Why?: One of many CDs I bought in a 3 for $20 sale while also being 20% off. I, like most of the planet, was reminded of "In The Air Tonight" by that Cadbury ad, and also by the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie.

More!: I had decided I wouldn't review best-ofs, but in cases where either I don't have any albums by that artist except the best-of (as in this case), or I think the best-of is important in some way, I'll make exceptions. That might mean I review all the best-ofs too. Great...

I've always loved that late 80's, early 90's production, having grown up on John Farnham, and that love has transferred to bands that parody that sound, like Regurgitator.

Songs like "Another Day In Paradise", "Easy Lover" and "Something Happened On The Way To Heaven" hit that spot perfectly. The guitar, horns, backing vocals. Little drum loop tricks like cutting off the snare in "Another Day...". They're all far too long though, perfect three minute songs played for six.

"Two Hearts", "You Can't Hurry Love" and "Dance Into The Light" step way too far over the cheese-line to be any fun.

"I Wish It Would Rain Down" could almost be an 80's hair-metal ballad with a different band, all it's missing is a guitar solo in front of a church. "Against All Odds" has a big chorus but nothing else.

"Separate Lives", the sappy duet with Marilyn Martin from the film "White Nights", is everything that is wrong with 80s music, but to be fair Collins didn't write it.

"Both Sides Of The Story" has it's heart in the right place but comes across as preachy. It's also got a drum loop tick that sounds to me like a CD skipping that drives me crazy. The bag-pipe organ sound in the background has me thinking of John Farnham, and I do like the way it fades out into a keyboard guitar jam... "Take Me Home" may as well be the same song.

"One More Night" is hilarious. It gets points of saxophone, but loses them again for fading out.

"Sussudio" is a fluoro body suit doing jazzercise. I can't possibly take it seriously.

"A Groovy Kind Of Love" is interesting for its combination of slow ballad music and bubblegum pop lyrics. It's like a parody cover of a funk song played at 1/4 time. It could almost be 10cc's "I'm Not In Love".

And finally, of course, "In The Air Tonight", the best epic build-up in music history, despite the double sin of a fade in AND fade out. Everyone talks about the drums, but that bass line is incredible. If you don't count the LONG fade-out, the "bit everyone loves" is barely a quarter of the song. The fade out comes way too soon, but only enhances the enormity of what Phil just did to your head forcing you to wait for those drums to kick in. It really is brilliant.

5/10: I don't like best-ofs. They're supposed to be "the best", and yet somehow I always struggle to like half the songs. I think the combination of too much quality raises the bar too far. Further, they're often "number one hits" which means they sold well, not a good indication of quality.

In this case I like less than half, and mostly out of some strange nostalgia for the production of yesteryear. "In The Air Tonight" is almost worth the price though given how cheap I got this for, and "Another Day In Paradise", "Easy Lover" and "Something Happened On The Way To Heaven" are nice bonuses.