Rea set the pace with a string of radio friendly pop ditties before emerging himself in the Blues in recent years. Here, the likeable Geordie began his solo career with Whatever Happened To Benny Santini? spawning hit single Fool (If You Think it’s Over) in 1978, featured here as the opening track.

His last studio album was Blue Guitars in 2005. This isn’t exactly the first compilation. There’s been New Light Through Old Windows (1988), The Best Of Chris Rea (1994), The Very Best Of Chris Rea (2001), Heartbeats: Chris Rea’s Greatest Hits (2005) and The Platinum Collection: Chris Rea (2006).

If you don’t have any of the afore mentioned then this is pretty representatvive of his albums up to 2000’s King Of The Beach. It doesn’t include anything from the tail end of his career such as The Blue Jukebox or 11-CD set Blue Guitars???

This isn’t just a ‘singles’ album, though of the 32 entries, 22 make the cut, in non-chronological order. The rest are album tracks, including classics such as the beautiful ballad Love Turns To Lies and reggae inflected, a rare sojourn for Rea, Touche D’Amour on CD1.

From album On The Beach (1986) there’s the stunning Little Blonde Plaits and melodic classic single On The Beach on CD2. Highlight of this disc is the heart-wrenching Tell Me There’s A Heaven from The Road To Hell (1989) his first chart topping album. CD 3 has the most singles: 9, including the memorable Auberge, one of his highest-placed singles, a massive R’n’B romp, the Bluesy monster God’s Great Banana Skin, and arguably one of his finest moments, I Ain’t The Fool.

Formed by brothers Paul and Ross Godrey, 1995 Morcheeba’s best known song is World Looking In featured in a car ad in 2001. Amazingly, this duo, with oft featured female vocalist/co-writer Skye Edwards have never made the top 10 with any of their singles, but gained critical acclaim for their albums such as Fragments Of Freedom, Charango and Parts Of The Process, all making the top 10 on the album charts.

Their unique mix of mostly laid-back funk, blues and electronica have spawned several imitators over the past decade. Pick of the whopping choice are, the swampy blues of Diggin’ A Watery Grave, an instrumental barely 1½ minutes long, funky Post Humous and gorgeous string-drenched Over And Over on CD 1.

From CD 2, Fear And Love is one of their best ever ballads showcasing Skye’s dulcet tones dressed by masses of sweeping orchestration. The track of this disc is the awseome The Sea, from The Big Calm (1998), a personal favourite. Another is Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day on CD 3. This is their most impressive upbeat song: chunky, plenty of brass, rasping guitar solo and that enormous chorus.

Sao Paulo, is a dreamy gem, full of Latino sensuality, showing the breadth of their songwriting capabilities.

The Corr family quartet have taken a sort of sabbatical in recent years. At one time, they were labelled the sexiest group on the planet. Featuring Andrea Corr, they emerged in 1996 with their fusion of pop-rock with traditional Irish music. It would take a couple more years before they hit the big time with a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams (CD1).

From then on they couldn’t put a foot wrong with Talk On Corners (1997) and In Blue (2000) topping the album charts. Their only number one single was party favourite Breathless (CD2). At 1999's Brits, they were voted Best International Group. It would take a beefed-up re-mix of May 1998's What Can I Do to propel them upwards in August of the same year. We get both versions, the original on CD1 and the Tin Tin Out Remix on CD 3.

Away from their commercialism, they wrote some excellent music, particularly early on, like the catchy The Right Time (CD1). From their second number one In Blue, Radio (CD2) takes me back to happy times driving across Holland in September 2000. They were also fond of doing trad covers, which they did very well, like jig Haste To The Wedding and Erin Shore.

Wrexham based production team K-Klass turned a reworking of So Young on its head in 1998.

For more details on the tracks included on each release, please click on the Amazon link.

Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008. For prints of any of Elly's concert pics online, email Elly or call 07765 862017.

DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.

PC games reviewed by the editor are on: