OK so I know we don’t review ‘Best Of’s’ but there are always exceptions to any rule and there’s few reasons in the case – Gun just happen to be in my short list of Scotland’s finest Rock acts and there is also new material on here too.
30 years ago Gun sounded and looked like a sure thing for the big time, but like so many bands over the years that ‘failed to originate from the US’ their US-based labels just didn’t offer the support they gave to shall we say, lesser home-grown acts. We’ll not get into the politics of that here though we’ll just celebrate a band that put out some exceptional music.
So here it is – the best of GUN cunningly titled ‘R3L0ADED’ and released ahead of their ‘Big 3-0 Tour’ with FM and Dan Reed Network in the UK in December. Released as if it were a double album the collection boasts 20 tracks split over two separate discs – ‘Side A’ and ‘Side B’: the first containing GUN’s biggest originals taken from all albums including 2017’s ‘Favourite Pleasures’ and the second disc features 10 covers including that wonderful cover of Cameo’s ‘Word Up’ from back in the day.
The new material of course comes in the form of some of the covers and I must admit I’ve always liked me some Hot Chocolate and they always seem to be a band that is covered well, here Gun rock it up nicely on ‘Every 1’s A Winner’ and you can’t really go wrong with a track like ‘(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)’ by The Beastie Boys or the already rocking ‘‘Rock The Casbah’ by The Clash, Iggy Pop’s ‘Success’ and Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition’ that rivals even the Chilli’s take on ‘Higher Ground’ for me.
It’s the more or less obvious choices that work best though and hot on the heels of the Hot Chocolate (bad pun intended) comes a wonderful take on Blondie’s ‘Union City Blue’.
The only 3 songs I wasn’t familiar with previously are probably the worst here. ‘Everybody Knows’ by Dixie Chicks has a nice melody but it’s not a patch on the better known songs here. ‘Diamonds’ by Rhianna really could have been any generic pop song recorded over the last 20 years and is pretty awful. Worst of all though is ‘Take Me To Church’ originally by Hozier which is a particularly dreary song. Gun inject it with a bit of life I guess, but to paraphrase many ‘you can’t polish a turd’. Still if that’s the only Gun song I’ve never liked it is only a cover and the only real dud here.
If you’re a Gun fan like me the press release has those magic words: “We’re far from finished. R3L0ADED is just the beginning… the start of a new chapter.” And what a great way to start…
Track-listing:
Side A
1. Don’t Say It’s Over
2. Better Days
3. Break the Silence
4. Higher Ground
5. Something Worthwhile
6. Crazy You
7. Take Me Down
8. Steal Your Fire
9. Favourite Pleasures
10.Taking On The World
Side B
1. (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)
2. Every 1’s a Winner
3. Superstition
4. Union City Blue
5. Word Up
6. Success
7. Rock the Kasbah
8. Take Me To Church
9. Everybody Knows
10. Diamonds