The Best of Nick Gilder - Hot Child In the City

Canada’s spindly Nick Gilder had a presence informed equally by glam and pop and a radio-friendly voice that traded heavily on sexual tension and ambiguity for both girls and boys. (Note that Mike Chapman produced Gilder’s three '70s solo albums, from which this best-of collection was spawned. He also worked with Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Mud, and Cheap Trick.) And if there’s a song that better captures carnal-kid angst than “Hot Child in the City,” it has yet to be written. In fact, every song here grooves on high-school hallway sass and pure attitudinal power—with a twist of snappy bubblegum nihilism tossed in (witness the dry, glam-a-riffic “Got to Get Out” or “She’s One of the Boys”). “You Really Rock Me” could be Cheap Trick covering early Queen; “Runaways in the Night” would’ve been the best Runaways tune; “Rated X” (later covered by Pat Benatar) is pure pop-song porno; and “Roxie Roller” (from Gilder’s former band Sweeny Todd) owed as much to T. Rex as it did good old Yankee groupie action.