Fun Lovin' Criminals - 'Bag Of Hits' (Chrysalis)
4/5
By: Toby L
'I met the finest girl of my life/That night/At gay night/It's all right/Don't be uptight' - 'Bump', Fun Lovin' Criminals.
Well, they've never been the most reserved or conservative of songwriters. And, 'Bag Of Hits', their retrospective LP, certainly proves this on a shockingly repetitive basis.
Original (and only) pioneers of lounge-hop-pop, FLC have often been met with critical hesitance, yet public adoration. Continually orientated on the leisure to be found within name-checking famous convicts of the past and numerous drugs, the 'Crims have had that rare ability to consistently belt out favourable radio-friendly tunes time after time, from career-launching anthem, 'Scooby Snacks' - greeted by fans at the band's live-performances as a number-one masterpiece, even though it barely scraped the upper-reaches of the charts on its release-date - right through to the Cuban/Santana-flair of the beer-advert soundtracking 'Loco'.
In a mere fifteen-song format such as this, their back-catalogue shines. Rather than containing a warts 'n' all account - aside from a rather tenuous remix-CD (for the fans, presumably) - of the trio's past adventures, instead, what's delivered in 'BOH' is a true 'best of'.
Opening with the cheeky guitar-refrain of 'The Fun Lovin' Criminal', the mini-selection of small-time ghangsta'-evoking treats particularly soars amidst the shadowy, sampled heights and delights of 'Big Night Out', with the simple, ample grooves of 'Korean Bodega' and the Barry White-praising 'Love Unlimited' finding time to whiz around your head with all the dizzy cheekiness and joy usually reserved for forgettable and less-impressive 45s. When also ranked alongside the fleshy club-coolness of 'Smoke 'Em' and the slick 'King Of New York', it's only right that the funkiness grinds to a halt in such a mellow vein as their affectionate, dreamy cover of 'We Have All The Time In The World' drifts past.
Generally light-hearted, ear-pleasing and immensely charismatic, Fun Lovin' Criminals have so far in their career created some of the 90's finest easy-listening alt-tunes. How they progress from here in ever-changing times, who knows - but use this compilation to look back in a heady daze to times when such numbers lit up your summer-nights in, chilling with the stereo (and, for further enjoyment, preferably listen whilst holding a dramatically gigantic Cuban cigar; now, hey - that's schmoove...).
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