Patty Loveless - Greatest Hits (CD)

All Music Guide

The inevitable hits compilation chronicling Patty Loveless's five years and five albums at MCA is, in the Nashville tradition, not exactly generous: It contains only ten tracks and runs 31 1/2 minutes. In that space, though, you get most of Loveless's big hits between 1988 and 1992, from "If My Heart Had Windows" to "Jealous Bone," and including the chart toppers "Timber I'm Falling In Love" and "Chains." Oddly, "A Little Bit In Love," which just missed hitting 1, is not included. The set traces Loveless's rise as part of the neo-traditionalist movement of the 1980s, a movement that had faded, and that Loveless was ready to move beyond, by the time she ended her tenure at MCA. The music included here is fine, bedrock country, but a little faceless for all its authenticity. This is one artist whose second hits collection is likely to be more interesting than her first.

- William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide