Released in conjunction with the silver screen dramatization of
the Runaways’ saga, Hip-O Select’s
The Mercury Albums Anthology rounds up the group’s four albums - 1976’s
The Runaways, plus
Live in Japan,
Queens of Noise, and
Waitin’ for the Night, all released in 1977-- in a slick two-disc set. Anybody won over to
the Runaways via the charms or Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning will find this to be much too much -- really, they’ll be satiated by a quick download of “Cherry Bomb” -- as this is intended for connoisseurs of sleaze and those under the impression that the female foursome were pioneers not at all under the skeevy thumb of
Kim Fowley. Both groups may find what’s contained on
Mercury Albums Anthology somewhat underwhelming:
the Runaways plodded as much as the plundered, hammering out three-chord riffs that had more to do with frizzy-haired metal than any kind of proto-punk. Live, they had a modicum of energy, as evidenced by
Live in Japan, but they wound up being highly polished and packaged in the studio, with
Fowley steering them ever so slightly toward sticky, disposable bubblegum.
Joan Jett eventually wound up digging in her heels, asserting control on
Waitin’ for the Night, but by then, the band was straining under
Fowley’s direction, and the end was near. All this is, of course, apparent on this de facto complete recordings -- they knocked out another record after leaving Mercury -- but the lasting impression of this double-disc set is that
the Runaways’ myth is always better than their music. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine