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The Fineest of the Young Cannibals

Kendal B. Hunter | Provo, UT United States | 05/26/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"...FYC was quite a blip on the radar screen. They are a two hit wonder, with "She drives Me Crazy," and "Good Thing." I played "The Raw and the Cooked" until my sister took my tape from men, then forgot about them until I saw a replay of SNL on "Comedy Central." I tacked down this CD, which is a merger of two of their three CD's. Their third CD was "The Raw and The Remix," which had dance club remixes of their sophomore album.This is a "Best of" collection, which means all of the [junk]tracks and filler is whittled away. This album is great and has the best tracks off of "Raw and Cooked," with their stellar cover of "Suspicious Minds" off of their jazzier freshman album.The version of "Don't Look Back" is different from the original version: it has an added drum machine track which brings the song more into the FYC idiom, but drowns out the great guitar work on this great song. In fact, it could have been a third top ten hit.The linear booklet is skimpy, and doesn't have any lyrics or notes. It is really just a filler paper. Any memories by Roland Gift or the lads about the group's quick life, and too-soon breakup would have been nice.I like this CD, and hope to track down the other three CD's when I get my 80's Flashback fits."

Good compilation of soulful cannibal tunes

Al Chartreux | Upper West Side, New York, New York United States | 03/27/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"...fans of FYC will enjoy this album; all the hit songs are here. However, since the group only released 2 albums, their eponymous debut and 1989's smash "The Raw and the Cooked, if you are a fan, you should buy both albums."

Great hooks, limited material

Andy Agree | Omaha, NE | 05/06/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This short-lived late-80s band produced some compelling musical hooks that are on display in this collection of greatest hits from a two-album career. Their style draws mostly from 60s to early-70s R&B, updated with crisper 80s bass and percussion. Lead singer Roland Gift sometimes sounds like Al Green, and has the genuine appeal of a sincere imitator. The two best songs are "Good Thing" and "Take What I Can Get". "Good Thing" is driven by the repeated hammering of piano power chords. For you 60s fans unfamiliar with it, it has the pounding beat of "Can I Get a Witness?" and the chord progression of "Liar Liar, Pants on Fire", but it also has a snappy guitar, a great lead vocal, and I love that "dwee-dwee doo-be-doo" in the background. This song is so much fun, I like to play it twice in a row, and you can see the Cannibals perform it live in the movie "Tin Men". "Take What I Can Get" features Roland's best vocal, a nice melody and good brave lyrics about unrequited love. Other good songs are "Since You've Been Gone", and the rocking "Don't Look Back". Nice but not great are the echo-y "Funny How Love Is", the sweet, reggae-tinged "Tell Me What", "The Flame", and the best Al Green impersonation of all in "I'm Not the Man I Used to Be". "Couldn't Care More" is interesting - I thought I didn't like it at first, but it has grown on me. The rest of the songs are no better than listenable, including their hit "She Drives Me Crazy" and their reinterpretation of Elvis' "Suspicious Minds", a song not well suited to them. I would summarize Fine Young Cannibals by paraphrasing Mother Goose: When they were good, they were very, very good, but they weren't good often enough or over a long enough period of time to compile a really classy retrospective. I like these guys, so I'd like to give them 4 stars, but when I compare this to other "4-star" music I've rated, this comes up short so I give them 3. But their best hooks are addictive and loads of fun, which is why I bought it."