Search - Enuff Z'Nuff :: Greatest Hits

A decent retrospective

William Matson | Maine | 07/13/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Enuff Z'Nuff 'Greatest Hits' was released early in 2006 on Cleopatra/Deadline Records. Although this Chicago-based band never reached superstar status, they certainly deserved such a treatment. This wasn't the first time, however. There was already a previous greatest hits album issued in 2004 under the title of 'Favorites.' The track listing here differs a little bit.



Overall, the song selection on the 'Greatest Hits' release is fairly good. The best news is that none of these are live versions or rerecordings, which is often the case with such a compilation released on a small label. "New Thing" and "Fly High Michelle" were the two biggest hits for Enuff Z'Nuff and they are both here. The casual fan will probably never listen to anything beyond this point, though common sense and good taste says they should.



Rest assured there will be plenty of fan debate over what songs should have been included here and which ones should have been left off. Truth is, the only album that is poorly represented would be 'Animals With Human Intelligence' from 1993. "Innocence", "Mary Anne Lost Her Baby" and "Right By Your Side" are all sorely missed here.



The good points here include the fact that this release is a pretty good retrospective for Enuff Z'Nuff. Pretty much every aspect of their career is covered, from the early days to the more recent material. No stone is left unturned. The running order here tends to run from early material, at the beginning of the album, to the newer material which is featured at the end. As you listen to each song in order, you can clearly hear the evolution of this band. The final song on here, "Gorgeous", comes straight from the 2004 studio album, '?'. "There goes my heart" is another great radio single from recent years (2000).



The biggest complaint here would be that a couple of the songs are noticeably shorter than the original album versions. It appears that the label chose to go with the radio edits of "Fly High Michelle" and "There goes my heart." Both of those songs are missing their original intro and outro. The listener will quickly know the difference in "Fly High Michelle", which is at least one minute shorter, though the missing portions of "There goes my heart" will be tougher to pick up, except to the more dedicated fans who know the song by heart.



You won't find much in the way of liner notes, either. There is a short commentary on the band written by radio personality Howard Stern, who has championed Enuff Z'Nuff on his radio show for years. However, you can tell by reading it that the comments are very dated. They appear to have been written sometime in the early to mid 1990's, long before this release was ever conceived.



You can't let any of this discourage you from picking up this album. While the Enuff Z'Nuff 'Greatest Hits' album contains some flaws, you can't deny that what is here is very good melodic pop. There aren't many bands that do it better than this one. It is also worth noting that this collection is the easiest way to get some of the best Enuff Z'Nuff songs all in one place."

Not A Bad Compilation But Could Be Better

Jer | MI | 02/05/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"First off, it's most important to note that the band's most famous songs, "Fly High Michelle" and "New Thing," are in fact present on this disc in their original versions. Many indie compilations like this have had to cut corners, providing unadvertised live or re-recordeded renditions instead of what the listener remembered. That is not the case here. It's great for me to say that all songs featured in this package, including their major-label era stuff from years back, are in fact here and provided in their original forms.



That said, I don't believe the track listing represents what a true fan would expect to hear, or even what their live shows throughout their carrer provided, judging from their set-lists back in the day. The disc is fairly decent overall, and it does in fact span across most of their work throughout their many years. However, the black eye here is that not only one, but two of the songs featured are sung by the band's bassist. These songs were never hits, they were never performed live, or ever even given a second mention back in the day. Therefore, it is completely rediculous that those songs are here, and it is supremely evident that the band's bassist was the one who chose the songs present here.



Delete "My Heroin" and "Gorgeous" in favor of "Ain't It Funny," "Saturday," "My Dear Dream," or "Day By Day," and then we'd have a pretty cool package. As it stands it's merely OK.



It should be mentioned that this collection contains absolutely nothing new, so if you have all their CDs, there is no new stuff or rarity b-sides to intice you to bother.



Overall, it really is not a bad "best of." The band were never chart toppers and like I mentioned, their biggest hits from the early years are here, filled in with some cool tracks that coulda been hits. It just deserves to be better, like egos got in the way of something special.



Worth checking out if you lost touch, or want a taste of great rock n roll in general. But buy Paraphernalia or Welcome To Blue Island instead of this if you want a true representation of the band."