Manic Street Preachers National Treasures The Complete Singles

Manic Street Preachers National Treasures The Complete Singles 

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 Arriving roughly ten years after their first hits compilation, 2002’s Forever Delayed, 2011’s National Treasures: The Complete Singles has another decade to cover so it’s perfectly sensible that the collection spans two discs as it diligently marches through almost every single Manic Street Preachers released during their first 20 years. The absences are the province of trainspotters: anything released on Heavenly Records prior to “Motown Junk,” for instance, along with other stray exclusives and fan club bonuses. What is here is everything from 1991’s “Motown Junk” through 2011’s “Postcards from a Young Man,” with a new cover of The The’s “This Is the Day” added at the end as fan bait. Through these two discs, the band’s highs, tragedies, slumps, and comebacks are all evident, the first disc devoted to 1992’s Generation Terrorists through 1996’s Everything Must Go, the second capturing the band’s evolution into respected rabble-rousers. The second disc has the chart-toppers and Top Ten hits -- as late as 2004 and 2005 the Manics were reaching number two with “The Love of Richard Nixon,” “Empty Souls,” and “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough” -- but it’s the first disc, containing the songs they recorded with Richey Edwards and the music they made immediately after his disappearance, that makes the strongest case for their legacy.

R.E.M. Part Lies Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982 - 2011

R.E.M. Part Lies Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982 - 2011

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 R.E.M. close out their Warner contract -- not to mention their entire career -- with the double-disc Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage, their first compilation to combine early recordings from their time at IRS with their major-label hits for Warner. It's misleading to look at these as merely two separate eras, as it more accurately breaks down into a three-act structure: the IRS years when R.E.M. were the kings of college rock; the stretch between 1988-1995 when they were international superstars; and then the slow decline of 1998-2011, the years after Bill Berry, the years when Peter Buck, Michael Stipe, and Mike Mills tried to redefine the group as a trio before finally realizing they'd said all they could say. Part Lies gives equal time to each act -- there are 13 songs from IRS, 14 from the golden years at Warner, 13 from the trio years (including a revival of the mid-'80s outtake "Bad Day," which feels like a slight stretch) -- an eminently fair move that tells the story while slightly obscuring the import of the tale. Inevitably, the jangle pop and murk of the '80s are downplayed -- "Can't Get There from Here," "Pretty Persuasion," "Feeling Gravity's Pull" are missing -- in favor of a heavy dose of new millennial material, including three songs from 2011's respectable Collapse into Now and three perfectly fine new songs, which means the last ten or so cuts are songs that fairweather fans of either the '80s or '90s just won't care much about or possibly even know. Nevertheless, this last act is shown in a good light -- the benefit of a comp is that it's totally possible, even welcome, to downplay dull lapses like Around the Sun -- and, when combined with well-chosen highlights from the band's powerful first two acts, adds up to a thorough narrative of R.E.M.'s entire career.

Red Hot Chili Peppers Greatest Hits

Red Hot Chili Peppers Greatest Hits

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The Red Hot Chili Peppers' Greatest Hits is a compelling listen, culling tracks from the band's 1989 breakthrough, Mother's Milk, to its melodic 2002 release, By the Way. In some ways, one could view this as the best of the John Frusciante years, charting most of the band's work with the talented guitarist after the death of original member Hillel Slovak. The tracks here are all hits, including such stellar singles as "Give It Away," "Under the Bridge," and Frusciante's first single after his phoenix-like resurrection from heroin addiction, "Scar Tissue." It should be noted, though, that as a Warner-issued hits collection such fan favorites as "Taste the Pain" and the touchstone antidrug anthem "Knock Me Down" -- both from the 1989 EMI release Mother's Milk -- aren't included. (Similarly, nothing from the Chili Peppers' rambunctious early efforts -- including 1984's Red Hot Chili Peppers, 1985's Freaky Styley, and 1987's The Uplift Mofo Party Plan -- appears on this hits collection.) Nonetheless, Greatest Hits still portrays the band as one of the most consistently brilliant groups of its generation. Helping to paint this picture are such solid cuts as the group's searing, albeit overplayed, 1989 cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" as well as its rarely available addition to the Coneheads movie soundtrack, "Soul to Squeeze." Not surprisingly, "My Friends" is the sole cut to make it from the band's disappointing one-off effort with Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, One Hot Minute. Throw in two new tracks ("Fortune Faded" and "Save the Population") that easily match the quality of the material collected here, and you've got one of the most consistently listenable Chili Pepper releases since Blood Sugar Sex Magik. For fans who gave up after Frusciante left the band, Greatest Hits is the perfect reintroduction.

Deacon Blue Dignity The Best Of

Deacon Blue Dignity The Best Of

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 This import double-disc, 36-track compilation from genre-bending Scottish pop outfit Deacon Blue may be a bit much for the casual fan, but it nearly earns its "definitive" sticker for longtime followers, many of whom voted for the songs that appear here through the group's website. Culled from 1987 to 2001, Very Best of Deacon Blue features all of the obvious singles like "Real Gone Kid," "Your Swaying Arms," and "Your Town," but its charms are found in the 30-plus cuts that pepper the rest of the collection, touching on fan favorites like "Dignity" and "Raintown," as well as B-sides such as "Indigo Sky" and "When You Were a Boy You Were a Beautiful Boy

The Wannadies Bagsy Me

The Wannadies Bagsy Me

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 From its puzzling name (which it shares with a popular Swedish children's play written by Thomas Tidholm) to the unsettling cover art, unexplained shots of beautiful young women playing dead, the Wannadies' fourth album has a distinctly odd vibe. This continues in Pär Wiksten's lyrics; even the most sugary pop songs here barely mask undercurrents of anger, spite, resignation, and obsession. "Friends" is one of the most vengeful kiss-offs to an ex this side of early Elvis Costello, and the vaguely tropical "Oh Yes (It's a Mess)" bemoans the fact that sleeping with someone you actually like is less fun than the alternatives. The songs are uniformly excellent, with the hyperactive "Damn It I Said" featuring both the album's best chorus and coolest guitar sound and the glorious "Someone Somewhere" the most singable melody. The nearly nine-minute closer, "That's All," might tax some listeners' patience, but the hypnotic coda doesn't actually overstay its welcome

Mull Historical Society Us

Mull Historical Society Us

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 Colin MacIntyre's voice is somewhere on a line that connects Lindsey Buckingham to Roger Hodgson, and the only other solo artist possessed with the kind of boundless, restless creative energy to write, play, produce, and design everything he releases is Todd Rundgren. Despite these factors, MacIntyre has managed to develop his own odd personality while also avoiding the pitfalls that come with being labeled a throwback. (Besides, would Rundgren put a wigged dog on one of his album covers? Probably not.) He doesn't fit with the latest new-rock revival, and he doesn't like to whine, yet he's just as modern-sounding and contemporary as any of his peers. On Us, he makes good on the promise shown on his debut. No longer happily adding layer upon unnecessary layer of instrumentation to his songs, he has learned the value of directness that comes with knowing when to put a cap on a song and let it slide without the extra blurt of kazoo. That directness has carried over to the lyrics; the only character in most of these songs is the guy who wrote them. Melody still plays a major role, though the listener isn't beaten over the head with it. A good balance is struck between breezily flowing acoustic songs and hyperkinetic blasts of guitar pop. MacIntyre's wise abandonment of the kitchen-sink approach would've benefited this album even more if he had kept the running time below 45 minutes or so; at an hour, some of its nuances are bound to be lost in the shuffle. This prime songwriter is too anxious to purge his backlog, but too much is definitely preferable to not enough

Yazoo In Your Room

Yazoo In Your Room

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With only two albums and a handful of singles released before they broke up, the '80s synth pop duo Yazoo -- or Yaz if you're outside the United States -- are in the "all or nothing" category when it comes to box sets. Save a couple remixes, Mute's 2008 set In Your Room is everything the duo -- instrumentalist and former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke along with the as yet unheard of vocalist Alison Moyet -- released in its short career, and then some. Disc one of this three-CD/one-DVD set features their debut 1982 album, Upstairs at Eric's, while disc two features the follow-up, You and Me Both, from a year later. Both are remastered splendidly -- giving the albums more depth and punch in the bass -- as are the remixes and B-sides that occupy disc three. The non-album tracks "State Farm" and "The Other Side of Love" both get a proper home on the third disc and sit next to a wealth of desirable extended mixes of club hits like "Situation" and "Don't Go

Eurythmics Be Yourself Tonight

Eurythmics Be Yourself Tonight

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On Be Yourself Tonight, Eurythmics' most commercially successful and hit-laden album, the duo meticulously blended the new wave electronic elements that dominated their previous sets with the harder straight-edged rock and soul that would dominate later sets to come up with a near-perfect pop album. This disc scored no less than four hit singles and kept them a mainstay on MTV's play lists during the channel's heyday. Fusing pop, soul, rock, electronic beats, and even gospel, this is arguably the duo's finest moment. The first hit, "Would I Lie to You," is a straight-forward rocker, complete with great guitar licks, a soulful horn section, and Annie Lennox sounding as vicious and vivacious as ever. The second single, which was a huge chart topper in Europe, "There Must Be an Angel," is nothing short of shimmering beauty, with Lennox providing truly angelic vocals and Stevie Wonder lending an enchanting harmonica solo. Aretha Franklin lends her powerhouse pipes for the duet "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves," which has gone on to become an immortal feminist anthem. From the soulful electronic beats (a rarity) in "It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back)" to the beauty of the Elvis Costello duet "Adrian" to the pain and longing of the sorrowful rocker "Better to Have Lost in Love (Than Never to Have Loved at All)," this album runs a wide array of musical styles, each song standing tall on its own two feet. This disc is, without a doubt, one of the best rock/pop albums from the 1980s and one of the grandest, most creative albums delivered by the ever-appealing and innovative duo of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. A true classic.