AMG Review of Hits Out of Hell

William Ruhlmann
All Music Guide

Since Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell album is vastly better than its follow-ups, Dead Ringer and Midnight at the Lost and Found, the idea of doing a hits compilation culling familiar tracks from the three albums is not really a good one. But the second and third albums did feature U.K. hits, and Hits does contain the four key tracks from Bat -- the title track, "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad," "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth," and "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." A few tracks from Dead Ringer, notably "Read 'Em and Weep" and "I'm Gonna Love Her for Both of Us," are in the same spirit, but the songs from Midnight are simply inferior.