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4.0 out of 5 stars
Generous deluxe "greatest hits"... but for whom is this intended?, December 9, 2008
This review is from: Decade in the Sun: The Best of Stereophonics (Audio CD)
Stereophonics have been churning out albums (and singles) pretty much like clockwork since their 1997 debut album: every 2 years fans get a new album, and after 6 studio albums (and one live album), the band finally gets the "greatest hits" treatment.
This is the deluxe version of "Decade In the Sun: Best of Stereophonics" (2CDs; 40 tracks; 158 min.). CD1 (20 tracks; 79 min.) brings the proper greatest hits of the band, and rightfully, this compilation focuses on the first 3 studio albums. The very promising 1997' debut "Word Gets Around" has 4 tracks on here (Local Boy in a Photograph; Thousand Trees; Traffic; More Life in a Tramps Vest). The band's best album ever, 1999's "Performance & Cocktails" also gets 4 tracks (Bartender and the Thief; Just Looking; Pick a Part that's New; I Wouldn't Belief Your Radio). And 2001's "Just Enough Education to Perform" also gets 4 tracks (Have a Nice Day; Mr. Writer; Step On My Old Size Nines; Vegas Two Times), plus this includes the non-album single from the same sessions, the Rod Stewart-cover "Handbags and Gladrags". The rest of CD1 is filled out by singles from the last 3 albums, with the 2005 "Language" album getting 3 tracks (including "Dakota", the band's biggest UK charting single ever). There are also 2 new tracks, the so-so "My My Own Worst Enemy" and the much better "You're My Star".
CD2 (20 tracks; 79 min.) brings a much greater hotch-potch, which I suppose is geared towards the more rabbit Stereophonics fan. "2003's so-so "You Gotta Go There To Come Back" gets a generous 4 tracks (it only got 1 track on CD1). 2007's "Pull the Pin", which also got only 1 track on CD1, gets 3 more (including the excellent Bank Holiday Monday). Rightly, the first 2 albums each get another 3 tracks. But the best of CD2 are the harder-to-find tracks like "Momma Told Me Not To Come Over" (recorded for/with Tom Jones for his "Reload" album), the excellent "Carrot Cake and Wine" (B-side of the "Thousand Trees" single, also featured on the 2006 "Live From Dakota" album), "Raymond's Shop" (B-side to the "More Life in an Tramp's Vest" single), and "First Time I Ever Saw Your Face" (the Roberts Flack cover, B-side to the "Handbags and Gladrads" single), and the 2004 non-album single "Moviestar". Despite the generous running time, several tracks are nevertheless missing, such as the 2000 non-album single "Clichés Are True".
In all, this is a very generous serving of Stereophonics. I don't like the sequencing of the tracks, to be honest. There is no rhyme or reason to it. Certainly for CD1, a chronological sequencing would have served the listening experience better. As to this 2CD "deluxe" version, it presents the same issue as the Radiohead "greatest hits" deluxe version: the casual fan will only want the single CD compilation, and the die-hard fan will have all of this already anyway, making me wonder for whom this is intended?
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