Description
Our Personal Favorite World Famous Hits is a compilation album by the American alternative rock band Daniel Amos, released on KMG Records in 1998.
A Daniel Amos anthology stretching from the mellow countryrock of «Ain’t Gonna Fight It», recorded in 1975, via several new wave classics lifted from the four part concept cycle The Alarma! Chronicles conceived in the first part of the 80’s (tracks like the proto new wave rock of «Walls of Doubt» and the Talking Head-like «Mall (All Over The World)» – which predicts the mania for materialism which seems to have captured the soul of western civilisation, the epic Bowiesh «Sanctuary», as well as the darkwave synth-rock of «The Pool»), all the way to the Songs of the Heart concept album – the bands last recording of the 90’s, represented by the lyrical gem «When Everyone Wore Hats» (songwriter Terry Taylor’s requiem for his parents generation, and one of Daniel Amos’ most beautiful songs).
Insert your own pithy paragraph here about Terry Taylor‘s brilliance, genius or otherwise living legendary status. Chances are you either already know firsthand of his songwriting talents or you’ve read plenty on the esteemed subject. It’s all true…at least the most impressive parts.
Having dispensed with that, let’s get down to business. Our Personal Favorite World Famous Hits is the first-ever attempt to boil down twenty years of Daniel Amos recording history into one impressive greatest hits package. The results of this ambitious effort are decidedly mixed but ultimately honorable.
If nothing else, this compilation boldly attests to what a really wild ride the Daniel Amos experience has been. Terry Taylor’s best known band began as a kind of Christianized cow-poke, country group back in the mid-seventies, then surprisingly transformed themselves into an eccentric new wave band in the early eighties. Having solidified themselves as one of the most unique bands on the planet (and certainly the most unique in the smaller world of CCM) by the end of that decade, DA even went on to experiment with new sounds ranging from sixties retro to nineties grunge before releasing perhaps their quirkiest albums ever in 1995’s Songs of the Heart. And this greatest hits collection unapologetically offers a smattering of all those assorted sounds in one career-spanning musical montage. Albeit quite impressive and nostalgically satisfying, herein lies one of the album’s difficulties. Although some effort has been made to smooth transitions from one style to another via the song order, the overwhelming diversity present in these songs means there are some unavoidably bumpy spots.
Daniel Amos’s self-titled debut of simple and largely slap-happy sounding country tunes is entirely neglected, but their more respected sophomore release, 1977’s Shotgun Angel, offers «Father’s Arms». Along the same musical lines, the obscure track «Ain’t Gonna Fight It» from 1975’s Maranatha 5 release closes the album on a lush, worshipful note. Longtime fans will recognize that the two live tracks from Live Bootleg ’82 are originally from Horrendous Disc, which Larry Norman has yet to release on CD, regrettably. A live, previously unreleased song, «Twilight Love», follows solidly but offers few surprises. The esteemed four album Alarma! Chronicles is reduced to five songs here, with the first album, Alarma, being the only one to grant two tracks. Daniel Amos’s best album ever, 1987’s Darn Floor, Big Bite, sadly offers only the title track – yet 1991’s Kalhoun, the most underappreciated of their albums, also offers only one song, the arena rocker «If You Want To». Both 1994’s Bibleland and 1993’s highly regarded Motorcycle offer two tracks, but 1995’s Songs of the Heart is represented solely by «When Everyone Wore Hats».
It is entirely impossible to summarize nearly twenty-five years of Daniel Amos’s music with only eighteen songs, and most fans will be frustrated that their own personal favorite world famous hits are not among the mix. I can personally think of two albums worth of their material that I’d rather see collected on one disc. In some cases the songs selected here would have been my second, third…or even fourth choice from each album. On the flip side, they didn’t include any embarrassing stinkers either. This confounding situation of not knowing which tracks to include to please the most people with one fell swoop may also account for what appears to be the album’s intentionally tighter focus. Most of Daniel Amos’s boldest, oddest adventures are avoided in favor of songs that are either just more straight-forward or among the beautiful, thoughtful, or sentimental variety. This would have worked well had KMG also released a companion disc of Daniel Amos’s most upbeat anthems, outlandish experiments, and outright party hits, which are surprisingly and disappointingly missing here for the most part. (The deviously clever «Mall All Over the World» being the most notable exception.)
Regardless, the fact remains that this collection contains such strength of material that Taylor’s songwriting genius – not to mention his cohorts impressive musical talents – are all granted some measure of appropriate homage. Most of the fun that could have injected this collection with gleeful rollicking abandon is undermined. But what remains is still a solid, considerable testimony, especially to the Author of Faith who sustained the band through all these years. At best, very nearly the best of Daniel Amos! At worst, some great songs to introduce a friend to the band. And we can all still hope “the band that won’t go away” just plain won’t. [Steven S. Baldwin, The Phantom Tollbooth, 6/17/99]
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CD tracklist:
01. Walls of Doubt (from the album Alarma!, NewPax 1981)
02. Alarma! (from the album Alarma!, NewPax 1981)
03. Darn Floor – Big Bite (from the album Darn Floor, Big Bite, Frontline 1987)
04. Broken Ladders (from the album Bibleland, WAL 1994)
05. I’ll Get Over It (from the album Bibleland, WAL 1994)
06. If You Want To (from the album Kalhoun, Brainstorm 1991)
07. The Pool (from the album Fearful Symmetry, Frontline 1986)
08. Mall (All Over The World) (from the album Doppelganger, Alarma Records 1983)
09. I Love You #19 (from the album Live Bootleg ’82, Stunt Records 1990)
10. Hound Of Heaven (from the album Live Bootleg ’82, Stunt Records 1990)
11. Twilight Love (Live in Concert 1979 – Previously Unreleased)
12. Grace Is The Smell of Rain (from the album MotorCycle, Brainstorm 1993)
13. Noelle (from the album MotorCycle, Brainstorm 1993)
14. When Everyone Wore Hats (from the album Songs of the Heart, Brainstorm 1995)
15. Sanctuary (from the album Vox Humana, Refuge 1984)
16. Soon (from the album The Revelation, Frontline 1986)
17. Father’s Arms (from the album Shotgun Angel, Maranatha! Music 1977)
18. Ain’t Gonna Fight It (from the multi-artist album Maranatha 5, Maranatha! Music 1975)
The original artwork created by Doug TenNapel and used for the cover of the Our Personal Favorite World Famous Hits compilation CD.
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