Seems utterly pointless knocking the second half of something that has already managed to shift 225,000 copies, although it would be fun trying. Compilations of this type are always going to piss off as many people as they please as they’re often too broad upon which to deliver a sizable punch and knocking them out entirely is well on nigh impossible. True enough the first disc may represent little more than a ‘Now That’s What I Call House’ retrospective with every overplayed classic under the sun turning up for the trip but I challenge anyone not to be up and waving their arms to ‘You Got The Love’ or wiggling their arse to ‘Groove In The Heart’. We’ve heard them a million times before, but they still do the biz. Whilst the second disc is more interesting to the advanced listener, delving into a trickbag of rare underground anthems, long since unobtainable and providing a well-timed snapshot of the early Chicago and New York scenes that inspired the more populist fare here, it’s still not entirely compelling. So stomping right alongside daft old chestnuts like D: Ream’s ‘U Are The Best Thing’ are Sabrina Johnson’s ‘Peace In The Valley’ and True Faith’s ‘Take Me Away’.
If anything CD 3 is the biggest disappointment, if only because it promises so much. Primal Scream’s ‘Come Together’, Talk Talk’s ‘Life’s What You Make It’ and the gorgeous ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ – all rolled out and segued in such a insensitive, reckless fashion that any potency they had is lost. It’s just too soft-focus, too loved-up and too damn girly. Fatter beats and faster fades would have helped, but it’s far being this mix’s only problem.
As a second introduction to dance, it’s not bad – but advanced drivers be wary. There’s more Moby here than Dick.