Producers: Roxy Music, Rhett Davies, Chris Thomas, John Punter, Peter Sinfield.

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

Liner Note Author: Doctor I.D. Smith.

Photographers: Karl Stoecker; Antony Price; Anthony Price; Anton Corbijn.

Released to herald a reunion of the band and superseding several out-of-print predecessors, The Best of Roxy Music is an excellent summary of the group's hits and album highlights between 1972 and 1982. There are really two editions of Roxy Music, the glam rock unit that achieved widespread U.K. success from 1972 to 1975, and the more polished one that was a broader international success from 1979 to 1982. The compilers have dealt with the dichotomy and the more lasting popularity of the later recordings by presenting the compilation in reverse chronological order, so that soft rock hits like "Over You" and "Dance Away," which scored in America, come before U.K.-only hits like "Street Life" and "Virginia Plain," which rock much harder. But all the major hits are here (only a couple of less-successful British singles chart entries are missing), augmented by memorable album tracks like "Do the Strand" and "Mother of Pearl." In print or not, this is the best single-disc collection of Roxy Music, since it is more complete than earlier compilations like the 1977 Greatest Hits and 1983 The Atlantic Years (1973-1980) LPs, and, unlike later best-ofs such as Street Life: 20 Great Hits (1986), The Ultimate Collection (1988), and More Than This: The Best of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music (1995) (the latter two U.K. releases), it is not divided between Bryan Ferry solo tracks and Roxy Music ones. ~ William Ruhlmann

What other pop band from the 1970s and early '80s conjures up the image of a debonair man in a dinner jacket ordering a dry martini and, with a devilish smirk on his face, sidling up to a voluptuous stranger in a red velvet dress? With the seductive croon of resident cad Bryan Ferry and the band's amalgam of smooth balladry, soulful R&B, and quirky pop-rock, the sound of Roxy Music is unmistakably lush, sophisticated, and difficult to resist.

Devotees of the group will want most of the individual albums, including COUNTRY LIFE and AVALON. But for the casual fan or uninitiated listener, there is no better package than this 18-track compilation. THE BEST OF ROXY MUSIC has the band's best-known singles, including "More Than This," "Love Is the Drug," "Virginia Plain," and an excellent interpretation of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy." Sequenced in reverse chronological order, the music morphs from Ferry-directed smooth pop to earlier, Brian Eno-influenced, experimental glam rock. (Eno left the band after the second album.) For a fine assortment of decadent pop gems, it's hard to beat this collection.