AMG Review of Best of Shawn Phillips: The A&M Years

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

A best-of with a twist, featuring one new song, the synthesizer-driven "Early in the Night," cut by Phillips in 1992. He still has his touch for numbers with haunting, eerie textures (the guitars are pretty cool, too) and compelling lyrics, and the voice is still there, too. As for the rest, in the absence of all but his second A&M album, it's a decent cross-section of his work from a half-dozen albums. The new notes by Phillips -- who complains that his current music isn't of interest to any record companies -- and Bob Garcia frame his work reasonably well, also, and the 75+ minutes of music is pretty generous.