Slade

If your taste in music leans toward arena rock anthems filled with great hooks, fist-pumping singalong choruses, and essentially mindless lyrics, then Slade is the band you've been looking for.

Sladest is a "best of" collection that includes all of the material that helped the band sell tons of records and fill arenas in the U.K. in the early '70s. Falling somewhere between the glam of T.Rex and the hard rock of Nazareth, Slade's finest moments come with arena rockers "Cum On Feel the Noize," "Mama Weer All Crazee Now," and "Gudbye T' Jayne." These songs were specifically written to be strong live numbers that would get the British kids up off their seats. This style of songs is what the band did best, and at the time, not many bands did it better.

When the band strays from their successful formula of catchy guitar riffs and big choruses, they tend to fail. Softer tracks like Coz I Luv You and Pouk Hill fall flat.

Although the band enjoyed major success in the U.K., they never broke stateside. They had a brief surge of popularity in the U.S. in the early '80s when Quiet Riot had hits covering two Slade tunes (Cum On Feel the Noize and Mama Weer All Crazee Now). One listen to Kevin Dubrow of Quiet Riot will tell you he spent many nights listening to Skweeze Me Pleeze Me and other Slade songs for hours on end. Judging by Slade's popularity in the early '70s, he wasn't alone. ~ Paul Tinelli, All Music Guide