A tie-in to the exhaustive 2013 box set Sound System, the 2013 compilation The Clash Hits Back is a novel approach to a career retrospective: it mirrors the 24-song set list for the band's July 19, 1982 concert at Brixton Fairdeal, then adds eight bonus hits at the end. The Clash Hits Back slightly tweaks the running order of the original set -- "Bankrobber" arrived five songs into the concert but appears eighth here -- but that doesn't matter much, as this swap doesn't alter the impact of the original set. The Clash were plugging Combat Rock so songs from that LP -- the singles "Rock the Casbah," "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" and "Straight to Hell," plus "Ghetto Defendant" and "Know Your Rights," adding up to just under half the album -- sit alongside a heavy chunk of London Calling and early hits, plus a few stabs at Sandinista!. What's added at the end is a mix of their high-octane early material ("White Riot," "Complete Control," "Clash City Rockers," Tommy Gun," "English Civil War") and their more adventurous studio recordings ("The Call Up," "Hitsville UK," "This Is Radio Clash"), adding up to a strong overview of all the band could do.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Its title might lead one to think this was a compilation, but it wasn't -- rather, More Hits by the Supremes is merely a valid presumption of its worth. It was also the original group's third highest charting album of their five years on Motown, and came not a moment too soon. The Supremes were doing incredibly well as a singles act, but not since Where Did Our Love Go had any of their LPs done particularly well on the pop charts; even a well-intentioned Sam Cooke-tribute album recorded early in 1965, which ought to have done better, had only reached number 75 (though it had gotten to number five on the R&B LP charts). "Stop! In the Name of Love" and "Back in My Arms Again" helped drive the sales, but those singles had been out six and three months earlier at the time this album surfaced -- listeners were delighted to find those singles surrounded by their ethereal rendition of the ballad "Whisper You Love Me Boy" with its exquisitely harmonized middle chorus; the gently soulful, sing-song-y "The Only Time I'm Happy"; and the sweetly dramatic "He Holds His Own" (with a gorgeous and very prominent piano accompaniment). The material dated across six months of work, from late 1964 through the spring of 1965 (apart from "Ask Any Girl," the B-side of "Baby Love," which was cut in the spring of 1964), and showed that Motown could put a Supremes album together piecemeal around the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team and place the trio right up at the top reaches of the charts, in the company of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, et al. Its release also opened a floodgate of killer albums by the trio -- overlooking their 1965 LP of Christmas songs, they were destined to issue three more long-players that delighted audiences a dozen songs at a time over the next two years, which was a lot of good work.© Bruce Eder /TiVo

The various releases of The Very Best of the Doors during 2001 and 2007 in the U.S. and the U.K. are very similar, both in their single-disc and double-disc permutations -- as well as a limited edition that adds a DVD to the two-CD version -- so it's very easy to get all three compilations confused. That said, there are notable differences between all three U.K. comps and the original U.S. set. The American disc from 2007 weighs in at 16 tracks while the single-disc U.K. set is longer at 20 tracks and, in fact, boasts a stronger overall selection of songs, making this arguably the best single-disc introduction to the band yet assembled. The double-disc U.K. set doesn't just add a second disc, it has a different sequencing as well and consequently feels like a very different beast than the original set. It's a compilation that digs deeper into album tracks and radio favorites, sometimes getting songs that maybe should have been on the U.K. single disc -- such as "Five to One," for instance, a Doors standard that's on the U.S. single disc but not the U.K. -- but its real strength is how it paints a richer portrait of the band. It's for the listener who wants a bigger picture of the Doors without investing in the actual albums or a box set and, in that sense, this Very Best of the Doors (along with the version with the DVD) does its job well. So, choose wisely: if you're looking for an introduction or just the hits, take either of the 2001 or 2007 single discs; if you're looking for most of the best, pick the double-disc set, either with or without the DVD; if you know you love the band already, go for Perception.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Dave Mustaine revived Megadeth in the mid-2000s, remastering and reissuing his band's entire Capitol catalog and hitting the concert circuit in earnest. Greatest Hits is part of that revival. It's the second Megadeth best-of, replacing the one from five years prior, Capitol Punishment. Greatest Hits is an improvement, loaded with 17 selections, three more than its predecessor. There's also some fancy packaging and a hyperbolic "Love Live Megadeth" tribute written by Penelope Spheeris, the colorful director of The Decline of Western Civilization, Pt. 2: The Metal Years. It all adds up to a nice package, or more precisely, a sampler of Megadeth, from the band's pioneering thrash metal years to its later growing pains, with an unfortunate de-emphasis on the band's beginnings. Like the previous best-of released by Capitol, Greatest Hits overlooks much of Megadeth's prime years in favor of a balanced sample of selections from every album released by the label. There's going to be a large chunk of the market that is going to groan about this approach, since the early thrash years are the reason most Megadeth fans are fans in the first place, and also the reason why the band has been able to ramble on all these years despite some mostly dull new music. Since Megadeth released so many albums for Capitol, there's never room here for more than two tracks per album: Peace Sells, Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction, and Youthanasia get two representations, the rest get only one. Such breadth doesn't make for the best listening experience, especially because the disc hopscotches through time. That quibble aside, Greatest Hits does give you a sample of every Megadeth album, even duds like Risk. If you're serious about getting into this band, however, you're best off going through the albums one by one. The good ones are good all the way through; if you like "Peace Sells," you're going to like Peace Sells. But if you're just curious and would like a broad one-disc sampler, Greatest Hits is your ticket. You'll end up with a good understanding of Megadeth -- old and not as old, good and not as good -- and what to expect from each album, of which there are a couple stone-cold classics.© Jason Birchmeier /TiVo

Ludacris' second album for Def Jam, Word of Mouf, is a superstar affair that aims for mass appeal with a broad array of different styles. Nearly every track features some sort of collaborator, either hitmaking producers like Timbaland and Organized Noize, big-name rappers like Mystikal and Twista, hook-singing crooners like Nate Dogg and Jagged Edge, or fellow Disturbing tha Peace group members I-20, Shawnna, Lil' Fate, and Tity Boi -- and sometimes a combinations of these various ingredients. The resulting album is surely impressive, propelled by lively production, colorful guests, and an omnipresent touch of humor. More hilarious than before, Ludacris lightens his lyrical style here, leaving behind much of thuggishness that had characterized his previous album, Back for the First Time, in favor of witty puns and sly innuendoes. A particularly humorous highlight is the previously released (on the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack) single "Area Codes," a tongue-twisting, good-spirited Jazze Pha production. Less humorous though likewise standout is the lead single, "Rollout (My Business)," a rallying Timbaland production with a simple yet inescapable hook. Other highlights include the Organized Noize-produced booty-shaker "Saturday (Oooh Oooh!)," the Jagged Edge-sung "Freaky Thangs," and the Beats by the Pound-esque posse track "Move Bitch." There's also a hidden bonus track here that's likewise an explosive collaboration, the Jermaine Dupri-led "Welcome to Atlanta." There are a lot of highlights here; however, amid all of these various team-ups you do lose a little bit of the sincere, personal edge that had characterized much of Ludacris' debut. Even so, it's overall a worthy exchange, since there's something here on Word of Mouf for everyone, signaling Ludacris' leap from the Dirty South underground to the pop-rap mass market.© Jason Birchmeier /TiVo

The 1999 compilation If I Could Turn Back Time concentrates on Cher's big hits of the late '80s and early '90s. There are some selections from the early '70s ("Half-Breed" and "Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves"), plus the Sonny & Cher "I Got You Babe," but the collection spends its time on the post-Moonstruck era. It does not do this badly, but it hardly results in a balanced retrospective. If that's kept in mind, this can be enjoyable -- just don't think of this as definitive, though.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

To coincide with their 2013 reunion, Irish new wave legends the Boomtown Rats offered up their fifth greatest-hits collection in Back to Boomtown: Classic Rats Hits. The usual suspects like "Rat Trap," "She's So Modern," and "I Don't Like Mondays" are all present, sounding nice and punchy with their updated Abbey Road remasters. While their 2003 anthology The Best of the Boomtown Rats was a bit more thorough, the draw for fans here is the addition of two brand new tracks penned by bandleader Bob Geldof. Their first new material in decades, opening cut "The Boomtown Rats" is a strange electronic club banger that feels immediately out of place, though the other new addition, "Back to Boomtown," holds up quite nicely and is delivered with the kind of ragged moxie the band was known for in their heyday. While the two new cuts might not be reason enough to add yet another reshuffled Rats compilation to your collection, Back to Boomtown still serves as a solid introduction to the band.© Timothy Monger /TiVo

A tie-in to the exhaustive 2013 box set Sound System, the 2013 compilation The Clash Hits Back is a novel approach to a career retrospective: it mirrors the 24-song set list for the band's July 19, 1982 concert at Brixton Fairdeal, then adds eight bonus hits at the end. The Clash Hits Back slightly tweaks the running order of the original set -- "Bankrobber" arrived five songs into the concert but appears eighth here -- but that doesn't matter much, as this swap doesn't alter the impact of the original set. The Clash were plugging Combat Rock so songs from that LP -- the singles "Rock the Casbah," "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" and "Straight to Hell," plus "Ghetto Defendant" and "Know Your Rights," adding up to just under half the album -- sit alongside a heavy chunk of London Calling and early hits, plus a few stabs at Sandinista!. What's added at the end is a mix of their high-octane early material ("White Riot," "Complete Control," "Clash City Rockers," Tommy Gun," "English Civil War") and their more adventurous studio recordings ("The Call Up," "Hitsville UK," "This Is Radio Clash"), adding up to a strong overview of all the band could do.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Tim McGraw left Curb for Big Machine in 2013, nearly two decades deep into his career. He stayed with the label into the 2020s, releasing Here on Earth the first year of that decade, but McGraw Machine Hits covers his 2010s, rounding up ten hits in its basic version, adding "Truck Yeah" to the digital incarnation, and adding three covers to its deluxe edition: a version of the Cars' "Drive," a duet with Florida Georgia Line on "May We All," and a cover of the Bellamy Brothers' "Redneck Girl" cut with Midland. These are nice additions to a solid set that finds McGraw digging deeper into his mellow tendencies, emphasizing his empathetic side on "Humble and Kind" and "Meanwhile Back at Mama's," nodding at R&B on "Diamond Rings and Old Barstools" and bringing in Taylor Swift for bittersweet harmonies on "The Highway Don't Care." Collectively, these singles veer toward the smooth side, but they do showcase a mature McGraw who seems very comfortable in his own skin.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

By 1963, Quincy Jones' music was at a crossroads. Still jazz-oriented, Jones' work with a studio big band was clearly aimed at trying to sell records rather than play creative jazz. On this LP, Jones leads an orchestra through a dozen then-recent jazz "hits," including "Comin' Home Baby," "Exodus," "Cast Your Fate to the Wind," "Take Five" and "Watermelon Man." There are some fine short solos by the likes of trumpeter Joe Newman, guitarist Jim Hall, Zoot Sims on tenor, altoist Phil Woods and (on "A Taste of Honey") even Rahsaan Roland Kirk. However, the performances all clock in around three minutes, and the jazz players take solos that often only count as cameos. Pleasant but not particularly substantial music.© Scott Yanow /TiVo

An interesting collection of later Warner Bros. hits, too slick but enjoyable.© Bruce Eder /TiVo