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NELLY: Suit NELLY: Sweat (Universal) ALTHOUGH excessive, Nelly's twin-packed attack, Suit and Sweat, is somewhat of a mixed blessing.
Creative reservations aside, there are plenty of good songs on both albums to tap into whichever of Nelly's persona you prefer.
Quality isn't an issue but the diversity at hand is quashed. Twin- packs worked for Outkast and R. Kelly, but not so well for Nelly. Suit is noteworthy for its brevity, superstar collaborations, and unexpected samples. Pretty Toes, Play It Off and Over And Over are catchy to boot, which, if combined with half a dozen songs from Sweat, could have made for a mind-blowing single album.
Despite their first-rate party rap, Grand Hang Out, Playa and Na- Nana-Na sound monotonously clubby.
The album lives up to its title - and if that's all the songs are meant to do, then Nelly's got another winner.
URIAH HEEP: The Ultimate Collection
BLACK SABBATH: The Best Of Black Sabbath (Sanctuary)
SEASONED rock fans will find plenty to relish with these compilations from two dinosaur rock bands that defined progressive rock in an age when flowerpower had been de-flowered.
Blending powerful guitar riffs with a heavy rhythm section and lyrical themes of the occult, drugs and all things dark, Black Sabbath not only helped invent heavy metal, they gave classification to horror rock.
Fronted by Ozzy Osbourne, Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, and Ronnie James Dio at various intervals, the double-disc The Very Best Of Black Sabbath covers all the staples - War Pigs, Sweet Leaf, Paranoid, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - and a generous helping of newer cuts.
Uriah Heep's The Ultimate Collection is a premium 34-track introduction for anyone who ever wondered how the band fused heavy metal and progressive rock and paved the path for gothic rock through such hit singles as the epic July Morning, Easy Livin' and Stealin'. The band relied on David Bryon's dramatic vocals but not everything that was aggressively experimental worked.
Still, this two-fer offers the full Heep.
VARIOUS ARTISTES: Classical Heartbreakers (EMI)
WITH the sudden glut of classic music compilations, choosing one could prove to be a stressful endeavour.
The twin-pack Classical Heartbreakers boasts "the most moving classical music of all time." Such exaggerated assertions...