One has to wonder what is going on at
EMI Records
in England -- in the space of less than a year, the label has issued three different
Al Stewart
compilations: The 16-song
The Very Best of Al Stewart
, the 14-song
Introducing
, and this 17-track CD. That's a lot of repeated uses of
"On the Border"
and
"Year of the Cat,"
not to mention
"Night Train to Munich."
Evidently,
"Ivich,"
from his 1967 LP
Bedsitter Images
, is proper for
, but his debut single
"The Elf"
is on
, and neither is "essential," nor is
"Nostradamus,"
though the latter is sufficient to "introduce" him. It's all a mess, which might've been avoided by the company just releasing a double-CD set encompassing the differing contents of all three single discs. The funny thing is that, taken on its own terms, this isn't a bad collection -- it's not as quirky as
or
, and it ignores a lot, but the sound is very good and it's made up of pretty solid selections from his catalog. And overall, this wouldn't be the worst way to discover his work, nor is it the best; it's just out there, fair to middling and in no way overwhelming. ~ Bruce Eder