Slade - The Slade Box (@320)

 

Slade - The Slade Box

Slade Box Review by Dave Thompson.

The problem with Slade is, when they were good they were so very, very good that it becomes very difficult to pay much attention to the rest of their career. Of course the average fan will happily listen through their first two albums, cut in the years before "Get Down Get with It" finally catapulted Slade into the charts, and it's impossible for anybody to take exception to the four years of classic hits, dynamic album tracks and brilliant B-sides that followed. Drop in on Slade circa 1976, however, and listen through the music that sustained them across the next 15 years, and nobody would blame you if you didn't hang around too long. Which means, sadly, that anybody buying The Slade Box as any kind of substitute for the earlier albums (or a decent greatest-hits collection) is in for something of a disappointment. No complaints with the track listing, though. Across 84 tracks, Slade's entire catalog has been cherry-picked for precisely the right songs to illustrate a career of their depth and dynamism. But when the strict chronology means you hit "Merry Xmas Everybody" at the end of disc one; and "In for a Penny" (the last truly major hit) by midway through disc two, that means there's an awful lot more to listen through before the four discs are at an end. And it really is too much, no matter how much you love the band.

The worst thing is, this could have been a must-have purchase. At least one disc's worth of prime-period B-sides could have been scattered throughout; there's a clutch of BBC sessions rattling around the collector's circuit, and a mass of U.K. and European TV appearances that could have brought something really special to the box set table. And that's long before we start wondering about demos and outtakes and the like. Of course, a democratic trawl through the band's entire catalog is no less than Slade deserve, and history will thank Union Square for finally giving the later years a fair crack of the whip. The booklet is wonderful, the packaging attractive and the sound quality is superlative. But, if you never felt the need to own Keep Your Hands off My Power Supply and You Boyz Make Big Noize in the past, you're not going to welcome them here, either.

Tracklist:

Disc 1:

 

1. Slade - Born to be wild

2. Slade - Roach daddy

3. Slade - Wild winds are blowing

4. Slade - The shape of things to come

5. Slade - Know How You Are

6. Slade - Pouk hill

7. Slade - One way hotel

8. Slade - Get down and get with it

9. Slade - In Like A Shot From My Gun (Live)

10. Slade - Coz I luv you

11. Slade - Look wot you dun

12. Slade - Take Me Bak 'Ome

13. Slade - Wonderin' Y

14. Slade - Mama weer all crazee now

15. Slade - Gudbuy t'Jane

16. Slade - The whole world's goin' crazee

17. Slade - I Won't Let It 'appen Again

18. Slade - Cum on feel the noize

19. Slade - I'm mee I'm now and that's orl

20. Slade - Skweeze me pleeze me

21. Slade - Kill 'em at the hot club tonite

22. Slade - My friend Stan

23. Slade - Merry X-Mas Everybody

 

Disc 2:

 

1. Slade - When the lights are out

2. Slade - We're really gonna raise the roof

3. Slade - How can it be

4. Slade - Everyday

5. Slade - The bangin' man

6. Slade - She did it to me

7. Slade - Far far away

8. Slade - So far away

9. Slade - How does it feel

10. Slade - Thanks for the memory (Wham bam thank you mam)

11. Slade - In for a penny

12. Slade - Can you just imagine

13. Slade - Let's call it quits

14. Slade - When the chips are down

15. Slade - Nobody's fool

16. Slade - L.A. Jinx

17. Slade - Gypsy roadhog

18. Slade - Be

19. Slade - It Ain't Love But It Ain't Bad

20. Slade - Burning In The Heat Of Love

21. Slade - My Baby Left Me (But That's Alright Mama)

 

Disc 3:

 

1. Slade - Give Us A Goal

2. Slade - Rock 'n' Roll Bolero

3. Slade - It's Alright Buy Me

4. Slade - Ginny, Ginny

5. Slade - Sign of the times

6. Slade - Not tonight Josephine

7. Slade - Okey Cokey

8. Slade - Don't Waste Your Time (Back Seat Star)

9. Slade - We'll bring the house down

10. Slade - Wheels ain't coming down

11. Slade - Night starvation

12. Slade - When I'm Dancin' I Ain't Fightin'

13. Slade - Knuckle Sandwich Nancy

14. Slade - Lock up your daughters

15. Slade - Rock And Roll Preacher

16. Slade - Till Deaf Do Us Part

17. Slade - Ruby red

18. Slade - A Night To Remember

19. Slade - (And now the waltz) C'est la vie

20. Slade - My oh my

21. Slade - Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply

 

Disc 4:

 

1. Slade - Don't tame a hurricane

2. Slade - Ready To Explode

3. Slade - Run Runaway

4. Slade - Two track stereo one track mind

5. Slade - All join hands

6. Slade - Little Sheila

7. Slade - 7 year bitch

8. Slade - Leave Them Girls Alone

9. Slade - Myzsterious Mizster Jones

10. Slade - Do you believe in miracles

11. Slade - Still the same

12. Slade - Gotta Go Home

13. Slade - That's What Friends Are For

14. Slade - You Boyz Make Big Noize

15. Slade - Ooh La La In L.A.

16. Slade - We won't give in

17. Slade - Let's Dance ('88)

18. Slade - Radio wall of sound

19. Slade - Universe

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