The Essential

Album Review

Concrete Blonde's entry in Capitol's Essential series is similar to its Classic Masters retrospective from 2002. In fact, it's exactly the same track listing until Essential opts for "Happy Birthday" and "Sun," two tracks from 1989's Free. But neither collection adequately replaces 1996's comprehensive, out of print Recollection: The Best of Concrete Blonde, and Essential only goes as far as the 1992 LP Walking in London, excluding the following year's Mexican Moon. It's also curious that nothing unreleased could be scrounged from the vaults for this set. Still, diehards can cover with 2003's Live in Brazil (Ark 21), meaning Essential is probably OK for the casual Concrete fan. It's in chronological order for one thing, beginning with the fabulously hungry "Still in Hollywood" and rolling right through to "Caroline," "Joey," and "Tomorrow, Wendy" from the 1990 breakthrough, Bloodletting. The band's atmospheric cover of Hendrix's "Little Wing" dates from the same year, as does a live version of "Roses Grow." (Both were originally released on the Caroline single.) It might have switched out "Sun" for "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)." And it really could have used the title track to Mexican Moon. But otherwise, Essential is a pretty satisfactory overview of Concrete Blonde's IRS output.