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Spiderbait
Greatest Hits
UMA

 

Rating: 85%

Spiderbait are one of the few survivors – alongside You Am I – of the early alternative music boom that occurred in Australia following in the wake of the explosion of Ratcat, which was swiftly consumed by the likes of Nirvana et al from overseas.

But the thing that really made Spiderbait a hero to the burgeoning crowds of Australian pubs and clubs was their sheer energy – from their earliest days, these three kids transported to Melbourne from Finley, New South Wales, had this incredible power that couldn’t be denied. Their early punk-influenced days were a riot, and then Triple J latched onto “Old Man Sam”…and the sky became the limit.

Greatest Hits travels in reverse order – it opens with new single/exclusive track “On My Way”, a riot of a rock song with Kram on lead vocals, and then for a further twenty-one tracks takes you back from the happy days of yore with the likes of the number one hit “Black Betty” to 1996’s “Buy Me a Pony” (which topped Triple J’s Hottest 100 poll that year), back to their ‘breakthrough’ record (read: major label debut) The unfinished Spanish galleon of Finley Lake through to early singles like “Footy” and “Circle K” from their years on Melbourne independent bastion AuGoGo.

So Spiderbait sure have come a long way since they started out, and have traversed a variety of styles and sounds, as this Greatest Hits compile indicates. There’s everything from three-on-the-floor rock action to gloriously shiny moments like “Glockenpop”. Not only have they survived, but they’ve prospered – their most recent effort Tonight Alright is their most streamlined and concise recorded moment to date, neatly coming close to capturing their live prowess on disc. If “On My Way” is any indication, Spiderbait are still travelling forward.


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