Augmenting 1972's Greatest Hits with additional tracks, Best of... now stands as the preeminent one-disc introduction to the music of Simon & Garfunkel. Containing everything Greatest Hits offered except for the live version of "59th Street Bridge Song" (the original studio hit resurfaces here) and the incandescent "Kathy's Song," the updated retrospective boasts 20 tracks, in contrast to its predecessor's 14 selections. Added to the mix are the likes of "Hazy Shade of Winter,""The Only Living Boy in New York,""Song for the Asking," and "My Little Town," a one-off the twosome did five years after they ended their phenomenally successful partnership. Remastered from the original source tapes, Best of... also boasts far superior sound to the earlier hits collection. —Steven Stolder

Depeche Mode's most foreboding album, leaning toward the gothic, is DM at their most bleak, black-armband, and nihilistic—no doubt played over and over by countless self-loathing teens as they dyed their hair black behind locked bedroom doors. The tracks are tastefully minimalist, yet the few sounds that dominate each song have a consuming, even overwhelming feel—like a big, heavy black cloud that descends upon and surrounds listeners until their knees buckle from the weight. Rhythmically, songs like "A Question of Time" are driven with moderately paced 16th notes pounded out on synths filling out the low end. Other tracks follow the path of "Stripped," an all-out lamentfest powered by David Gahan's overproduced baritone. —Beth Bessmer

The fifteen songs in this collection present the mountain dulcimer in a completely new and refreshing light; guitar-like in its style yet with that distinctive sound that sets the dulcimer apart from other acoustic stringed instruments. The album has an even balance of country and delta blues, along with Scott Joplin's classic piano rags. Presented in a fingerpicking style, the solo instrumentals are performed with style and dexterity while the vocal and guitar accompaniment complement, but never overshadow, the dulcimer. This recording has been recognized as a landmark work in the evolution of contemporary mountain dulcimer performance. It is an easy-listening recording for fans of acoustic ragtime and blues music.

This time selected and programmed by the man himself, the two-disc second installment in Dylan's Greatest Hits series comes off as much more idiosyncratic than its brother, famed songs ("Lay Lady Lay,""A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall") notwithstanding. An even richer cut-by-cut listen than the earlier best-of, this 1971 set masterfully casts the classics into new light and adds previously non-LP singles (the smashing "Watching the River Flow," with the Amazon.com fave line "People disagreein' just about everywhere you look / Makes you wanna stop and read a book; let's have lunch, Bob"), a then-unheard live 1963 "Tomorrow Is a Long Time," and new, stunning, off-the-cuff takes of "I Shall Be Released,""You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," and "Down in the Flood."—Rickey Wright

Digitally Remastered Edition of their Biggest Selling Album Ever and their Most Creative as Well. Includes the Top Ten Singles 'take the Long Way Home', 'the Logical Song', and 'goodbye Stranger'.