Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 07/11/05
Label: SonyBMG

Contract fillers, beginner's guides to extensive back catalogues or an efficient way of wringing the last ounces of worth out of a waning star, Greatest Hits collections are always more than just a collection of Greatest Hits. And releasing them is an art. Putting out the obligatory Best Of too early can be akin to cutting a healthy career off at the knees. Wait too long and it can disappear without trace due to lack of interest.

Whatever the thinking behind choosing now to release former wedding singer turned dancer turned soul-pop belter Anastacia Newkirk's retrospective, it hardly comes across as a ringing vote of confidence from her record label. Coming just three albums and five years into her career, it's sends out the message that the powers that be are hedging their bets; worried that her days as a 20-million selling artist are numbered, they're cashing in before it's too late.

Record company politics and marketing stratagems aside, there's no escaping the fact that "Pieces Of A Dream" is perilously premature. While it would take a crystal ball to tell how many more hits she may have to come, there clearly aren't enough here to fill an album.

That there are clear standout moments is the first clue that not every hit here warrants the title Great. The smouldering party funk of "Not That Kind", "One Day In Your Life"'s leg-warmers and headband disco and the desperately unfashionable yet inescapable girl power of "I'm Outta Love" are out and out winners and could convert even those who regard Ms Newkirk's big lunged hollering as having all the grace and charm of a foghorn. Similarly "Paid My Dues", "Why'd You Lie To Me" and Arabian-esque rocker "Left Outside Alone" pack choruses that could pummel detractors into submission.

The remainder of the 12 singles included here, are all passable enough, but for the most part they qualified for inclusion by virtue of the fact that they were indeed singles, not essential career highlights. Would the welter-weight also-ran "Cowboys & Kisses" have made the cut were it not for the need to make up numbers? Probably not.

However, for conclusive evidence that "Pieces Of A Dream" is a 'best of' half-backed, look no further than the excess of extra padding. Not only does it come with four lacklustre new tracks - including two dire duets, one with Eros Ramazzotti, the other with Evanescence's Ben Moody - the collection is rounded off with a ten minute, Anastacia Megamix - (yes!!! - Reviews Ed). Her biggest hits shoe-horned, badly, into one chaotic, confused and cringe-worthy 'hi-energy' club track, it's enough to make the blood of even her biggest fans run cold.

    by Dan Gennoe