AMG Review of 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Reverend Horton Heat

Mark Deming
All Music Guide

The Reverend Horton Heat (the collective name for Jim Heath on guitar and vocals, bassist Jimbo Wallace, and either Taz Bentley or Scott Churilla behind the drums) cut three fine albums for Sub Pop Records between 1992 and 1994, and a pair of so-so records for Interscope in 1996 and 1998. The bad news is, 20th Century Masters -- The Millennium Collection features 14 tunes from Heath and Company's Interscope period, with one track from their final Sub Pop album (originally distributed by Interscope) included for seasoning. As you might expect, this is a far-from-definitive Reverend Horton Heat compilation, though in all fairness this disc is a better buy than either It's Martini Time or Space Heater, the below par albums which generated the bulk of the material here, since the best cuts from both albums make it onto this set (which was compiled by Heath himself). The remastering for this set sounds great. Heath lays out all sorts of frantic overdriven guitar leads throughout, and "That's Showbiz" is a hilarious tongue-in-cheek look at the downside of the musician's life, but the first three Reverend Horton Heat albums had the best songs, and the band always rocked harder with Taz on the drum kit, which makes this disc a fine look at a band's lesser days, and that's about all.