The largest retrospective of Klaus Nomi's work yet released, Essential features 20 of his definitive tracks, spanning his operatic and classical-inspired works ("Samson and Delilah [Aria]," "Cold Song"), his forays into disco ("Icurok," "Falling in Love Again"), cheeky covers ("You Don't Own Me," "Just One Look"), and the experimental tracks ("Keys of Life," "From Beyond") that make up his surprisingly diverse body of work. While each of the other Nomi best-ofs features tracks that should be here -- the Purcell aria "Death" appears on Collection and "Three Wishes" and "I Feel Love" are on Eclipsed -- Essential more or less lives up to its name and is probably worth its import price for die-hard fans. ~ Heather Phares

It only takes a quick look at the cover to get a reasonably decent idea that this isn't your typical pop album: Decked out in a grossly oversized suit and heavy theatrical makeup, Klaus Nomi is not your typical pop singer, either. Both the cover and the music within lean heavily to the dramatic -- Nomi's delivery is all in a very operatic falsetto, though most of the music itself is more of the early-'80s European dance school (indeed, one of his collaborators here was Man Parrish, probably best-known for his later work with Man 2 Man). Only one of the tracks here was self-penned; rather, Nomi gets down to work here as an interpreter, turning in suitably skewed versions of "Lightning Strikes" and Chubby Checker's "The Twist." The real highlights here are his take on Kristian Hoffman's song "Total Eclipse," and a rather straight (ahem) reading of the aria from Saint-Saens' classical work Samson and Delilah. It's pretty hard to imagine your typical classical music buff embracing this song, let alone the entire album, but fans of off-kilter pop music will certainly find a lot to love about this album. ~ Sean Carruthers