At Christmas, it was handy to give best-of CDs to friends as gifts: easy to find, easy to please. Now, after the long month of January, payday has come again, so why not spoil yourself in the
same way?
There’s a number of collections of music on the shelves now that we didn’t
get round to mentioning in our bumper Mail & Guardian Christmas CD round-up, so here’s a quick look at what you could be
listening to in February.
Bryan Adams, who is again on his way to South Africa to charm old
rockers and young housewives alike, sprawls over two CDs titled Anthology
(Universal), with 36 hits, some recorded live. “What’s good is good, and one way
you can tell is how it holds up over time,” says the CD booklet. You be the
judge.
The Beastie Boys‘ Solid Gold Hits (Capitol) is “guaranteed to
put the nuts in your fruitcake this holiday season”. Too late for Christmas,
maybe, but you could easily fight for your right to party on Valentine’s Day too
and help celebrate the boys’ 24th anniversary. It’s a representative and lively
selection, for sure, and it’s all digitally remastered for your pleasure. It
would have been a good opportunity to include some notes on the band and maybe a
few photographs, but none are to be found in the unimaginative cardboard casing.
The Bee Gees‘ Love Songs (Universal) probably won’t make
Valentine’s Day any more charming, but fans surely won’t tire of hearing
Secret Love, To Love Somebody, How Can You Mend a Broken
Heart, Islands in the Stream and other … erm … favourites.
Jump up and down to Blink-182‘s Greatest Hits (Universal), with
music taken from their 1994 debut album, Buddha, right up to 2003’s final
eponymous album. There are some passable bonus tracks, including a live version
of Aliens Exist, and the mega-hit All the Small Things will never
cease to be exuberant fun.
On Private Investigations: The Best of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler
(Universal), find the best of the Dire Straits and some solo Mark
Knopfler songs, just in case you don’t have Sultans of Swing,
Money for Nothing and Walk of Life on a hundred other
compilations. A new duet between Knopfler and Emmylou Harris (they are recording
an album together, apparently) called All the Roadrunning is a bonus
track. A double-CD version of this album is available on the internet, which
would be better value for money for fans.
Seventeen years, 17 songs: soulful singer-songwriter Melissa
Etheridge‘s greatest-hits album is titled The Road Less Traveled
(Universal), with hits such as I Want to Come Over, Come to My
Window, You Can Sleep While I Drive, No Souvenirs and
Angels Would Fall still sounding splendid. The album is also available
(at least on the internet) as a CD and DVD combo. Four unreleased tracks include
the inspiring I Run for Life.
The Eurythmics‘ music still seems to be around all the time, and not
just because the lovely Annie Lennox performs at so many charity concerts, from
46664 to Live8. It’s well-written music that endures, and their Ultimate
Collection (Sony BMG) is proof of that (although those who already own
1991’s bestselling Greatest Hits won’t miss out on much – the new single
and album opener I’ve Got a Life is pleasing but not quite
indispensable).
Grammy-winner Sarah McLachlan‘s melodies have delighted many a
listener, and on the rather compelling Bloom (Sony BMG) her work is
remixed by hot-property DJs and producers such as Thievery Corporation, Tom
Middleton, South Asia’s Talvin Singh and the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am, who all
do much more than simply add a dance-floor beat to the originals. It’s a plush,
melodic and mostly unhurried way of listening to some of McLachlan’s best work.
Alanis Morissette‘s Jagged Little Pill Acoustic (Gallo)
commemorates the 10-year anniversary of this angry album that delivered some of
the seminal pop sounds of the 1990s. All I Really Want, You Oughta
Know, Hand in My Pocket, the un-ironic Ironic … will she ever
be this good again? She says this album was “a great opportunity to honour them
[the songs] in a way I could not do 10 years ago”, as she was in “survival mode”
back then. Still, this is little more than a reasonably enchanting look back,
and maybe it’s meant more for die-hard fans.
It’s incredible how the record moguls can still manage to dredge up
unreleased Nirvana material. Out now is Sliver: The Best of the
Box (Universal), with 22 demos, outtakes, radio appearances and live
versions, starting with a December 1985 Fecal Matter demo of Spank Thru
recorded at the house of Kurt Cobain’s aunt. Collect-it-all fans should own
this; for the rest of us, the original albums might be enough.
From British singer-songwriter Chris Rea — a veteran of 19 albums —
comes Heartbeats: Greatest Hits (Gallo), which is packed with great
bluesy moments; there’s On the Beach, Let’s Dance, Auberge,
I Can Hear Your Heartbeat, The Road to Hell (Part Two),
Julia and others. Rea might be a bit suburban for some, but he knows his
way around a good melody.
Status Quo have faded from memory somewhat since their heyday
(apparently they have had more hit singles than the Rolling Stones), but XS
All Areas (Universal) offers a CD and a DVD with their greatest hits — 19
of them, including Caroline and Rockin’ All over the World — for
when those dusty vinyls in the garage just won’t play any more. The cover design
looks like it was done by an unimaginative five-year-old.
Purveyors of pleasant pop-rock Sugar Ray (originally called the
Shrinky Dinx) have brought out The Best of Sugar Ray (Gallo), with all
those hits such as Fly, Every Morning, When It’s Over and
their version of Joe Jackson’s Is She Really Going Out with Him?, as well
as three previously unissued tracks, one of which is a neither-here-nor-there
cover of Cyndi Lauper’s Time after Time. The few heavier rock tracks here
aren’t as enjoyable as the big radio hits: Sugar Ray do lightweight well.
The Violent Femmes were thrilling when they performed to huge
audiences in South Africa last year (and they seemed amazed by the support).
Permanent Record: The Very Best of the Violent Femmes (Gallo) runs from
Gimme the Car and the boisterous Blister in the Sun to Color Me
Once, Breakin’ Up, the delectable Jesus Walking on the Water
and all the peculiar Femmes moments along the way. Pop it in and relive the
concert, and read up on the band’s origin in the liner notes.
Funky and hard-working South African rockers Wonderboom have not gone
the way of the Nude Girls, Squeal, Boo!, Sugardrive and others by disbanding.
All the Hits (David Gresham) is just that: 22 big Wonderboom songs. Hark
back to those wild Nineties concerts with Jafta Rebel and Green
Fever, or play later hits such as Charlie, Night Falls Like a
Grand Piano and Something Wrong. Also included is a DVD with live
footage and more. Here’s to another decade of Wonderboom: may Cito never lose
his groove.
Lastly, three compilation albums that may catch your eye are Music from
and Inspired by Desperate Housewives (Gallo), with audio clips from our
favourite Wisteria Lane residents popping up between an agreeable all-girl
selection ranging from Shania Twain and the Indigo Girls to Joss Stone, Macy
Gray and kd lang; Now That’s What I Call Music 40 (Universal) with the
usual hits of the moment, although this volume has fewer rotten apples than
usual and Lebo and FreshlyGround do South Africa proud; and Broken Dreams
(Gallo), an excellent set of rock anthems by the likes of Green Day, Linkin
Park, Hoobastank, Muse, Staind, Garbage, The Verve and many others.