Joey Stec

Jimmy Miller produced Joey Stec's terrific 1976 eponymous debut, so it's no surprise that the nine tracks that comprise Joey Stec provide the backbone for the 2004 compilation Jimmy Miller Productions 1976-1979. In addition to those nine songs, which are sequenced in a different order than they appeared on the original LP, there is a solid outtake from those sessions called "Back Again," a 1977 recording of "Turn Back the Pages," and two songs that Stec recorded with Miller in 1994, not long before the latter's untimely death that year. While the 1994 recordings don't necessarily fit comfortably among the rest of this work -- the clean, crisp, polished productions are quite a bit different from the warm, mellow '70s sound -- they're good songs, as are the other two songs that don't appear on Joey Stec. For diehard Stec fans -- and in the middle of the 2000s, there is likely no other kind -- that alone makes this worth picking up, and fans of the 1976 Joey Stec who haven't gotten around to getting it on CD may find this to be worthwhile, but for fans that have it and love the PopTones reissue, these four cuts aren't quite enough to justify purchasing this disc, since the best of these 13 songs are indeed the nine tunes that formed the finished 1976 album. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine