John Wetton - Anthology (2001)

Anthology is John Wetton's first compilation album based solely on his solo albums. Why didn't anyone think of doing this before? Well, first of all, common sense. It's not that Wetton's solo albums are bad, but they tend to be sentimental; put 18 songs from these solo albums together on one disc and you can suck the air out of a pretty big room. Even Wetton himself did not rely on them so much, interspersing his live performances with material from Asia, King Crimson and U.K.. For an incorrigible optimist, the anthology is not a problem; The sound quality is very good, and there are several strategically placed respites from sadness along the way ("Jane", "Walk in Circles", "I'll Be There"). There's nothing wrong with the selection, although you could argue that some of Wetton's cuter tracks ("Turn on the Radio", "One World") are missing. Wetton's live releases (of which there are quite a few) are also missing; licensing Live: Chasing the Dragon does not seem to have been an issue, so why the live versions of "Heat of the Moment" and "Rendezvous 6:02" were not included remains a mystery.