Björk
Greatest Hits (Universal)
Icelandic pop elf Björk has been perfecting the art of making music with her innocent-little-fairy voice and ultra-aestheticised sonic sensibilities. Though her hyper-refined songs that ache with beauty and production precision should evoke the unbearable lightness of being, to me they sound like the soundtrack to a luxury menthol cigarette ad. For those who love her, there are 15 polished pop nuggets from the Björk canon on this compilation. — Alex Sudheim
DavidBowie
Best of Bowie (EMI)
This seems a rather shoddily put together compilation. Leaning heavily on Bowie’s 1980s output, his least interesting period, it cherrypicks from the 1970s with no real comprehensiveness. This is thus not for serious fans, though they may want to catch up on his 1980s without buying the individual CDs, which have the odd good song but aren’t worth it as a whole. It is for those who caught up with him when Let’s Dance became a mega-hit in 1983. What gives you the clearest idea of its overall quality is that the most recent track on it is from 1984. Bowie has made nine albums since then. –Shaun de Waal
Chicago
The Chicago Story: Complete Greatest Hits (Rhino)
Two CDs with 39 tracks provide a neat and comprehensive look at the musical career of Chicago, the American rock band that ruled the airwaves in the Seventies and Eighties with 15 albums selling more than one million copies each — a record beaten by only one other American band, the Beach Boys. Their music ranged from hard rock to light pop, with touches of jazz and classical, but it was mostly the ballads that got chart success. –Riaan Wolmarans
Eric Clapton
One More Car, One More Rider (Reprise)
Quintessential guitar hero he may be, but the real story of Clapton over the past few decades is his flowering as a singer of singular strength. In the Sixties he was barely confident enough to commit his voice to wax, leaving the singing to Cream bassist Jack Bruce on Badge and Sunshine of Your Love. Both those songs are covered on this two-disc live set, which straddles his entire career, although 19 tracks seem insufficient for that task. He even delivers a lovely version of Over the Rainbow as his finale. A fitting souvenir of an enduring bluesman and a great artist. — Shannon Sherry
Leonard Cohen
The Essential Leonard Cohen (Sony)
Articulate lyrics, a dark and brooding voice, haunting and depressing melodies — Cohen has a unique sound well known to all his fans. This album chronologically brings together all his “hits”, from 1967’s Suzanne to 1988’s Tower of Song on the first CD and from 1988’s Ain’t No Cure for Love to 2001’s Love Itself on disc two. Not much new here for the average fan who would probably have most of this on CD already, but it’s nice to have all the favourites in a row. –RW
The Cranberries
Stars: The Best of 1992-2002 (Universal)
Power to the Irish, or at least to Dolores O’Riordan and the lads for 10 years of rousing singles. From the loud rock of Zombie and Salvation to the dreamy Ode to My Family, it’s all here. There’s also the tribal ambience of Daffodil Lament, a non-single voted on to the album by fans, and two pleasant new tracks, New New York and Stars. A good one for fans or any lovers of sincere and intense music. — RW
Terence Trent D’Arby
Greatest Hits (Sony)
Not just hits (obviously Wishing Well, Sign Your Name and more), but also some rarities from this self-assured former United States army soldier whose mix of soul, rock, pop and R&B brought him fame in the late Eighties and early Nineties. He sings with Des’ree on Delicate and performs with Booker T and the MGs on A Change Is Gonna Come. He might not quite have become a Prince or a Lenny Kravitz, but the music’s fine. — RW
Fleetwood Mac
The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac (Warner)
For the people who can’t get enough of the smooth pop songs of Fleetwood Mac, this greatest-hits CD is good news. The ones who love the bluesy tunes from Fleetwood’s Sixties period could end up disappointed. Only three out of the 21 songs date from that era. — Ramses Gabrielse
INXS
Definitive (Mercury)
Kicking off with the unmistakable beat of Need You Tonight, here are 21 tracks spanning the career of the late Michael Hutchence’s Australian rock heavyweights. Their Stones-like sound has mostly stood the test of time — they did get the best reviews for their work in the Eighties, but the newer songs stand their ground. Travel back in time with Mystify, Elegantly Wasted, Suicide Blonde, Original Sin and others. It’s not a new sensation, but certainly worth owning. — RW
Elton John
Greatest Hits 1970-2002 (Mercury)
Elton John’s first hits compilation came out in 1974 and nine of the 10 tracks on that album (Border Song is excluded) make it to this one. This suggests his early music was the most successful, borne out by the fact that just 10 of the 34 tracks were released in the past 15 years — including two from The Lion King. Although last year’s Songs from the West Coast hinted at some sort of return to form, this is one for nostalgia buffs. — Julia Beffon
Kiss
The Very Best of Kiss (Universal)
The trademark Kiss makeup has always served to mislead — less black metal than redneck rock, their music is in fact a rather insipid animal. It’s hard to see how their standard-issue bar-rock with lashings of glam and macho made them a phenomenon, yet Kiss have always been more about spectacle than substance. Everybody knows Kiss, yet of the 21 songs on this collection only catchy kitsch-rocker I Was Made For Lovin’ You was familiar to me. Though I wouldn’t mind a Kiss poster for ironic pop-culture cred, if I wanted serious glam-metal, give me Gwar any day. –AS
Nirvana
Nirvana (Universal)
For the Nirvana neophyte this collection of 15 hits spanning the band’s career is a rock-solid option. Adding lustre is You Know You’re Right, the “new” song that provides testimony to the undying legacy of Kurt Cobain. Though there isn’t a single dud among the outstanding tracks, the album is more capsule history than a definitive retrospective with serious fans most likely questioning the absence of darker moments in the band’s oeuvre such as Milk It, Tourette’s and Something in the Way. –AS
Rod Stewart
The Story So Far (Warner)
This collection might well have been titled The Two Faces of Rod. His output has always been a mix of hard rock and ballads and these 34 greatest hits are divided accordingly. If you’re feeling noisy, put on the first CD, A Night Out, and bop around the room to Maggie May, Do Ya Think I’m Sexy? or Young Turks. If the mood is quieter, swap to A Night In and let the self-styled “old blond tart” carry you away with classics such as Sailing, Reason to Believe and You’re in My Heart. — JB
The Rolling Stones
Forty Licks (Virgin/EMI)
It has been said before, but it’s worth saying again: The Rolling Stones are the King James Bible of rock’n’roll. This collection of 36 old tracks and four new ones barely scratches the surface of their oeuvre, but it will most certainly do for anyone who needs a Stones compendium. And, of the new songs, Don’t Stop, the single, is as muscular a piece of rock as any band today could be expected to compose. –SdW
U2
The Best Of 1990-2000 (Universal)
I’ve never liked U2. Too self-indulgently sincere and beseeching for their own good, they are always going for the jugular, always reaching for that existential revelation wreathed in grandiloquent baroque swathes of pained intensity. But for all their heroic suffering they are narcissists second to none, posing with troubled, brooding countenances and dark sunglasses. Though they redeemed themselves with the brilliant Achtung Baby –from which four songs are featured here — the rest is torture. But judging by U2’s album sales, a lot of people sure love to suffer. –AS
Various
1 Love (B-Unique)
The only good cover songs are those that add something new to the original (unlike Westlife and Celine Dion). On this album, a celebration of music mag NME’s 50th birthday and a charity project that aids war-relief outfit War Child, 16 contemporary acts perform spectacular new versions of past number-one hits. To name a few: punk stars Jimmy Eat World do an ambient version of Prodigy’s Firestarter; the Sugababes lend a sexy, funky edge to Seal’s Killer; Stereophonics do a raw and stripped-down version of Sinéad O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U; Oasis run merrily through Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody, complete with seasonal jingling bells; Badly Drawn Boy does Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ Come on Eileen. It’s a winning album for a winning cause. — RW
Various
The Best Alternative Album … Ever! (EMI)
I don’t know about the “ever”, but it’s one of the best alternative compilations for this year. CD one steps back in time with Bauhaus, Jesus and Mary Chain, Killing Joke, The Cult, Cocteau Twins and more. CD two has more recent contributions by REM, Radiohead, Faith No More, L7, Placebo and so forth. The good thing is that the track selection also includes some lesser obvious choices, not just the usual compilation fodder. — RW
Various
Cape of Good Dope (African Dope)
The dope must indeed be good in Cape Town. This collection of hip-hop, electro beats, strange noises, dubby lounging and other eclectic, electronic inclinations by artists ranging from Moodphase5ive and Felix Laband toKalahari Surfers,Mr Mo, DJDope andLions of Zion goes into your CDplayer and doesn’t come out again. Proudly South African, indeed. –RW
Various
Music of the Millennium 3 (Universal)
A double-CD set with hits from the Sixties to the Nineties that mostly sidesteps the usual pop choices to include tracks by Bryan Ferry, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Peter Gabriel with Kate Bush, Ultravox and Talking Heads. It’s a solid compilation that will please just about anyone. — RW
Various
Wired-Up 2 (Warner)
Linkin Park, Nickelback, POD, Alien Ant Farm, Silverchair, Static-X and local boys Perez’s perky punk version of Abba’s Mamma Mia. Need I say more? Play it loud. — RW