In 2004, after Axl Rose hadn’t produced a studio album in well over ten years, record company Geffen decided to release a Greatest Hits album. It was surrounded by controversy however, as Axel Rose tried to sue Geffen in an attempt to halt the album as he disproved of it and it’s track listings. The suing failed and probably had a reverse effect, by hyping up the album so much, and perhaps caused it to go triple platinum in America.

Well at least Geffen started in the right way, with some classic 1987 Slash. The first track is one that everyone knows and one that Rose would be hard put to find a reason to keep out of the album, “Welcome to the Jungle.”  This was the bands first major significant single, and Slash has said he considers it to be the first the band wrote together. It starts off brilliantly, showcasing Slash’s talent straight away, Rose’s voice is powerful  at the start of the song, and only really lightens for a moment in the middle. It’s a great listen, and a classic song, a brilliant opener. It’s hard to believe that the song was inspired by a hobo screaming at kids. MOAR »

Now a little thing that sometimes must be taken into account when it comes to greatest hits albums is taste. Sometimes the artist or band might decide their favourite song over their most popular, or perhaps the problem is that the singles on the album were released in some countries but not others. The latter is the case with Queen’s Greatest hits album, as it has no universal track listing or even universal cover art, due to the fact that it was released three times. First there was the 1981 U.K release, then the 1981 U.S edition, which was followed 11 years later by the 1992 U.S edition. But I am going to deal with the first release of the album, the 1981 U.K edition. MOAR »