Tommy Emmanuel, C.g.p. The Very Best of Tommy Emmanuel (2001) 2cd [re Up]

British singer and guitarist Chris Rea has enjoyed a run of popularity in Europe during the late '80s and early '90s after almost a decade of previous recording. Rea started out performing with a local group called Magdalene, taking David Coverdale's place; the band won a national talent contest in 1975 as the Beautiful Losers, but still failed to get a record contract…

1998's The Very Best of the Dixie Cups: Chapel of Love is not only an excellent compilation – with outstanding sound and informative, well-designed liner notes – it's probably the best single-disc Dixie Cups compilation available.

The Very Best of Chris Rea is the third compilation album by British singer-songwriter Chris Rea, released in 2001. The last track "Saudade" was originally written and recorded in 1994 as a tribute to the formula 1 racing driver Ayrton Senna who died in a crash at Imola on 1 May that year. The word Saudade in Portuguese language roughly means the feeling, emotions and euphoria of a certain moment in time. It reached #69 position in UK album charts, and was certified Gold in 2004.

There's a certain relief that the 2002 double-disc set The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac doesn't even attempt to dabble in the early blues work of the Peter Green band, and treats the addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks as ground zero…

Very rivals Behaviour as Pet Shop Boys' best album, so it's appropriate that the "further listening" bonus disc on Very's installment in the 2001 expanded-edition series rivals the further listening disc for Behaviour, and perhaps even surpasses it. Like that disc, this collection doesn't rely on remixes for bonus tracks and those that do make it are quite good (a previously unreleased 12" mix of "Go West" and the hacienda version of "Violence"). The rest of the record consists of B-sides and non-LP singles (including "Absolutely Fabulous"), none of which have been collected on a disc before since they all date from an era that the double-disc set Alternative didn't cover. The great thing about this is that nearly all of the material could have fit comfortably on Very and it plays as a very infectious, absorbing listen on its own.