For those of you who are rock purists and can appreciate well written and intelligent pop/rock, Marshall Crenshaw should be a staple in your cd collection! His first greatest hits album comes just in time for the Christmas wish list. It contains a generous 22 tracks covering the past 18 years of his career. All these tracks have been restored and remastered by Rhino Records for this release. If you are not familiar with this singer/guitarist/songwriter, this "best of" is a great cd to start with.
Marshall's most popular work would probably come from his self-titled first album. The bright "Someday Someway" and "Mary Anne" are represented here, along with two other tracks from his first album. His ability to come up with irisistible guitar hooks and smooth harmonies was a nice change of pace for the early 80's. The demo of "You're My Favorite Waste of Time" sounds like John Lennon direct from 1965. "Whenever You're on My Mind" from his second album "Field Day" features some harder sounding guitar, along with his signiture vocals and harmonies. By the mid-80's, Crenshaw's albums started to grow in diversity. "I'm Sorry (But so is Brenda Lee)" and "Little Wild One (No. 5)" shows off more of a rock-a-billy sound along with a new batch of musicians. His releases from the remainder of the 80's continued to show off more experimentation and lusher production values. But his ability to write simple yet well written rock songs was never lost. "This is Easy" from "Mary Jean and 9 Others" features many layered guitar sounds built around Marshall playing a simple melody on acoustic guitar. Crenshaw was never shy about covering other great songwriter's tunes, including John Hiatt's "Someplace Where Love Can't Find Me". Well into the 90's and beyond Crenshaw still writes great material. Two of my favorite songs from this collection would have to be "Better Back Off" and "What Do You Dream Of". "Better Back Off" is a great rocker with pounding drums and great guitar picking. "What Do You Dream Of" recalls the harmonies that made his early 80's releases so enjoyable.
As with any greatest hits release, fans will always criticize the fact that some great tracks were left off. In my case, "Rockin' in NYC" and "Some Hearts" should have found their way onto this cd. But... this ends up being a small complaint about a very well done retrospective cd. When listening to "This Is Easy", I'm also tempted to purchase some of Crenshaw's later releases such as "Miracle of Science" and "#447". It should also be noted that his first album was also re-released and remastered by Rhino this year including some bonus material (still have to get that one too!). "Marshall Crenshaw" would easily find it's way on my top-ten list of greatest albums released in the 1980's.
