Grace Jones - 20th Century Masters: The Best Of Grace Jones (2003)

Any Grace Jones fan can quickly see that her Millennium Collection was slapped together with little care for telling her story. Sad really, since no compilation has ever captured the whole career of the underrated artist well. Basically, it's a one-disc version of Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions with "La Vie en Rose" tacked on as the only representation of her early disco years. The Compass Point years were great, with Sly & Robbie providing the groovy reggae backbeat and Jones supplying the European iciness. The cosmopolitan and paranoid versions of Roxy Music's "Love Is the Drug," the Normal's "Warm Leatherette," and the Pretenders' "Private Life" are all excellent. The tunes written by Grace and friends are just as good, especially the widely sampled "My Jamaican Guy," but the collection somehow leaves off her signature tune, "Slave to the Rhythm." If the compilers had included the few good singles off her post-Island period it would have made the collection all the more valuable. There's a lot of great music here, it's just not a true "best-of."