Crack a Smile... And More Poison Artist

While the {|Greatest Hits 1986-1996|} CD featured two newly recorded songs, {|Crack a Smile...And More|} is the first album of (mostly) new {|Poison|} material since 1993's {|Native Tongue|}. The main body of the album was recorded in late 1994 but n... Read more

While the {|Greatest Hits 1986-1996|} CD featured two newly recorded songs, {|Crack a Smile...And More|} is the first album of (mostly) new {|Poison|} material since 1993's {|Native Tongue|}. The main body of the album was recorded in late 1994 but not released until 2000, and while it features the two new {|Greatest Hits|} songs, the rest of the repertoire has never appeared on any previous {|Poison|} album. There are also four previously unreleased outtakes -- three from the {|Crack a Smile|} sessions, one from {|Open Up and Say...Ahh!|} -- and four songs done for a 1990 {|MTV Unplugged|} special ({|Your Mama Don't Dance,|} {|Every Rose Has Its Thorn,|} {|Unskinny Bop,|} {|Talk Dirty to Me|}). It's easy to argue that, whether heard in the musical climate of 1994 or 2000, {|Poison|} sounds a little ridiculous singing pop-metal tunes with sleazy, often immature lyrics. But that misses the point -- {|Poison|} was always at least a little bit ridiculous, and that's precisely what made their music so much fun. And these songs are surprisingly up to par, as is the slightly awkward yet endearing version of {|Cover of the Rolling Stone|} -- maybe there's no one killer single here, but {|Crack a Smile|} is a consistently enjoyable listen. {|Poison|} knows exactly what they're doing, and they have enough self-deprecating humor to realize that it's {|Tragically Unhip|} (as one song title puts it), but they don't care -- they're making this music just for fun. Longtime fans should be quite pleased that this effort is finally seeing the light of day, because it captures {|Poison|} doing what they've always been best at -- and they're finally content with that. ~ Steve Huey Less