The release of this new "20th Century Masters - The Best Of Sublime - The Millenium Collection" cd has it's purposes.First off, Greatest Hits as of right now is out of print. Therefore, this album seems to have replaced Greatest Hits. In my opinion, this new best of Sublime cd should've been released instead of Greatest Hits. This new cd was set up much better than Greatest Hits. It has a really writing on Sublime's music by one of Subime's former managers inside the cd's booklet. Though the pictures found in the booklet have already been seen by most fans, the art inside and info's were set up quite nicely and organized.
This is the type of cd that you can bring to a party and play the whole thing through. Rather than bring all your Sublime cd's, this one cd manages to give enough tastes of Sublime, giving you 10 of the most appealing songs Sublime made.
What is great about this album is how many of the tracks have been remastered. There is much better quality on Badfish and Smoke Two Joints on this cd than there was on the album "40 Oz. To Freedom". What I had hoped for the song "Greatest-Hits" happened on this cd. The song was truly remastered. It can't sound any better than on this cd.
This type of cd isn't made to attract old fans to buy. These are for fans who have never bought a Sublime cd, or have only heard a few songs, or basically only want one cd and want just the best most appealing songs.
I already have had all 6 main Sublime albums released for years now. I never bought Greatest Hits, I thought it was a rip off cuz not only was it ten songs, but it was majorly overpriced.
This new best of cd has a great lower price.
The reasons I give this release 4 stars is because there are a few things that I must critique.
The cd contains 10 songs for a total of 31 minutes. There are other 20th century masters cd's that contain 12 tracks. This album should've had 12 songs on it. 10 songs just doesn't feel like enough when so much more could fit.
Date Rape, Smoke Two Joints, and Badfish were the 3 songs from 40 Oz. To Freedom that got rock radio play on certain stations. These 3 are also stand outs from the album "40 Oz. To Freedom" that no fan can really deny.
Saw Red is always a predictable choice for the fact that Gwen Stefani of No Doubt sings with Brad on this song. Though the acoustic solo version of Saw Red done just by Bradley Nowell on his acoustic guitar is much better, this punk/ska version of Saw Red has always been good. The addition of the song Greatest-Hits to this collection could bring a smile to some fans. This track is one of the fan favorites. There isn't really any "radio-friendly" type songs on Sublime's second album "Robbin' The Hood", so the compilers did what they could in choosing these two songs.
For Self-Titled, there are 4 obvious selections which are the singles (What I Got, Santeria, Wrong Way, Doin' Time). April 29, 1992 is one of the most well known Sublime songs out there. It also got its fair share of amounts of radio play on Rock stations.
It was a sin for them not to include the song "40 Oz. To Freedom" on this. The song has always been one of Sublime's stand out songs, and it was on Sublime's "Greatest Hits" cd..
Another song that is missed on this album is "Pool Shark". "Pool Shark can be considered one of the most important songs Sublime ever wrote. It is in my opinion, the most emotional song Bradley Nowell ever sang. Maybe the quite short punk version did not fit in well with this album, but they could've put in a mixed version of Pool Shark with both the acoustic and electric versions on the same track. This mix of Pool Shark was released on a certain Sublime import that mixed songs from 40 Oz. To Freedom and Robbin' The Hood. Even if they could have, maybe the they just didn't want to waste any more time on this release putting in a rare cut and just wanted to put in songs that they didn't have to do much to.
Though I do already have all the albums and I listen to them all occasionaly, I'm finding myself leaning alot towards this cd. This album contains a bunch of songs that I find myself skipping to the most when listening to a Sublime cd.
A couple of hardcore Sublime fans have asked for a Sublime box set. Though many die hard fans have wished for it, a box set may not make sense for them to release. First off all, we already have all the albums. Second, we have alot of unreleased stuff on bootlegs and such. Lastly, after 6 and a half years, there may not be a large enough fanbase to purchase a boxset, or have interest in one. Even if there is more unreleased tracks, they may be unreleased for reasons. Maybe Brad and the band didn't want to ever release certain tracks. Maybe it's that Sublime's unreleased stuff, though good, cannot match up to what they did release, unlike in the case of Nirvana.
If you're a person who has not heard that much from Sublime yet, buy this album first. It will lead you to buying their albums "Sublime" and "40 Oz. To Freedom" and then lead you to buy the rest of their albums. This best of Sublime cd is a near perfect introduction to Sublime.
Even if you're already a fan of Sublime and have all their released tracks as well as some unreleased songs, this album is still worth getting. The cover art, the pretty well chosen song selection, the noticible remastered tracks, and it's low price are enough to even attract already Sublime fans. This album is more of a collector's item for already fans.
