SWEET — The Sweet Singles Album (review)

SWEET — The Sweet Singles Album album cover

Boxset / Compilation · 1975 · Hard Rock

4.5/5 · 2010-11-15
AtomicCrimsonRush

As a kid of the 70s I played this treasure to death as it was the best of The Sweet and featured some of their heaviest material. All the best singles are here but the B Sides that were rare unless you had the singles are here too and in many cases are much heavier than the single material.

It begins with the transfixing, multi harmonised, layered and manufactured Sweet sound, The Ballroom Blitz. This has the trademark echoed vocals of Steve Priest and Brian Connolly’s raspy vocals. The guitars are great but Mick Tucker’s drums blaze away on this in an unforgettable rhythm.

Man From Mecca has a great riff on Andy Scott’s axe, and the beat is strong along with some killer lyrics; “take a black cat think of what you’re at it’s a wild cat, take a white mouse like it anyhow it’s a coloured love” at least that’s what I think it is.

New York Connection is a great B side and has some crunching guitars and a really nice lead break from Scott.

Need A Lot Of Lovin' is here and is way better than the live version on Strung Up that I had heard previously and hated.

Burning is a favourite of mine and once again this is way better than the live version as this does not merge with another song and it has a weird effect and clock speaking section that I always got a kick out of.

Teenage Rampage sounds live but its all fakery, the song is a teen anthem, though I had never considered it among the best singles to come out of the glam machine.

Side B begins well with sirens blazing and a Bowie riff, Block Buster! A perennial favourite, the band played it in every live concert to follow. Steve Priest has fun with the echoed section and you have to see him live on ‘top of the pops’ where he sports a Hitler moustache!

Rock and Roll Disgrace is a rocker that has a riffing hook and some great drums. Live it is poor, but this is a great song in the studio.

Own Up, Take A Look At Yourself is perhaps the best song on Side B, with the Christmas bells, the chug a chug riff, the banging rhythm and a wonderful drum solo. It kicks serious A and is brilliantly structured, yet rarely sees the light of day on CD.

Burn On The Flame has wonderful guitar effects and Brian sings well when he is not screaming. This is another rare CD song that occasionally pops up on a compilation, yet once again it is fantastic rock.

Hellraiser ends it on a bang literally, the thing explodes, and this is perhaps the band’s heaviest song. The lyrics spell it out with a ferocity unsurpassed in the band’s repertoire, “Mama let me out on a Saturday night, she says go out and get her, go and hold me tight I said, Mama you don’t understand everytime I touch her hand its like the burning in the fires of hell and if I hold it too long you never can tell what will happen to me, wouldn’t want you to see, lookout! She’s a hellraiser starchaser trailblazer natural born raver yeah yeah yeah yeah….” Thats the way I remember it in the 70s. Crude, rude and desirable. Glam!

This compilation is a real find on vinyl as it was only released in Australia and New Zealand, but its worth getting as these songs are all excellent and heavy as Sweet can get.