Status Quo The Early Years

Talk about rockers rollin'! This fantastic four-CD set from the veteran British rockers includes all 75 of their A-sides (many of them being radio edits not available on the original albums) plus Jump That Rock (Whatever You Want), their 2008 collaboration with the German techno act Scooter. Love 'em or hate 'em, Status Quo have been rockin' the charts for four decades. While they remain living legends and rock icons in the U.K., Europe, South America, and elsewhere, they can't even get arrested in the States! The "hip" U.K. press love to take as many potshots at them as possible, which is all the more reason to loveQuo. But we all know that, deep down (deeper and down), those critics probably have a soft spot for quite a few of Quo's hits but will never admit to it in public. At any rate, the band has always managed to maintain a certain quality level that may not always touch the stars, but, at the least, will always rock the house!

In March, Universal Music reissued a trio of Status Quo albums first released in the late 80s and early 1990s. These new CD editions offer a generous amount of bonus material. Perfect Remedy (1989) and its follow-up Rock ‘Til You Drop (1991) are both expanded to three-CD deluxe editions while Thirsty Work (1994) is a two CD set. The bonus content includes B-sides, 12-inch mixes, edits, outtakes, live performances and more.

In March, Universal Music reissued a trio of Status Quo albums first released in the late 80s and early 1990s. These new CD editions offer a generous amount of bonus material. Perfect Remedy (1989) and its follow-up Rock ‘Til You Drop (1991) are both expanded to three-CD deluxe editions while Thirsty Work (1994) is a two CD set. The bonus content includes B-sides, 12-inch mixes, edits, outtakes, live performances and more.

After seven years at the top of the British charts, even Status Quo fans were beginning to wonder whether the band wasn't simply rewriting the same riff over and over again, then putting it out with a new catch phrase for a title. From "Down Down" to "Rocking All Over the World," Status Quo had enacted some of the most excitingly primal rock behemoths of the decade. But they'd also composed some of the most enduring clichés as well. However, nothing - repeat nothing - could have prepared the world for Whatever You Want, a record which, almost three decades later, still sounds like the most ruthless piss-take you've ever heard. And, of course, it became one of their biggest hits ever. Mercifully, the remainder of the album titled by this unfortunate monstrosity shows that there was more than one idea rattling around the band's heads at this point: "Living on an Island," with its acoustic wash and mournful melody…

Bearing in mind that almost anything Status Quo chose to do could only be a vast improvement on their last album, Ain't Complaining, Perfect Remedy was very well titled – and that despite being far from perfect itself. Indeed, "Tommy's in Love" is arguably the worst song the band had ever recorded, while "Not at All" only sprang to attention when it became the band's worst performing 45 since the very early '70s. It's also worth remembering that, while the album does abandon its predecessor's attempt to locate a new band sound, that's only because it thinks it has found one, in the form of producer Pip Williams' slick, country-rock approach. It has a little more in common with some of the band's efforts from the early '80s ("Living on an Island" would have fit nicely in here), but still you can't help wondering what was wrong with the band's own sound? And how long before they get back to it?