Peter Green_the Best of

A handy and generous double-disc (one live, one studio) compilation of Gary Moore's four Virgin label blues albums is predominantly an excellent introduction to this showy hard rocker turned midlife third-generation bluesman. The 31 tracks liberally sample from his relatively short five-year association with Virgin (roughly 1990-1995) but ignore his excellent 2001 Back to the Blues release on Sanctuary…

R.E.M. began their Warner contract in 1988 as the biggest band to emerge from the college-radio-fueled American underground. Fifteen years later, they released In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003, the first overview of their long stint at Warner Records. During that decade and a half, R.E.M. had a turbulent journey…

When it comes to good time R&B played by top class musicians, you can’t beat the sound of Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. After Bill quit the Rolling Stones in 1993, the bass player set about forming his own all-star band. As well as touring the world, the Rhythm Kings released a succession of fine albums, beginning with ‘Struttin’ Our Stuff’ in 1998. We have selected the hottest tracks from this debut album, as well as songs from subsequent albums ‘Anyway The Wind Blows’, ‘Double Bill’, ‘Groovin’ and ‘Just For A Thrill’.

As It All Began: The Best of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers 1964-1968 is an excellent 20-track retrospective, capturing Mayall's band at their peak. The Bluesbreakers went through several different lineups during those four years, with musicians the caliber of Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Paul Butterfield, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Peter Green floating through the group. Hardcore fans of any of those musicians, or of British blues, will naturally want to familiarize themselves with the original albums, but As It All Began is a fine sampler for the casual fan, featuring such staples as "Lonely Years," "Bernard Jenkins," "All Your Love," "Parchman Farm," "Double Trouble," "The Death of J.B. Lenoir," and "Miss James." Even at 20 tracks, there are a number of fine moments missing from this collection, but As It All Began remains the best available single-disc overview of the Bluesbreakers' prime period.

The Country Music Association of Australian and EMI Music have enjoyed a long and prestigious relationship for close to 20 years, with the annual release of the "Winners" compilation, collecting together the finalists from the Tamworth Golden Guitar Awards every year. Now comes this stunning double CD collection of timeless favourites from the superstars of the local country music scene, featuring Lee Kernaghan, Slim Dusty, Adam Brand, Adam Harvey, Beccy Cole, James Blundell, Kasey Chambers, Troy Cassar-Daley, Gina Jeffreys, John Williamson and many more.

A handy and generous double-disc (one live, one studio) compilation of Gary Moore's four Virgin label blues albums is predominantly an excellent introduction to this showy hard rocker turned midlife third-generation bluesman. The 31 tracks liberally sample from his relatively short five-year association with Virgin (roughly 1990-1995) but ignore his excellent 2001 Back to the Blues release on Sanctuary. Still, there are more than enough hot licks here to prove that Moore could be a convincing blues musician if he decided to give up his more ostentatious shred rock profession and focus on blues full time…

A relic from the days when so many artists' catalogs were still unavailable on CD, and a decent hits package was the best you could hope for, Out Demons Out! is a generously stuffed compilation that carves through the Broughton Band's Harvest label catalog, and comes up consistently trumps. Of course the title track is here – a non-LP single at the time, it remains the archetypal Broughton performance, encapsulating everything that made the band great both on vinyl and in concert. But it is by no means the only classic in their arsenal: "Apache Drop Out," "Evil," and "Hotel Room" are all masterpieces, while "Up Yours" rivals "Out Demons Out" in the all-together-in-a-muddy-field shout-along stakes. The subsequent appearance of the full catalog on disc in its own right takes some of the urgency away from this collection, but anybody searching for an easy entry into the world of the Edgar Broughton Band will find no better introduction.