Search - Various Artists :: Greatest Songs Ever: India

Cheesy packaging, good music

Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 01/02/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Despite numerous aesthetic strikes against it -- the obvious lowest common denominator approach (i.e. an 11-song collection that promises the "greatest songs ever!" from a civilization that's thousands of years old; generic artwork that invites speculation that this series was designed to be sold at the Pottery Barn and Starbucks; a perky little sticker that informs us there are also Indian food recipes inside and, when you open the disc, brief liner notes from some guy who wrote a book about easy listening music...) -- this album actually delivers pretty well on the musical end. It's all modern, world-beat-y, electronicalicious stuff... The closest it comes to classical music is a track by Sufi qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (and hey, waitaminute... isn't he actually from Pakistan?) and a couple of songs by Bollywood singer Lata Mangeshkar (not classical, but old guard, I suppose...) But the notable aspect is that the music is all pretty good, well-chosen and accessible to American ears... Swirly, moody, melodic stuff, with just enough of an exotic sound to pique the curiousity of newcomers, or to make crabby old farts like me happy as well. Surprisingly good."