Tanita Tikaram - The Best Of Tanita Tikaram (1996)

The Best of Tanita Tikaram sums up the singer/songwriter's first five albums, with a little too much emphasis on material from Lovers in the City and Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, and not enough from Everybody's Angel and Sweet Keeper (only one song from each album made it onto this set). Still, this is a lovely collection from start to finish, and showcases Tanita Tikaram as a singer who deserves much more attention than she has received. The album contains all of her U.K. hit singles, including four from her stellar debut, Ancient Heart, among those the sublime "Twist in My Sobriety," easily one of the greatest songs to have come out of the 1980s (an additional dance remix of that song closes out the album). Other highlights include the astounding, heartbreaking "Only the Ones We Love" (quite possibly the best song on this collection), the Phil Spector-ish "You Make the Whole World Cry," and the haunting "I Might Be Crying." Another definite standout is this album's only new recording (and the only cover), which is her version of "And I Think of You" (originally titled "E Penso a Te"). One only wishes other tracks, such as "We Almost Got It Together" and "Valentine Heart," were accounted for as opposed to so much material from her otherwise fine album Lovers in the City. Tikaram, with her heartbroken, world-weary, smoky voice, is in a league all her own and, because of her early start in the recording business, will hopefully have enough material to some day warrant a best-of volume two.