Super Hits

The dude who (arguably) invented glitter rock, and who Johnny Rotten said was his single greatest influence, suffered an epic career fall in the early '80s. He later rose like Rocky after signing to Epic/Sony, and this best-of set collects several hits and overlooked gems from that three-album period. The rock stars (Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Joan Jett) and arena riffs were everywhere on 1989’s Trash, which gave up Alice’s biggest-selling single ever (“Poison”) and a pair of appropriately scuzzy yet convincing album cuts (“Why Trust You” and “Trash”). Hey Stoopid stayed its predecessor’s big-rock course, but with songs that were a wee bit less obvious; the best (“Might As Well Be on Mars” and “Love’s a Loaded Gun”) are here. From The Coop’s last Sony album, 1994’s stripped-down The Last Temptation, we get classic lowbrow riffs and cheeky winks hijacked from his early-’70s creative heyday, including a great garage-glam strutter (“Sideshow”), a poppy slice of slacker jest (“Lost in America”), and a sing-a-long narrative of a rather sepulchral nature (“Stolen Prayer”).