Twenty years on from the breakthrough 1998 album release by Kid Rock, Devil Without A Cause, it seemed that Kid Rock had almost done everything musically. Or seemingly so, until his Bad Reputation album that was released in 2022. In any case, the market for Kid Rock’s sort of music base was drying up quickly and Kid Rock needed to buy some time between album releases. This is his first Greatest Hits style compilation. It covers a large amount of material from his career, although it includes nothing from his first three LPs, which weren’t 100% consistent anyway. Regardless, this is a great place, to begin with, Kid Rock’s music. How does it sound? We’ll find out. All tracks are remastered for 2018, so it should sound very fresh indeed.

Bawitdaba begins this album, with its slow and dark spacey keyboard intro. An excellent introduction to this compilation, it has some delayed guitars entering. The chanting is actually taken from Sugar Hill Gang’s Rappers Delight, which is completely different to this music altogether. Nonetheless, Kid Rock proves his worth in this song. Soon enough, “My name is Kid! Kid Rock!” is screamed, as the band come crashing in. A fantastic song from the start of it, and Kid Rock sings and raps in a cool and casual way that is really decent. By this point, he had enough experience and practice at his craft to make this tune on the Devil Without A Cause album. Lots of talk about sex, drugs and rock music are here, and this is a really good tune to hear, even if that isn’t what you like lyrically. There is a guitar and DJ mixing breakdown, just before this song resumes its glorious finale. This is a great tune, and worth your time. The song is really great, and it ends with Kid Rock chuckling.

All Summer Long was the great hit from Kid Rock of 2008, and yes, this is that song that is basically a rip-off of Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Regardless, this is the biggest hit that Kid Rock ever made. It is simple with piano, pounding drums, acoustic and electric guitars and gospel female backing vocals to make this song a real winner. It is a tune that is very, very good and sounds amazing. The lyrics are about teenage romance, sex and drugs. A great song to bring happiness to the listener, it will make you smile. A blistering guitar solo is also on this tune, and this breathes life into the Rock music of the time. Reflecting on the past and what memories bring, this is really great. A very inspiring listen, and something perfect for that trip to the beach or camp with your friends. An excellent piece of music, and a must hear for fans of Kid Rock. Nice work. Excellent, it concludes with joyful piano and more gospel vocals. Excellent tune.

Cowboy begins with a distorted voice stating the name of the song, before awesome harmonica and strummed guitar enter, along with slide guitar and other sounds. This is a very hilarious song, and Kid Rock declares that he is a real “cowboy”, ready to cause a ruckus. The chorus in particular is excellent and extremely interesting and great. A wonderful tune, there is a great section with Kid Rock briefly whistling, as the song progresses. Ironically, this is a bit of a joke track, before Kid Rock began seriously exploring Country music, much like how The Rolling Stones did so in their own musical career. The guitar solo present is on fire, and Kid Rock sounds super aggressive and effective throughout this section in the second half of the tune. An awesome listen, this is definitely worth listening to. An excellent song. Very good music. The outro is very uplifting and good listening.

Born Free is a country song with Fender Telecasters, acoustic guitars and other gorgeous instrumentation before Kid Rock gets singing away nicely. Indeed, this is a great song to listen to and it sounds very pro-USA and different to what you expect. All the same, the music present is extremely passionate, although this isn’t the greatest Kid Rock song in retrospect. Nonetheless, this is good, even if it is very dated today. A good guitar solo is present in this song, and the midsection is very beautiful and calm, with some excellent piano work. Again, it is very good but not the best Country music you will ever hear, this sort of thing has been bettered elsewhere. Still, decent for what it is. Kid Rock uses the chameleon effect throughout his career providing a sense of transformation throughout. The outro present is really awful, it should have been cut down. A nice guitar solo is thrown into the mix as this song concludes. A bit long, but okay to hear.

Devil Without A Cause is the third track on the album of the same name. It begins with a dark foreboding atmosphere with organ, keyboards and other instrumentation, before this enters into a great Rock/Rap tune with a looped wah-wah guitar part that sounds really amazing. A cool tune, this is music for those who need an outrageous character to inspire them in their lives. Kid Rock isn’t exactly a role medal, and this song is very much made for the same purpose as The Sex Pistols Anarchy In The U.K. Kid Rock lets you know where he’s at, and many crude one-liners lyrically are present here. Kid Rock also raps about his upgraded lifestyle, having made the grade, so to speak. An interesting listen with many great musical parts. The midget ally of Kid Rock, Joe C, does his own Rap towards the end. Don’t get confused, it may sound like an eight-year-old kid in this section, but it is actually not. Really cool tune, it ends with the chorus backing track playing and everyone in the studio shouting with delight. Awesome.

Picture (feat. Sheryl Crow) begins with strummed acoustic guitars and a musical accompaniment that sounds gorgeous. Kid Rock sings about missing a lover who Kid Rock has some issues with. It’s very sweet and close to the bone about unintentionally making troubles in one’s love life. Sheryl Crow’s vocal and musical performance on this is also really fantastic, and this is a really moving and tear-jerker sort of song. Nonetheless, this is great to hear about missing a lover when one is cheating on them and in emotional pain. The guitar solo in this song is really awful, goodness knows why Kid Rock didn’t make a guitar solo that sounded better. There is a decent conclusion to a lovely song about true love, no matter what happens. Nice to hear, this is an amazing song to listen to. Very sad though. The best ballad Kid Rock ever made.

American Bad Ass is the famous Metallica rip-off song from Metallica’s own Sad But True. It heavily samples the drop-tuned guitars, with Kid Rock doing a pseudo-Rap to launch this amazing song forward and even though it is a clearly unoriginal song, it does sound like Kid Rock is having a big blast here. Regardless, this is a real monster of a tune that sounds really deep and inspired musically. A really cool tune with a great mixture of older musical elements and some newer ones as well. The midsection is weird, yet hilarious. It soon launches into an incredibly fast-paced section of the song, which is interesting, and worth it. An amazing listen, although many Metallica fans will be annoyed by this tune for the blatant rip-off that it is. A great song, the added guitar parts on this song make it sound fantastic. A wonderful listen, one of the more underrated Kid Rock tunes. It ends with Kid Rock chuckling, yet again.

Johnny Cash is the famous song and excellent hit single from the First Kiss album. It begins with some awesome Fender Telecaster playing, and it sounds ridiculously good throughout. Enjoyable and referencing the great musicians of the past, this is truly a great tune from Kid Rock. Sure, it’s only Country music, but great Country music indeed. A perfect ode to the legend that is seen as the most popular Country musician out there. “The sun is shining on Kentucky, they’re drinking bourbon by the batch, I want that lighter ‘cos you love me, and I wanna be your Johnny Cash”, is how the chorus goes. This is a refreshing and interesting listen from start to finish. There is an awesome guitar solo that is neither showy nor boring, followed by a great climax towards the end about being in love forever. An interesting listen, and this is one of the best songs Kid Rock has done yet. Wonderful, moving and excellent, Kid Rock makes some excellent and underrated music. Worth hearing. It ends with some nice guitar playing.

So Hott really shouldn’t be on this compilation. It’s not a standout tune from Kid Rock, and although it is good musically, it isn’t suitable here. It’s interesting to listen to with crunchy guitars, a nice groove and Kid Rock putting in an exceptionally good performance vocally. The chorus is a bit of an anti-climax but sounds passionate from Kid Rock himself. Some twisted and raunchy lyrics are present on this album, and this certainly sounds really cool for what it is. A blistering guitar solo comes along in the second half before this song begins to wrap up nicely. Interesting music, but obviously not the wisest pick on this compilation. It’s okay though, good tune.

You Never Met A Motherfucker Quite Like Me is a brilliant song. It begins with Kid Rock simply saying, “Yep”, acknowledging he is just that. Some good bass, bongos, liquid guitars and acoustic guitars enter. The lyrics are fantastic: “I’ve been on the cover of Rolling Stone, I met the president (Bill Clinton) when I was half stoned…” are great to hear. The chorus is awesome, with some brilliant and bluesy guitar that many artists today should hear. This is a legendary song that shows that anyone, with the right mindset, can make it with their dreams, hopes and aspirations, just like Kid Rock, even if you aren’t exactly like him. There is a very cool harmonica solo, followed by Kid Rock stating what he really loves: music. A fantastic guitar lick enters with prompting from Kid Rock before this song progresses nicely. A wonderful song and some excellent musicality and songcraft, this thoroughly deserves respect to Kid Rock. The outro is fairly hilarious, a good humourous section. Great.

Roll On is a rather drag of a song, that again, shouldn’t be on this compilation. It sounds fairly naff as a tune compared to the others, even though this is actually good in a way. That says that most of what Kid Rock has recorded is of very high quality. An interesting listen, even if it goes on a bit too long and is an oddity in this compilation. After a while, this song gets annoying, especially as it is over six minutes in length. A good try musically, but this gets as dull as a desert very quickly. Kid Rock sings about growing up and older, and this is a boring and moralising lecture from the guy lyrically. Dude, if you’re high as you claim, why are you talking about silly things in this song? Anyway, it’s okay but very long. It goes on with the chorus and a pretty saxophone section to boot, as well as great female singing, which doesn’t save this song from mediocrity. Soon enough, it finishes, with a fade-out, thank goodness.

First Kiss is a much better choice for this compilation to be on. It’s a tale of childhood sweethearts and the adventures that people have at that age, or at least Kid Rock’s own experiences. A really wonderful and pretty tune with lyrics about the past, this is extraordinarily good and worth hearing. A straightforward song, this sounds really cool and Country music inspired. This is one of the better songs that Kid Rock has made, and deserves its place on this compilation. The music here is very deep and emotional listening, and it should inspire one to think of their own childhood when listening to this song. A groove led piece with electric guitars that sound wonderful, this is a fantastic listen for what it is. A very good piece of music that makes you miss your childhood friends. Excellent job Kid Rock.

American Rock ‘n’ Roll begins with some basic drum beats, piano and acoustic guitars, Kid Rock gets singing away very nicely about life’s experiences. A really awesome tune to hear with some simple backing female harmonies as well. This is a really cool piece of music that stands tall here, and it is a good listen throughout. Kid Rock does a really fine job of evoking music and emotions from within. This is a passionate devotion to the now past era of Classic Rock. Kid Rock deserves a lot of credit where it’s due, he delivers a fantastic song and musical approach as he usually does. A really cool piece of music with some very Southern USA Gospel-style arrangements, this is also worth hearing. Great song and a good listen from this album. Nice to hear. This ends with loose guitars and drums, before finishing.

Only God Knows Why is the infamous song that Kid Rock wrote when he was in lockup briefly, at least the first few lines or so. A really deep and meaningful tune, with a load of autotune on Kid Rock’s vocals, but obviously and intentionally so. In any case, this is one of the better songs from the Devil Without A Cause album and from Kid Rock’s back catalogue overall. A really cool tune, Kid Rock does what he does nicely. A good and mellow acoustic ballad that is very good and emotional listening. There are some great double-tracked vocals in the bridge sections, followed by a regular set of soul-searching verses leading up to the end climax. A really fantastic and wonderful piece of music, this is something nice, a real ode to God. The singing towards the end is majestic, with some clean guitar soloing and organs galore. A fine tune, and something that Kid Rock fans and more people in public should pay attention to. It ends with a good instrumental section, which is fantastic work.

Wasting Time – Dixie Remix begins with acoustic guitars, harmonica and slide guitar, along with other instruments, such as the bongo. This sounds like a real Country music piece, which is completely different to the original. It’s basically the same as the original, but Country-fried and in another key. A great reinterpretation of the original song, this is a quirky addition to this compilation for sure. Very singalong and enjoyable, this sounds really cool. A wonderful and interesting take on a classic Kid Rock tune, the guy obviously knew how to make songs and delivers them from the heart. Nice listen, even if you aren’t a big Country music fan. Kid Rock has been around for decades now, and this compilation concludes an important chapter in his musical life. Great music is here. The outro of this song is euphoric, excellent music.

With the exception of a few tracks in the middle of this compilation, you should certainly hear each and every song by Kid Rock here. This is a really extraordinary and top listen from our main man Kid Rock. Should you hear this? Yes, if you haven’t heard Kid Rock before or if you are a huge fan of the dude. Even people who don’t dig some of what is mentioned here may be pleasantly surprised upon listening. It’s a goodie, so hear this if you are up to it.

Dramatic.

7/10