AMG Review of Ultimate Grammy Collection: Contemporary Rock

Marisa Brown
All Music Guide

This collection of Grammy-winning songs (or songs from Grammy-winning albums) highlights the best alternative radio rock from 1989 (Living Colour's "Cult of Personality") to 2004 (Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams") chronologically, so tracks like Tracy Chapman's version of "Give Me One Reason" and Coldplay's "In My Place" break up the harder guitars of Lenny Kravitz, Evanescence, and Stone Temple Pilots. It's certainly not comprehensive -- Nirvana, for example, is a glaring omission -- but the compilation still presents a straightforward yet interesting perspective of (mainly) American rock music from around the turn of the 21st century.