicoke, the Sex Pistols and the Hockey Night in Canada theme into a weird 2-minute intro that really serves as a glimpse to what the Rheostatics would ultimately become. If you consider yourself a Rheostatics fan, you should consider buying this CD.