Track Listing

1. Can I Get A Witness
2. Stop
3. I'll Be In Love
4. Kissing Gate
5. Troubled Soul
6. Fear Of Life
7. One Candle
8. Letting Go
9. Box
10. I Forgive You
11. Understand The Animal
12. Blood Run Cold
13. Valentine Moon
14. Three Bells
15. Away With The Faeries
16. Show Your Love
17. Tea
18. Stop

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99303 in Music
• Released on: 2006-03-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

The virtuoso's virtuoso.
Sam Brown stopped compromising when her record company asked her to put a "hit" on her deeply personal and introspective album 43 Minutes, and she refused. She has been steadfast in not compromising ever since and this collections reflects that magnificently.
"Stop" is all present and correct, of course, (it's a belter, after all) but many of the singles are absent, to make way for a journey through Brown's musical range, from the slightly spooky "I'll Be In Love" through the introspection of "Fear of Life" and "One Candle" and the heartbreaking (but ultimately life-affirming) "Letting Go" we travel some dark roads, before reaching the near-music-hall respite of "Valentine Moon" and "Three Bells". Then there is the unsettling but really rather wonderful "Away With the Faeries", with just Brown's top-drawer voice and her ukelele. Child-like the woman, indeed.
Remember, this is a "Best of", not a "Greatest Hits" and it is all the stronger for Brown choosing such a varied illustration of her amazing talents. More strength to her (and then of course, there is the splendidly daft "Tea").
Treat yourself and see what a real musician can do.

Not the very best, but Sam's voice shines...
It seems that Sam selected the tracks herself for this compilation, but I'm not sure that was a wise move. Whilst we get the most obvious tracks here, namely "Stop" (strangely, a weaker demo version is included at the end when the CD would have been better served with a different track), "Fear Of Life" and "I Forgive You", there's some very good official singles missing here, such as "With A Little Love" (the first single of hers I bought), "Mindworks", "Once In Your Life" and the only single from her Reboot album ("In Light Of All That's Gone Before").

So what of the non-single tracks included here? A mixed bag I'm afraid - "I'll Be In Love" is too ethereal and drifting really and is the weakest point in what is otherwise a generally winning sequence of the first 10 tracks. Things go a little off the rails after that with esoteric choices like "Blood Runs Cold" and the almost-novelty cover of "Three Bells".

Criminally omitted non-single tracks include "Piece Of My Luck", "Sometimes", "Contradictions", "Hypnotised", "Now And Forever", "In The Rain" and "Liberty In Reality". Despite all my grumbles, Sam's voice is fantastic throughout of course and there's enough good tracks on show for someone to extract 40-45 minutes of classic material here. Just a shame that much of Sam's best material is sadly omitted for reasons that are difficult to fathom. I strongly urge you to check out all her original studio albums...they're excellent listens without exception. I like "April Moon" for her poppier material and "43 Minutes" if you're in a more mellow mood - start with those two first.

Maybe this should have been a double CD with the singles on the first disc (and maybe one or two new tracks in there) and Sam's favourite non-single tracks on the second CD? We might have been better served by such a deal. BTW, I'd *love* to see a Best Of DVD release - there was an old VHS release 15-odd years ago, but surely we deserve a DVD version now?

great songs, great voice but some key songs missing
Sam Brown has one of the best voices in the business, that's a given. Was it really 1988 when Stop first put Sam in the Spotlight? Now, as a regular performer with Jools Holland and possibly because of interest created by Jamelia's cover version of Stop, from the soundtrack to the second Bridget Jones film, here we have a collection of songs spanning Sam's entire career. There are some great songs on here...but for me some key ones are missing e.g This Feeling and Walking Back to Me, both singles from the Stop album and also With a Little Love, Mindworks and Where You Are from April Moon. Other than these omissions, this is a great introduction to Sam's amazing voice and talent... a bonus live CD would have been a nice touch....but buy it anyway!