Playlist: The Very Best of Boz Scaggs

Sony's Playlist series is certainly a 21st century approach to the "best-of" compilation. Though these titles now come in plastic jewel boxes instead of digipacks, they still claim to be "eco-friendly." They provide both CD quality music and downloadable mp3 files, and instead of liner notes and photos in the printed booklet, they provide them digitally on the CD. Most importantly, they are sold for a budget price. Boz Scaggs' entry in this series -- which claims to balance hits, audience favorites, and obscure tracks -- is a curious one. There are four selections here from Silk Degrees. Two songs, "Look What You've Done to Me" and "Miss Sun," were unreleased tracks that appeared first on the Hits! compilation. The remaining eight are obvious yet well-chosen selections from the albums, Moments ("We Were Always Sweethearts"); Boz Scaggs & Band ("Runnin' Blue"); My Time ("Dinah Flo"); Slow Dancer ("Angel Lady"); Other Roads ("Heart of Mine"); and Middle Man ("Breakdown Dead Ahead" and "JoJo"). It would be a true best of if they'd cross licensed "Brother Can You Lone Me a Dime" from WEA and dropped the tracks from Hits!, since most Scaggs fans have them anyway. As it stands, this is a fine introduction to his years at Columbia, and the extras make it worth the budget price. Those who already have Hits! will have other decisions to make, since there are many track duplications, but this one has better overall sound. ~ Thom Jurek