Destiny's Child - #1's (CD)

Destiny's Child - 1997-2005

By Nubian ∑agle ©™  Oct 17, 2006

Pros: All the hits from Beyonce and Those Other Two Girls

Cons: The "new" songs sound somewhat second-rate

If anyone told me in 1998 that Destiny's Child would last long enough to release a greatest hits album, I'd roll my eyes and call `em crazy. After all, their debut album was hardly a big seller, despite a Top Five hit "No, No, No, part 2." They didn't seem much more than a bubblegum En Vogue that got lucky, and it appeared that they were on a clear path to the dreaded One Hit Wonderland. But seven years, two personnel changes, four solo albums, and a string of platinum discs later, we find Destiny's Child a household name, an institution so recognizable that even your Grandmother has probably hummed to a few of their hits. DC has always been dubbed as a modern day Supremes, and, like that trio, they're much more effective as a singles act. "#1s" compiles the trio's hits (its title to the contrary, not even half of these hits reached Number One on any Billboard chart). They range from classic ("Say My Name" and "Bootylicious")
, to underrated ("Girl"), to tough-skinned ("Independent Women," "Survivor," and "Lose My Breath"), to guilty pleasure fare ("Soldier" and "No, No, No, part 2"). Glamour princess Beyonce belts out these tunes at every opportunity, while Kelly and Michelle respectably hold their own. As for the three "new" songs, two of them are pretty negligible as far as I'm concerned. "Stand Up For Love" is a drippy, saccharine ballad and the hip-hop-ish "Check on It" is a blatant tie-in to Beyonce's movie, "The Pink Panther." Only "Feel the Same Way I Do" has any life and soul. But that's a small complaint compared to the rest of the tunes on this otherwise fine compilation.