RELEASE ROUND-UP:
December is not traditionally noted for new high-profile studio albums, and
to all intents and purposes this week is the last one of note for 2003.
Compilations are typically out-gunning and out-numbering fresh material at the
moment, with even the big pop names failing to prevail over some admittedly strong
Best Of/Greatest Hits packages. Two female artists who emerged in 2001 have
chosen December 1st to issue their difficult second albums; Nelly Furtado and
Alicia Keys release Folklore and The Diary Of... respectively. Expect them to
take off in the New Year, when the post-Christmas lull comes into play.
Elsewhere it's yet more retrospectives; some less inspired than others. Tori
Amos takes a, well, Tori-esque route to Greatest Hitsdom with her oddball
collection Tales From A Librarian. Notable singles are overlooked (Pretty Good
Year, Caught A Lite Sneeze, Raspberry Swirl), so this is a clearly a very
personal overview of her catalogue rather than a trawl through her best-known songs.
Many of those which make the cut are remixed or reworked, and a handful of new
recordings make this anything but a sleepwalking money-for-old-rope exercise.
The almost obligatory Bonus DVD edition is also costly for what it is,
compared to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' similar Greatest Hits CD + DVD set.
The RHCP have been chronicled before, way back in 1992 when former label EMI
America cashed in on the slow-burning success of their Warner debut Blood
Sugar Sex Magik with the cheekily-titled What Hits?. Then, only Under The Bridge
could have been considered anything of the sort, but just over a decade on and
the band are arguably one of the biggest on the planet. 1999's Californication
finally built on the breakthrough made with Blood Sugar, followed by the
majestic By The Way which did more than merely consolidate their reputation. Now
is the perfect time, therefore, to round up this second phase of the Chili's
career. Just a solitary 80s track appears on Greatest Hits, their cover of Stevie
Wonder's Higher Ground, as the Warner years take deserved precedence. That
said, 16 selections is a touch miserly in light of current trends; One Hot
Minute (1995) has only one representative while even By The Way gets a mere two
(Zephyr Song and Can’t Stop miss out). The doublepack version is more
comprehensive since the DVD offers all the videos to their singles from Higher Ground
onwards, so Aeroplane and Around The World also get a look in.
Throughout the past year or so, Sony Music's marketing division has been on
overtime, raiding their illustrious archives for the Essential series;
uniformly presented (often 2CD) anthologies of acts from every genre. Bob Dylan, Miles
Davis, Sly Stone, Janis Joplin, Neil Diamond, Heart, Barbara Streisand,
Leonard Cohen, Paul Young, Cyndi Lauper; just about anyone who ever recorded a
decent run of albums for Columbia, Epic or their tributary labels has been
afforded the honour. Even Shaun Mullins. To round off 2003, the range turns its
attentions to Bruce Springsteen (last compiled: 1995) and Simon & Garfunkel
(already compiled at least three times since 1991). The limited edition 3-disc
Springsteen release is admirably extensive, if not always satisfying or convincing
in its selections (no Secret Garden, no I'm On Fire). Yet another Simon &
Garfunkel Best Of is, for all the undisputed and enduring quality of the music, one
too many in such a short space of time. Likewise The Very Best Of Cher; the
third Cher collection in 11 years, offering nothing bar 2001's Music's No Good
Without You that wasn't on The Greatest Hits in 1999.
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