Ant Music is Our Banner4 Out Of 5 Stars
Adam and The Ants were probably more exciting than their actual music, but while they were shaking people up with their antics, they were great fun. Their lone really good album, "Kings Of The Wild Frontier," is well represented here. The digital remaster does enhance the flat sounding CD's from Ant's career, and maybe a notch better than "Antics." If you remember the post-"Dirk" videos and songs fondly, this is an entertaining byproduct of the video happy era when "Antmusic" lured in hip college and high-schoolers (I was a college junior at the time). So to my tastes, I'd had wished for "Beat My Guest," "Physical" or "Whip In My Valiase" over the vile annoyance of "Ant Rap" Had that been the track listing, I may have bumped the CD up a star.
Like most of the many labels "Essential/Millenium" styled series, there seems to be an unwritten rule to give not quite everything worth having on each disc. On the plus side, you do get three B-Sides previously not on CD ("Friends" is the best of the trio), his attempt at a 90's comeback, "Wonderful," and his entry into 80's sythn-dance, "Room At The Top." That makes all his label periods represented on one 22 track disc, which is a solid value for the buck.
These days, Adam's personal problems are certainly overshadowing his days of rock and roll notoriety. But there's just no denying it, when Adam and secret weapon/guitarist Marco were in their prime, they racked up a string of hooky singles that most song writers would sell their beads and makeup for. Even his last two hits (the dance heavy "Room At The Top" and the dreamy "Wonderful") have a certain charm that belie Adam's 15 year run as a record maker.
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