With 's label having gone bust, putting all her early albums out of print, culls tracks from two of her 1980s releases, and , and adds the version of from its 1998 tribute, , to construct this compilation. adds a sleeve note under the word "context," pointing out that most of the songs derive from the era and represent early warnings for political storms that are here today. The compilation doesn't do any favors for , which was a timely collection of topical songwriting set to a / /acoustic musical palette contributed by the likes of , , and others. But marked the beginning of 's apparent writing block, and excerpting her own compositions from an album largely made up of cover tunes, while dropping some of the lesser tracks from makes for a stronger collection than either album separately. fans, of course, will want the original albums, but they're hard to find, and this is a reasonable selection from them. ~ William Ruhlmann