Octo_Russ

Jackson Browne [The Very Best Of Jackson Browne] 

I like 'best of / greatest hits' packages, they're great if you don't like an Artist enough to buy any individual album they have, but they're good enough to have a collection of their best bits, so Madonna / The Stones / Elton John / The Jam / Billy Joel / Dire Straits / Paul Weller / Abba, and others would in my mind be ideal here, i also see so many Artists releasing 2 disc sets of their best, and for so many a 2 disc set means lots of average filler, only Billy Joel and Elton John on the above list can sustain that sort of full exposure, so it's a joy to exclaim that Jackson Browne can sustain this too, one difference with Browne is that i have two of his studio albums [I'm Alive & Late For The Sky], which are fantastic in their own right, but so many of his 'political' albums have slim pickings, also i find that there's a serious problem with some greatest hits packages, in that all the wrong songs are chosen, the very best songs are left out!, happily i can report that this isn't the case with this set, in fact the exact opposite, all the very best of Jackson Browne really is here.

Jackson Browne is now in his 63rd year, he was born in Germany, but an American citizen, these discs cover his whole career, the cover photograph [by Nels Israelson] is excellent, a grainy mono picture, appropriately in brown and cream, with the lettering nicely fitting the style and theme of the photography.

As for the music, all my favourites are here, and the tracks i enjoyed the very most were 9,11, & 27-29 [11-13 on disc 2], very much from the two studio albums i mentioned earlier, i like the way Browne can sing with such intimacy and insight, getting on the 'inside' of so many 'outside' things, track 11 on the first disc 'Before The Delude' is such a great example, and it's the first song which introduced me to Jackson Browne, the violin / fiddle lines are superb.

And on this listen the song which touched me the most was track 11 on the second disc, 'Sky Blue And Black', and i mentioned this very same song when i wrote about the album it came from last year in my Blog [6th May 2010], it is one of the greatest things he has ever done, it starts off with an atmospheric piano intro of the main tune, and Browne's lyrics paint a poetic vision of insight, the first verse doubles as a sort quiet intro in itself [0:23-1:18], and then things kick in even more, and the gem of a line in the second verse,

There's a need to be separate

And a need to be one

And a struggle neither wins

i've always been enamoured of this line, being on the whole a loner myself, i love my own company, and yet there's a longing to belong to something greater, there's a sort of Reggae-ness in the background, Browne's voice catches and cries on certain words, he can heighten certain phrases and passages, i can feel the tug on my heart, the ebb and flow that Browne creates, great lines that force us to see the power of his heart,

And the heavens were rolling

like a wheel on a track

and also the nostalgic and pathetic regret of,

But the moment has passed by me now

To have put away my pride

And just come through for you somehow

there's a lovely little refrain at the end [5:12-6:03], where the music gently coda-esques back to the lonely solo piano, absolutely fantastic, Jackson Browne has this innate ability to marry words and music in perfect matrimony.

Here's Jackson Browne singing 'Sky Blue And Black' improvised for TV on YouTube.