The Best Of Mtv 120 Minutes

Culled from MTV's 120 Minutes, a regular program which highlights supposedly alternative music videos, The Best of MTV 120 Minutes is a better than average compilation of 10 music videos ranging from the high profile of the pop scale (Sinead O'Connor's "Mandinka") to the barely known (the Violent Femmes' "Gone, Daddy, Gone"). Most of the selections are 2-3 years old, and the style of the videos definitely leans towards 60s retro: the Stone Roses' "Fool's Gold," Modern English's "Melt With You," Camper Van Beethoven's "Eye Of Fatima," and Sonic Youth's "Kool Thing" all lean heavily on paisley, flowers, and psychedelic lighting. Sonic Youth's "Kool Thing" has the additional benefit of being an interracial love song, in which the female singer croons such tacky lyrics as "Are you going to liberate us from male white corporate oppression?" While the "Freedom of Speech" commercial with Iggy Pop that opens the tape is better than most of the videos, there are a couple of standouts on this collection: They Might Be Giants' clever spy spoof "Ana Ng," Love & Rockets' cynical ballad "No New Tale to Tell," the aforementioned "Gone, Daddy, Gone" by the Violent Femmes, and Faith No More's wonderfully bratty "We Care a Lot," a pleasantly obnoxious satire about charity: "It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it." A reasonably decent sampling of what's happening in current music, The Best of MTV 120 Minutes is recommended. (Available from most distributors.)