The recent "best of" offerings from artists who were buzz bands in the ’90s have some neat little treasures to them. The Best of Radiohead DVD came to be without any involvement from the group, so it included Michel Gondry's creepy "Knives Out" clip that Thom Yorke apparently totally hates and wouldn't allow to be used in Gondry's Directors Label collection. But even better is D'Angelo's The Best So Far... CD and DVD set. After the jump read the best things about The Best So Far... in descending order.
4. The inclusion of "I Found My Smile Again," "Girl, You Need a Change of Mind," "She's Always in My Hair," "Heaven Must Be Like This" and his Erykah Badu duet "Your Precious Love" allow space-conscious D'Angelo completists to finally toss their soundtracks to Space Jam, Get on the Bus, Scream 3, Down in the Delta and High School High.
3. The video for "Unititled (How Does It Feel)" is subject to the best rumor about a video we've ever heard.
2. As good as the video is for "Untitled," the video for "Cruisin'" is even better. And even better than the video for "Cruisin'" is the video for "Send It On," that director Diane Martel shot live during the Voodoo tour at what looks to us like The Hammerstein Ballroom. That shit is amazing. Is there enough footage for a concert film? Is there a high quality sound recording?
1. Look again at the title of the collection: The Best So Far... This would imply that some people at his label actually believe that D'Angelo will record and release more music at some point in time. We'd long since abandoned such thoughts, but apparently others believe in the power of positive thinking. And maybe that's what will get the music industry out of its funk: pure, blatant, ridiculous optimism.
