Posted on: February 24, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Linda Eder – Greatest Hits / 2008 Rhino / 15 Tracks / http://www.lindaeder.com / http://www.rhino.com /

Linda Eder is only 47, and at this point in eir career, has 11 different albums of material. Sure, there are Christmas albums and the Greatest Hits album in the mix, but one has to marvel at the sheer amount of music that Eder has created over the years. However, I know I was not familiar with Eder when I received this CD. Individuals in my same boat, as it were, should know that Eder performs concert and Broadway-specific types of vocals, appearing at such venues as the Carnegie Hall, the JFK Center for the Performing Arts, and the Palace Theatre in Chicago.

Even more than that, ey starred in performances of Svengali, Jekyll & Hyde, and Camille Claudel. The “Greatest Hits”, as one can guess, is a collection of the tracks that have brought Eder fame. However, this collection makes a play for the completists, as the tracks have all been re-mastered. This re-mastering cleans recordings up and allows these tracks to share a common thread. Original tracks blend in with tracks from eir performances, meaning that “I Want More” is blended alongside eir versions of the Chess classic “Anthem”, the La Cage Aux Folles track “I Am What I Am”, and the title track from Man of La Mancha. The selection of tracks, from Eder’s career spanning 1995 and 2003, is strong. The limiting of the tracks to that part of eir career sets up quite nicely a second greatest hits album which could conceivably be released in 2011.

 While completists may still want more than remastered tracks – I’m sure that Eder has a song or two that is hidden away in a vault somewhere – the collection of these tracks is strong enough to be the perfect album to slip into a car changer when one may want variation in their Eder tracks. The systemic exclusion of any tracks created or released before 1995 may be problematic for individuals that wish to have a full sense of Eder’s musical contributions, but the disc itself (taken on its own) does not feel as if it excludes anything. Pick up this “Greatest Hits” and soon enough, a new album should be on its way from Eder. This album will work quite well as a sort of “crib notes” necessary to fully appreciate this (as of yet unreleased) new album from Eder, and will give individuals more of a context regarding who Eder is and what ey wishes to do with each release.

Top Tracks: Havana, Some People

Rating: 6.8/10

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