Last year, I reviewed the first part of this compilation and was quite impressed. Suffice it to say that I'm really looking forward to Part III now. Yep, it's that good.
The album takes off where the first one left off - trying to capture the essential noises of the music world. And the selection is really to be appreciated.
Album 1 has more of a rock theme than the other. Which is why we kick off with the awesome display by Queen in "Bohemian Rhapsody". You then have the big names strut their stuff - U2 with "Pride (In The Name Of Love)", Lenny Kravitz with "Fly Away", Pink Floyd with the ever-present "Brick In The Wall". But there’s also some soft stuff to soothe you, the best being da man, Bob Marley who’s just "Jammin’". You then have Elton John, Eric Clapton, Sting and some others.
Album 2 is more peppy. The Police start things off with "Every Breath You Take", followed by Sinead O’Connor and "Nothing Compares to You". Add Robbie Williams, Abba, Simon and Garfunkel and Ben E. King, and this is just like Donna Summer’s "Hot Stuff".
The selection of artistes is great and the songs are quite good too. I could crib and say that they should have instead chosen "American Woman" by Lenny Kravitz and "My Song" by Robbie Williams, but those are minor cribs. The fact is, this is one of the few reasons I have found which justifies the existence of compilations. Any person who wants to capture the music of this century just has to pop this into the deck. Worth every penny.
This article was first published on31 Jan 2002.