The Best of Firefall
Artist: Firefall
Community Score: 7.50
Collected Works
Artist: Paul Simon

Like the identically titled Simon & Garfunkel boxed set released at the same time, Paul Simon's Collected Works was what it claimed to be: A five-LP set reissue containing The Paul Simon Song Book (in its first and only U.S. release), Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin' Simon, Live Rhymin'/Paul Simon In Concert, and Still Crazy After All These Years.... Read More

The John Lennon Collection
Artist: John Lennon
Community Score: 8.60

This 15-song collection (expanded to 19 in 1989 for the CD), released just short of two years after Lennon's death, provided a very generous overview of his solo career on a single LP, drawing on most of the major singles and also on songs that were widely covered, and from all periods of his career, from his late-Beatles-era solo political... Read More

This Is Where I Came In
Artist: Van Morrison

This umpteenth repackaging of Van Morrison's Bang Records material is notable for containing the most complete set of the recordings yet issued on a single disc. Fifteen tracks are crammed onto this LP, which constitutes the entire set of Bang masters with the exception of the B-side single "Chick-A-Boom." (This Is Where I Came In was superseded... Read More

Moondance/His Band & Street Choir
Artist: Van Morrison
The Best of Jefferson Airplane - RCA
Artist: Jefferson Airplane

The Best of Jefferson Airplane is an imperfect but serviceable collection, featuring ten of the Airplane's best-known songs: "White Rabbit," "Somebody to Love," "Wild Tyme," "Won't You Try Saturday Afternoon," "Wooden Ships," "Third Week in the Chelsea Hotel," and "Long John Silver." This basic collection will be of use to a listener just... Read More

Original Singles, Vol. 1 (1965-1967)
Artist: The Byrds

The Byrds were musical pioneers and a great album-producing band, but they were also masters of the form in terms of singles. At the time of the Byrds' formation, singles were still king, and it was the only way for a band to make an impact. The Byrds put out singles from the start with "Mr. Tambourine Man," a consciousness-raising track... Read More

Hearts and Bones
Artist: Paul Simon
Community Score: 10.00

Hearts and Bones was a commercial disaster, the lowest-charting new studio album of Paul Simon's career. It is also his most personal collection of songs, one of his most ambitious, and one of his best. It retains a personal vision, one largely devoted to the challenges of middle-aged life, among them a renewed commitment to love; the title song... Read More

Concert in Central Park
Artist: Simon & Garfunkel
Community Score: 9.00

Simon & Garfunkel reunited on September 19, 1981, to perform a free concert in Central Park, New York City. This two-record set presents some of the duo's biggest hits in a live context, and also allows listeners a chance to hear what many Simon solo numbers could sound like in S&G mode. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Read More

Collected Works
Artist: Simon & Garfunkel
Community Score: 8.00

The three-disc box set Collected Works contains all of Simon & Garfunkel's studio albums, from Wednesday Morning, 3 AM to Bridge Over Troubled Water. Though this is too much material for casual fans, any serious fan of Simon & Garfunkel or folk-rock will need to acquire the set, simply because it presents the albums in their best-ever sound. The... Read More

Glass Houses
Artist: Billy Joel
Community Score: 9.00

The back-to-back success of The Stranger and 52nd Street may have brought Billy Joel fame and fortune, even a certain amount of self-satisfaction, but it didn't bring him critical respect, and it didn't dull his anger. If anything, being classified as a mainstream rocker -- a soft rocker -- infuriated him, especially since a generation of punks... Read More

Songs in the Attic
Artist: Billy Joel
Community Score: 10.00

Having scored three multi-platinum hits in a row, Billy Joel took a breather, releasing his first live album, Songs in the Attic, as he worked on his ambitious follow-up to Glass Houses. Joel wisely decided to use the live album as an opportunity to draw attention to songs from his first four albums. Apart from "Piano Man," none of those songs... Read More