On The Rocks

A good compilation of oldies.

When the malt people step into music terrain, you’ve got to allow them some leeway for minor glitches. This jukebox ain’t so bad, but it ain’t brilliant either. It’s what they call dry ice!

Fourteen warm tracks with an odd hottie or two, the album intersperses the fast with the slow. The ones I ran over again and again to satiate my music greed were Dido’s "Here With Me", Santana’s "El Farol", Mr. Mister’s "Broken Wings" and LFO’s "Summer Girls". Does anybody still listen to Smokie’s "Living Next Door To Alice" (the unadulterated version), or Air Supply’s "All Out Of Love"? The ones that do will find them here.

The very avoidable Right Said Fred have a surprisingly decent number here with "Mojive" and Gil’s "Out Of My Bed" is still in my head! "Join Me In Death" by Him did bring visions of hell, incidentally. Dave Matthew’s Band have "I Did It" as the closing track, and is probably a good choice to wake you out of the stupor caused by the falling rhythm.

This article was first published on26 May 2002.