Compilation Album Review: "Hit Machine 3"

Compilation: Hit Machine 3
Released: 1993 – Festival Records
Number of tracks: 20 (2020202020202020...etc)
Number one singles: None
Top ten singles: 1
Best track: "Somebody Dance With Me" by DJ Bobo
Hidden gem: "Harness Up" by Died Pretty

Here comes the third Hit Machine compilation, the one that dispelled any doubt as to whether uniquely-named chart compilations were dead and gorne. They were. From now on (well, from Hit Machine 2 on if'n ya wanna be pedantic about it) it would be Hit Machine and 100% Hits vying for supremacy in the chart comp game. This particular release features 20 tracks, and as you can see above, a very prominent repeated '20202020' motif in the cover art — quite apt for the first compilation I found in 2020!

This compilation is rather unusual for two reasons. The first it that it features no number one singles at all and only one top ten single — the rather excellent "The Key: The Secret" by Urban Cookie Collective which starts the CD and might possibly be the only chart hit with a colon in the title. I get the feeling this album was released during Meat Loaf's endless domination of the charts so there was little movement at the top.

The second reason is that 11 of the 20 tracks are by Australian artists; over half of it is local content and I don't recall this being true for many other compilations. Those 11 tracks, even though most of them didn't chart, are pretty good songs as well. Most of them I hadn't heard before: the Died Pretty track being my fave, "The Right Time" by Hoodoo Gurus is also rather ace and even Dazza Braithwaite manages to rock out on "The World As It Is"!

They put Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" as the second track. It's certainly a fine song, and I admire the band's efforts in using its video to try and find missing young people (with different versions made for different countries), but I can't say listening to it is a pleasurable experience because of the sadness associated with runaways and abductions and so on. That scene at the end of the video where a baby gets abducted, followed by a photo of a missing baby (in the U.S. version) is heartbreaking, and the scene at the start with the abused child's drawing (which is not present in all versions) creeped me out to the point where I stopped following the charts for the remainder of 1993, lest I see that unsettling drawing again. That was around the time I stayed up all night to watch Rage for the one and only time.

This is quite a genre-diverse album; it's got rave anthems (DJ Bobo, Urban Cookie Collective), Eurodance (Haddaway), indigenous-meets-dance (Yothu Yindi), alt-rock with French lyrics (?) (Baby Animals), R&B girl groups (S.W.V., and Destiny's Child can get stuffed compared to this trio), gangsta rap (Ice Cube, surprising to hear "The Message" sampled), folk-pop (Deborah Conway) and even reggae (The Black Sorrows, and I would never have guessed it was them).

There's a song by Australian girl-group Girlfriend on here, and guess what — I rather like it! Now I'm no fan of theirs, in fact I found their stupid big hats annoying and I wasn't into their 1992 singles at all, but this track, "Heartbeat", which peaked at number 36, actually is rather good music-wise, almost sounding like video game music (and I don't mean chiptune). In fact the first few seconds has this atonal sort of sound to it which I wish had been kept up throughout the whole song.

Ver' nice!!!

Rating: 7/10