Element of Crime Mittelpunkt Der Welt (2005)

Universal International's The Ultimate Collection lives up to its name with a sprawling three-disc (for some people, a single-disc Ace of Base compilation just doesn't cut it) overview of the alternately beloved and reviled Swedish dance-pop outfit's career. For the most part, UC covers all of the same ground as 2000's Greatest Hits, 2003's Singles of the 90s, and Arista's Platinum & Gold Collection, balancing radio behemoths like "Don't Turn Around," "The Sign," and "All That She Wants" with smaller hits such as "Wheel of Fortune" and Bananarama's "Cruel Summer." What distinguishes The Ultimate Collection from previous comps is the inclusion of some deeper album cuts and an entire disc of remixes, in case "The Sign" didn't get stuck in your head the first time around. ~ James Christopher Monger

The most successful Hungarian rock band in history, Omega is one of the rare bands to have been known outside in his country. Their music is a combination of Eastern European prog with a bit of symphonic and a bit of psych prog. The result is a dark orchestrated sound combined with extended improvisation. Their discography actually starts in the early 60's, and goes in till today in a more modern register.

It speaks well for the continued viability of their catalog (probably second only to Bob Dylan's among '60s folk artists) that this is only the sixth compilation ever done on Peter, Paul & Mary's music in four decades of musical activity - and since one of the others was a Readers' Digest mail-order release and two of the others were done for special markets outside of the United States, that low number is downright astonishing. This release effectively supplants the perennially popular Ten Years Together: The Best of Peter, Paul & Mary, from 1970, and also outdoes the 2003 WEA International Very Best Of, with more songs drawn from a much wider chunk of their history as well. The material at hand covers not only most of the key singles and a handful of important album tracks by the trio from the 1960s, but also acknowledges their less widely heard solo material from the 1970s…