Warrant
The Best Of Warrant

THE REVIEW

A torrential rain of invaluable rock diamonds is destined to gently fall upon the listeners of this excellent anthology “The Best Of Warrant,” a faithful portrait of a band that knew how to bring glory to significant venues in California's San Fernando Valley (such as the famed Gazzarri’s and the equally renowned The Whiskey), capturing the attention of critics and enthusiasts with their hard rock suspended between Ratt, Van Halen, and Aerosmith.

Having distinguished itself as a disruptive agent in American rock since 1984, the ensemble born from the fortuitous meeting between the imaginative bass-player Jerry Dixon and the axe-man Erik Turner would find its stability only with the providential inclusion in the lineup of the formidable singer Jani Lane (formerly of the underappreciated Plain Jane) who, along with Steven Sweet (drums) and Joy Allen (guitar), would allow the initial nucleus to decisively define a new exhilarating artistic path.

An important contractual agreement with the major label Columbia Records was reached in January 1988, and the debut album of this combo materialized shortly after. By February 1989, the excellent LP “Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich” saw the light, which despite its interminable title, became one of the bestsellers of that year, selling more than 2,000,000 copies in the United States alone. The collection I am about to examine opens the proceedings with the mainstream rock of the historic single “Down Boys” from the aforementioned platter: followed by the massive hit “Heaven” (#2 Billboard), the power ballad “Sometimes She Cries” and the fiery “Big Talk.”
In 1990, the charts underwent an invasion of authentic hit singles extracted from the triple platinum album “Cherry Pie” (3,000,000 copies sold in the U.S. alone), presented here in full: from the entertaining title track (whose video featured the sultry actress Bobbi Brown, briefly the wife of singer Jani Lane) to the seductive ballad “I Saw Red,” passing through the hard-blues masterpiece “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and arriving at the dynamic “Bed of Roses” and “Mr. Rainmaker.”
The concluding part of the album features the dark and aggressive tones of the underrated LP “Dog Eat Dog” (1992, Gold Record in America) effectively illustrated by the powerful “Machine Gun” and “Hole In My Wall” where rock flows freely and uncontaminated on the wings of Jani Lane's voice, duly supported by the lively riffs of the Allen-Turner axe duo. Crowning it all comes an unexpected but welcome cover of the classic Queen anthem “We Will Rock You,” in which Jani Lane pays a more than deserved tribute to one of the bands fundamental to his artistic growth.

This juicy “Best of” thus draws an interesting sketch of Warrant’s remarkable artistic evolution, duly paying tribute to the carefree hard rock of the debut (1989), reviewing the blues reminiscences of “Cherry Pie” (1990), and culminating in the spirited heavy of “Dog Eat Dog” (1992): only the “alternative” period marked by the LP “Ultraphobic” (1995) is not considered at all, sacrificing a valuable episode like the song “Stronger Now” in favor of the overall homogeneity of an anthology that aims to effectively depict the first phase of the group’s professional career.

“The Best Of Warrant” is a shrewd anthological selection of some of the most representative tracks of the Los Angeles quintet and represents an interesting opportunity to take an essential first step into the exhilarating universe of American hard rock.
(Enrico Rosticci)