For the holiday season of 1992 (and a year after they announced their split), the
Talking Heads
issued the excellent double disc anthology,
Popular Favorites 1984-1992: Sand in the Vaseline
, which combined rarities, hits, and key album cuts. While America got the double disc set, Europe received a streamlined, single disc collection,
The Best Of (Once In A Lifetime)
. As its title suggests, the fourteen track collection focuses solely on the group's best known tracks, including such classics as
"Psycho Killer,"
their commercial breakthrough cover of
Al Green
's
"Take Me to the River,"
"Once In A Lifetime,"
and
"Burning Down the House,"
among others. But the inclusion of a pair of oddities,
"Sax and Violins"
"Lifetime Piling Up,"
will raise a few eyebrows, especially with such a backlog of stronger material that very easily could have fit alongside the renowned hits (namely
"Memories Can't Wait,"
"Crosseyed and Painless,"
"Swamp,"
"Girlfriend is Better,"
etc.). But by and large, for a single disc collection,
accomplishes its goal -- hopefully one day a slightly more expanded version will see a stateside release. ~ Greg Prato