Grateful Dead - Gratest Hits (2015 Remaster) (2025) [Hi-Res]

"Concise" is a word not often, if ever, used to describe the Grateful Dead—the band who just released a 60-disc, 450-track compilation of live shows documenting some of shows recorded across their 25-year existence as an iconic touring entity. The Dead was always a quintessential live experience, with their most transcendent—and also their most indulgent—moments occurring during their drawn-out onstage improvisations. Jerry Garcia famously said, "I think of recording as sort of a necessary evil in a way," and, accordingly, "studio Dead" was always the lesser Dead, even though American Beauty and Workingman's Dead are essential inclusions in any music fan's collection, and mid-'70s studio efforts like Shakedown Street and From the Mars Hotel are well-regarded by both Deadheads and casual listeners.

From their very beginnings, Garcia & Co. were defiantly counterculture, so the notion of radio-friendly hit singles was never part of the plan. Nonetheless, they managed to notch a few chart appearances over the years, while also firmly ensconcing themselves in even the tightest rotations of classic rock radio. Every one of those charting singles is brought together on Gratest Hits, the band's first actual "hits" collection. It is a slim volume; despite the fact that the band released more than 30 singles over the course of their existence, only nine of them could actually be called hits. American Beauty accounts for more than a third of the track listing here ("Friend of the Devil," "Box of Rain," "Sugar Magnolia," and "Truckin'"), but it's notable that the "inconsistent" era after the band's Warner tenure is also well-represented with "Scarlet Begonias" (1974), "Estimated Prophet" (1977) and "Fire on the Mountain" (1978). Of course, "Touch of Grey" is included, as it was the band's highest-charting single of their career, a fact that, nearly 40 years later, is still impossible to believe. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz