AMG Review of Anthology

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Released in 1972, Anthology provides a 16-track summary of the Steve Miller Band's first five albums, distilling their uneven space blues into a tight, effective collection of highlights. These songs are hardly as tuneful or effortlessly catchy as the songs on 1978's Greatest Hits -- apart from "Living in the USA," "Space Cowboy," and "Going to Mexico," there's nothing particularly immediate here -- but they're first-rate period pieces, capturing Miller's space blues at its most effectively spacey.