Various Artists - Millennium Classic Rock Party (CD)

All Music Guide

The "millennium" in Rhino's Millennium Classic Rock collection really is just a way to tart up a basic collection of familiar album-rock songs. Nothing about this disc says anything about the millennium -- it just summarizes the '70s. On that level, it's really quite good, since it contains 20 tracks that have come to define classic rock radio: "We Will Rock You," "More than a Feeling," "Hot Blooded," "Aqualung," "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet," "Smoke on the Water," "Radar Love," "American Woman," "Don't Stop," "Sister Golden Hair" and "Free Bird." Apart from Focus' monumentally silly "Hocus Pocus," there are no surprises here, but that's the way it should be with a classic rock collection: it should deliver the basics, and that's exactly what Millennium Classic Rock does. Just don't think that it says anything about Y2K or pre-millennium tension or anything like that....

- Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide