Released in the summer of 2003, The Best of Sophie B. Hawkins is the first retrospective on the adult alternative singer/songwriter, and it's not without its quirks -- which might be appropriate for this particular singer/songwriter. The biggest quirk is that even though it contains all of her hits -- "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover," "Right Beside You," "As I Lay Me Down," "Only Love (The Ballad of Sleeping Beauty)" -- it completely overlooks her third album, Timbre, which is a bit odd, especially since it contains two new songs in "California Here I Come" and a cover of
the Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," not to mention the Butcher Brothers' remix of "As I Lay Me Down." This is a problem, but it's not a major one, since
Tongues & Tails (represented with five tracks) and
Whaler (represented with six) are her two most popular albums, and they make for good companions, particularly since the best moments are distilled here, making it both a good summary and introduction to a singer/songwriter who often gets overlooked because she's too mainstream for alternative and too unusual for the mainstream. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine