Sweet Ride: Best of

Neither of the albums Belly released were masterpieces, in my opinion. They were both strong, but not genuinely great. This CD eclipses both of them. Every track here, with perhaps the exception of the Hendrix cover, feels vital. The B-sides featured here (Spaceman, Broken, Trust In Me, Thief, Sweet Ride) are all great, and superior to much of the material featured on the two official albums. Spaceman, in particular, is really powerful (the woman saying to the man she's just ditched: 'I'm not a unicorn; you can always find another one'). The best pop songs Belly recorded are here (Feed The Tree, Gepetto, Seal My Fate, Now They'll Sleep), but this is balanced with the slower, more reflective material that Tanya Donelly has always been known for. Sadly, there's no 'Stay', which was such a beautiful song, but it's hard to be critical of this compilation, considering the amount of rare material it contains, including the previously unreleased 'Lilith' which is really excellent, and deserves its belated exposure. The French version of Judas My Heart isn't as great as the original (which was genuinely great), but it could have been disastrous, thankfully it's not, it works. The title track, Sweet Ride, concludes the affair, and it's utterly gorgeous. This album shows, better than Star or King, what a memorable pop band Belly were. That Tanya brought alot of different facets to the tired old pop formula. She was capable of writing a perfect killer pop song (Now They'll Sleep being the best example of that), but also capable of going to deeper places, places that resonate, and extend beyond the ephemeral pop milieu. Belly were the best pop band of the nineties, and this compilation shows why.

A fantastic collection of songs, many of which you won't find on Belly's LP's.

Awesome!

Good

This albumn covers not only the 2 releases King and Star, but much more than that delves into B-sides, French Radio edits and a Live Recording not to mention one previoulsy unreleased track. The end result is a stunning, whirling description of 4AD Indie Pop in the early and mid 1990's. The record starts slowly with Spaceman. This is a haunting track "I'm not a Unicorn, Go out and find another one". Seal my fate, Feed the Tree, Now they'll Sleep, Slow Dog and Superconnected are storming, whirling hook filled slongs that will remind you just how good Belly were and will astonish you that more commercial success was not forthcoming. Beyond these come the depth of the CD that will provide enough attraction for those already owning the 2 albumns to buy this becomes apparent - Judas Mon Coeur, Thief, Dream on Me and spectacularly Are You Experienced?,the Hendrix song which is good enough to justify £10 itself. Belly's quality is derived from a combination of lyrics that are elusive and descriptive, guitars that are never simple but allways melodius and vocals that are simply perfect. A sad day when they split but Sweet Ride is a perfect reminder of just how fantastic they were.

Great best of album for completists - previous review a very unfair (written) reflection! They only released two albums, both of which are great so check them out - suggest you start with Star.

This is a special album - most greatest hits centre around singles. With this compilation, not only do we get the hits, we also get the b sides and rarities - which gives a pretty good overview of one of the best guitar bands in the 90's. Listening to this album makes me really miss them.......where will you find such magic again?! Most tend to credit Tanya - true, she was the principal songwriter but let's not forget Chris, Tom, Fred (the early stuff) and Gail - they did work well together. Bonus point goes to the liner notes by Tanya herself.

Well this was a letdown. I am a big Throwing Muses and Breeders fan and exspeted more from Tanya Donelly realy as she had been in both great bands befor she fromed belly. I found this album for £8.00 and thourt I would give it a try. I now understand the price. I'm not saying that all the songs on here are bad Gepetto, Super-Connected, Broken are good songs. Feed the tree is anoyingly chachy (Hence the title) and Are You Experienced? and Trust in me from the Jungel book are odd covers that kind of work. The whole album almost redemus its self with the live cover of Dusted the best song on the whole album but not realy. Almost all of the album is made up of B sides and apart from the songs I've menshond the rest are manly disapionting slowish county type balleds wich is ok if you like slowish county type balleds but I had realy exspeted something diffrent. To be fair most of the singles are remixed veshons and I don't know they might sond better on the orignal albums wich you are better off buying if you realy want to lison to belly. Hope this helps