The Best of Sweet [Capitol 1993]

Performer: Sweet
Producer: Ron Furmanek; Steve Kolanjian
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Sweet: Brian Connolly (vocals); Andy Scott (guitar); Steve Priest (bass); Mick Tucker (drums). Includes liner notes by Vicki Arkoff. Digitally remastered by Kevin Reeves. Is Sweet nothing more than a time capsule from the bell-bottomed '70s? Surely, the band's fey appearance doesn't do much for ensuring a legacy of pride. All glam pretensions aside, when one lines up all the band's best singles in a row it's an indisputable feast of delirious hooks, pop throwaways, and car-radio screamers. Sweet was something like a hard pop version of the Monkees in that producers-songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman dictated the group's output with an eye on the teen market. The early '70s saw a flurry of immediate singles blast out of this "collaboration": "Little Willy," "Wig Wam Bam," and "Blockbuster" all crackle and zap with hard pop confection. After the band broke away from Chinn and Chapman with DESOLATION BOULEVARD, Sweet took on a decidedly harder edge, shying away from its bubblegum beginnings. As evidenced here, the decision was a smart one as it culminated in the band's signature song "Fox on the Run" which packed an FM-ready wallop. Elsewhere, "Lost Angels," "The 6-Teens," and "Love Is like Oxygen" demonstrate the band knew its own way around a pop hook and could create songs as accessible as their earlier work with considerably more texture to boot.

Entertainment Weekly (6/18/93, p.57) - "...Funny how this reissue is more fun than 90 percent of today's prefab pop..." - Rating: A

In the early 1970s, the Sweet were a massive UK pop success under the baton of the Chinn-Chapman writing/production team, but by '74 the band was pursuing a heavier rock sound and concentrating on its own compositions. In the process they became one of the key groups of the '70s British glam-rock scene. Their popularity waned by the end of the decade, but various members engaged in reunions in the '80s. When singer Brian Connolly died in 1997, though, it was truly the end of the Sweet era.

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