Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled (Eco Friendly Packaging) [ENHANCED] [EXTRA TRACKS]

Melissa Etheridge

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 27, 2007)
• Original Release Date: February 8, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced, Extra tracks
• Label: Island
• ASIN: B000ND91RM
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,313 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The Number 1's series is a brand-new line of CDs featuring #1 radio hits from the biggest names in music. This collection includes decade compilations as well as individual artist CDs and is being released by Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) in its ground-breaking, environmentally-friendly packaging format. A first for the music industry, the standard package (both sleeve and tray) will be completely paper-recyclable, continuing the company's long-standing commitment to being "green."

To further reduce the amount of paper in the Eco-Pack, the CD booklet will no longer be offered.UMe is the first North American music company to replace the traditional jewel case with recycled paperboard sleeves and the plastic tray with trays made from PaperFoam®, a new packaging technology from Shorewood Packaging, a business of International Paper, that is paper-recyclable and biodegradable. Shorewood Packaging is the first North American packaging supplier to produce disc trays from PaperFoam®.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not definitive: Selling Melissa short, July 8, 2007

By	Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Melissa Etheridge is, simply stated, one of the most important female artists of the last two decades. She not only made it as a woman rocking on her own terms, she also put her sexuality on the line and then made her personal battle with cancer into a public crusade. These qualities frame her as a person and are important markers of her integrity.

But more importantly, she has made some brilliant music with at least two five star albums. Both the debut and her breakthrough, "Yes I Am," are must-own records. Naturally, they are the two CD's from which the lion's share of "The Road Less Traveled" is culled; six of the 18 songs here. Add the six songs that are previously unreleased, and that leaves only six songs culled from the rest of Melissa's library.

The diference between this and the previous version is the addition of the Oscar winning "I Need To Wake Up" from "An Inconvenient Truth." The CD booklet is gone to make it more environmentaly friendly and the plastic jewel box is replaced by a recycled paper shell with foam tray. While it changes the packaging, it doesn't change the fact that there are too many ommissions here to make it listener friendly.

This presents a problem. It leaves off such terrific popular favorites and singles. "Dance Without Sleeping," "Your Little Secret," "Breathe" and the entire contents of "Skin" wind up being neglected. That is not to say that "The Road Less Traveled" is a poor collection; it's just that it is not as thorough as it could have been.

As for the new material, it's all good stuff. Melissa's covers of Tom Petty's "Refugee" and (finally!) a studio version of Janis Jopin's "Piece Of My Heart" are, alone, worth the price of the disc. Her anthems of survival "This Is Not Goodbye" and "I Run For Life" are heartfelt and solid. Too bad the collection is a little too tame and not enough crazy. I am sure the inevitable double disc collection will eventually appear, but for now, "The Road Less Traveled" is a less than perfect primer.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Coming Back To Her Window, March 17, 2007

By	Michael Kerner "Michael Kerner" (Brooklyn, New York U.S.A.) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

There are very few female singers that seem to show that their words come from the heart. While more of the artists are about the outside image like Jessica Simpson, Beyonce', and Kelly Clarkson, there are much fewer singer/songwriters that still sing with feeling and compassion. Melissa Etheridge is one of those who still has the drive and has definitely shown it the past few years. She had struggled and defeated her battle with breast cancer, and reclaimed herself as a defiant, down to Earth female performer. Her hits record which was released a few years ago, showed that she was good, but it didn't completely showcase her career definitively. Now that it has been re-issued, has it gotten any better?

Melissa Etheridge's 2007 re-released Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled, spans her near 20 year career with 18 tracks that are bold, and defiant to her voice. The songs here have all been remastered nicely, and sound better than they were released a few years ago. Although not much has changed on this record as before. The album still includes a lot of great tracks including I Want To Come Over, Come To My Window, I Am The Only One, and Ain't It Heavy. The album also includes her adult contemporary hit I Run For Life, and a cover of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Refugee. The only new addition in this reissuing is I Need To Wake Up, her Oscar-winning song from the Al Gore documentary, An Inconvient Truth. The song is very bold and speaks a clear message to life around us, and fits nicely in the package. Nevertheless, the album still overlooks a few great tracks like it did before such as Breathe, Your Little Secret, and her soulful song I Wanna Be In Love from her
album Skin.

Still, despte the record overlooking a few songs, Melissa Etheridge's Greatest Hits: The Road Less traveled isn't a bad record worth listening too, for anybody who doesn't own a Melissa Etheridge album. It is a little better than it was before. I still love listening to her music, and I hope she comes back with a new record soon. Even with all the stuff that is going on, many of us are still coming to her window for great music.

Album Cover: B

Songs: C+

Price: B

Remastering: B+

Overall: B-

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 Stars... Definitive overview of Mellisa Etheridge's career, July 1, 2007

By	Paul Allaer (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Melissa Etheridge is one of the premier female singer-songwriters from this era, and after 8 studio albums, issued from 1988 to 2004, Melissa got a very deserved "Greatest Hits" treatment in 2005. Two years later, the album is reissued to include an unexpected development.

"Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled" (18 tracks, 76 min.) brings a terrific overview of Melissa's career. The set starts off with a nice new cover of the Tom Petty hit "Refugee". After that the set rolls chronologically. "The Way I Do" from her debut album is very typical of the "Etheridge sound": acoustic guitar driven rock-and-roll. I perseonally love that sound. 1993's "Yes I Am" album, arguably Melissa at her commercial peak, gets 3 tracks: "I'm The Only One", the beautiful "Come To My Window" (her biggest hit ever), and "If I Wanted To". Other highlights include "I Want To Come Over" and the new cover of Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart".

The reissue comes with a new track, the excellent "I Need to Wake Up", which plays over the closing credits of the "Inconvenient Truth" documentary. The song went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song in the 2007 Oscars. Overall, this makes the compilation just that much better than the original 2005 compilation. If you were on the fence about getting this, go ahead and buy this, surely the definitive Melissa Etheridge compilation.