Epic/Legacy's
The Best of Britny Fox rounds up 12 tracks from a
hair metal band who embodied their style so well, they seem nearly parodic years later. It's not just the big hair and frilly clothes -- it is the simple, almost bloozy three-chord patters, the
singalong choruses, the anthemic
ballads, and the raspy squall of lead singer
Dizzy Dean Davidson. They were the poofy version of
Cinderella, sounding very similar to that outfit not just because they had the same bizarre blend of lace, vests, and jackets, or
Davidson's voice, but because they both had much love for
Aerosmith and
AC/DC.
Britny Fox was saddled with a sillier name, but they also didn't have many great songs.
"Long Way to Love" was their only hit, just barely making it onto the charts with two weeks at 100, but their great song was
"Girlschool," a raver that took its name from a
Wings song and had a brilliant teen-fantasy video of a schoolroom of gorgeous Catholic schoolgirls rocking out to a band who wore more makeup than them. It was a great moment in
pop-metal, and it remains one of the style's best moments, but this collection proves that
Britny Fox didn't have much else to offer outside of a
Slade cover, a couple of OK rockers (highlighted by
"Don't Hide"), some very bad
power ballads, and a vocalist who wears out his welcome 90 seconds into each song. That still may be enough for a nostalgia trip, since it certainly sounds like the radio of its time, but that's a double-edged sword because it also offers a reminder why this music didn't have a long shelf life. [The CD includes two
multimedia selections: the video for
"Girlschool" (actually the real video, not a live version as billed on the back of the disc) plus
"Long Way to Love," a live video clip from Tokyo, complete with Japanese subtitles.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
