Track Listing

1. Steady On
2. Diamond In The Rough
3. Shotgun Down The Avalanche
4. Round Of Blues
5. Polaroids
6. I Don’t Know Why
7. Every Little Thing
8. This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)
9. Sunny Came Home
10. You And The Mona Lisa
11. The Facts About Jimmy
12. Get Out Of This House
13. Whole New You
14. A Matter Of Minutes
15. I'll Be Back

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53205 in Music
• Released on: 2004-11-22
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Good, but buy the individual CDs instead!
This is an unsurprising collection of songs from Colvin's five major studio albums arranged in chronological order with a new song tactfully added at the end. Despite showing Colvin's song writing skills, it is a strangely lifeless and at one point jarring recording (e.g. when the saccharine I Don't Know Why segues into the awful Every Little Thing He Does is Magic). The CD shines, however, with the first five songs, some of the best she has ever written. Polaroids, a personal travelogue, is beautifully stark and defiant, whilst Shotgun Down the Avalanche is one of the few extended metaphors in pop music that actually fits snugly into the lyrics and melody. The four songs from her most successful album, A Few Small Repairs, are dark and tuneful, whilst the two from Whole New You are insubstantial and in the case of the title track, its paint by numbers hooks cheapen it and make it pop filler for any number of mediocre mainstream artists. Much of Colvin's best music is melancholic in nature, and many of her mid tempo songs are filled with desperation and unfulfilled longings. What this well intentioned collection inevitably shows is that her work is best enjoyed album by album.

The best songs from the first half of Shawn Colvin's career
I saw Shawn Colvin in concert the other night at the Big Tent Chautauqua south of Bayfield, Wisconsin, and she was introduced as a three time Grammy winner. Of course two of those Grammys were for "Sunny Came Home," which won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1998. But the third Grammy was earned for her her first studio album, 1989's "Steady On," which won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. I first picked up "A Few Small Repairs," not so much because it had "Sunny Came Home" on it, but because I was going to see Colvin perform at Lilith Fair and was buying the albums of all of the performers. From there I went back and got the rest of her work and several years down the road I am still of the opinion that "Sunny Came Home" was an invitation to check out her other albums. By definition Colvin might be a one hit wonder ("I Don't Know Why" is her only other Top 20 success making it to #16 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, but that misses the point of Colvin's music. There is a reason that she is touring with only a pair of guitars, and the trip down memory lane provided by "Polaroids: A Greatest Hits Collection" only serves to reinforce the point.

These 15 songs represent selections from all of her main releases except for her Christmas album, "Holiday Songs and Lullabies," plus one new track with her cover of the Beatles song "I'll Be Back." The songs are laid out chronologically by album, although in fact the first three tracks are the same three that opened up "Steady On," namely the title track, "Diamond in the Rough," and "Shotgun Down the Avalanche" (the latter remaining my favorite Colvin tune). All three are Colvin lyrics written to the melodies of her songwriting partner, John Leventhal, and I find it interesting that they are presented in the same order, which I read to be an implicit acknowledgment of how codified they are in the minds of her fans (yes, sometimes I listen to just those three tracks when I play that album, or, more to the point, I always make sure I listen to those three tracks).

From "Fat City" we have "Round Of Blues," "Polaroids," and "I Don't Know Why." Her "Cover Girl" album provides "Every Little Thing [He] Does is Magic" and "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)," which is where I want to quibble because I think her best cover is of Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go," a fact she proved again last Saturday night (as much for the guitar playing as the singing). The order ir rearranged, but the first four tracks from "A Few Small Repairs" make it as well, with "Sunny Came Home," "You And The Mona Lisa," "Get Out Of This House," and "The Facts About Jimmy." See a pattern of always putting her best foot forward on an album, do you? Absolutely, because "Whole New You" and "A Matter of Minutes" are the first two tracks from her 2001 album "Whole New You," albeit in reverse order.

Except for the counter proposal above, the tracks collected for this album are on point, which is always nice to see with a greatest hits album. Colvin did over half of these songs in her concert, and after hearing the stripped down versions it seems strange to hear the studio versions. But hearing the "unplugged" versions simply reminds us that Colvin's strengths are her ability to write lyrics (the best part of "Sunny Came Home" are the lyrics) and her singing, with the husky but high voice that has matured gorgeously over the years. Colvin is working on a new album for release next February, which will pave the way for a second collection of her best songs (calling them hits seems counterproductive in this case) sometime next decade.

Finally a Greatest Hits!
This is a great tribute to Shawn Colvin - every song worthy of being included in a greatest hits collection.
'Diamond In The Rough' is a great song, which defines Shawn's early work so well and I was particularly pleased to find that 'Round Of Blues' and even the cover of 'Every Little Thing (He) Does Is Magic' had been included on the album.
Culminating with Shawn's most recent work from 'Whole New You' finshed of the collection perfectly.
My only complaint is that perhaps there should have been more songs! A double CD?