No Mercy Greatest Hits

On the eve of the New Year I offer you a small insight into the already so far away, but so cool twentieth century. And remember it will help you to Mario Lanza, Marilyn Monroe, Bill Haley & His Comets, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Louis Armstrong, Pat Boone, Jerry Lee Lewis, Perry Como, Paul Anka, Roy Orbison, Scorpions, Bob Dylan, The Mama's & Papa's, Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac, Simon & Garfunkel, David Bowie, Johnny Cash, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Shocking Blue, Guess Who, Black Sabbath, Jefferson Airplane, Rod Stewart, The Byrds, The Kinks and many many others … The greatest hits of the past millennium. Need I say more? Download and enjoy the great past.

A Slight Case of Overbombing gathered together material from goth merchants the Sisters of Mercy's three major-label releases. That fact immediately sets the stage for complaints from longtime fans desiring their indie music. However, for the listener more familiar with the band's mid- to late-'80s college radio tracks, this is a very good collection. The lyrics are rather pointless and Andrew Eldritch's vocals lack dynamics, but his singing has personality that overcomes his limitations. It's the edgy, hard gothic rock of the music that is their strength. There's an undeniable pull to songs like the galloping "This Corrosion" or the epic "More" (both produced by Jim Steinman). There's also a mix of "Temple of Love," featuring Ofra Haza, and an unreleased track, "Under the Gun." Not essential, but a good record for the casual fan (although more extensive liner notes would have been nice).

During the '80s, Thompson Twins arguably produced the finest synth-pop singles, and Greatest Hits recollects their industrious years with Arista in clear, digitally remastered sound. Numerous collections exist in the Twins' catalog and nearly equal their studio albums, but Greatest Hits prevails as the most essential as it offers a definitive chronology from 1982's infectious debut "In the Name of Love" through 1987's reflective "Long Goodbye." Featuring 16 tracks, this brimming retrospective recalls MTV's formative years ("Lies"), those unforgettable Dr. Pepper commercials ("Doctor! Doctor!"), the anti-Apartheid movement ("The Gap"), and countless other '80s pop culture memories.

The Best of Leonard Cohen samples 12 of the many highlights from the singer's first four studio LPs. With a heavy emphasis on the debut Songs of Leonard Cohen and its follow-up Songs From a Room, the set includes such masterpieces as "Suzanne," "So Long, Marianne" and "Bird on the Wire," as well as later efforts including "Chelsea Hotel" and "Famous Blue Raincoat."

The Buckinghams recorded five Top 40 singles that all charted in 1967. All five of those tunes are included in this collection. Their three biggest singles, "Don't You Care," "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," and the number one hit "Kind of a Drag," are pure pop ear candy. Most of the tracks were ably produced by James William Guercio, who would later produce Blood, Sweat & Tears' classic self-titled second album and all of Chicago's earlier albums. Like a lot of '60s groups, the Buckinghams included a song to raise the social conscience of its audience. In this case, the song is "Foreign Policy," an almost unbearable "experimental" tune that includes a snippet of a JFK speech and clocks in at over four minutes! Of course, that's really not very long, but the other ten tracks are all less than three minutes a pop. "Foreign Policy" is truly "kind of a drag." However, the rest of the tracks are tolerable.

Despite its rather cheeky title, Greatest Hits 1977-1990 is a good place to sample the entire Stranglers output. From the squalor of the late-'70s material, to the smoothed-out gloom pop of songs like "Skin Deep" and other mid- to late-'80s neo-goth rock, this is a solid anthology that values substance over style and exhaustive track selection. For sure, a well-edited Stranglers anthology is the only way to enjoy them; they recorded way too much dross to spend time searching out all of their plentiful, marginal records.

Greatest Hits is an compilation album by the Scottish hard rock band Nazareth, released in 1975. By this time Nazareth had experienced considerable success with albums and singles. This compilation showcased tracks from the band's third album Razamanaz through their sixth album Hair of the Dog, as well as some non-album singles…