illusionofjoy | OTR: Laura Branigan

There was only one reason I bought this album: I needed a copy of "Self Control" for a Halloween mix I was making. I can't remember which record store I bought it in, but I do know that the chain no longer exists. I also ended up buying the disc new because trips to two other stores yielded squat in Laura Branigan CDs. Thankfully, it was on the discount rack...I think...

The Best of Branigan was the first hits compilation of Laura Branigan's material. Released in 1995, two years after her final album, Over My Heart, this collection is probably the best album ever released under Branigan's name. A quick glance through her discography reveals a glut of albums with a couple of strong tracks (the label's "hit hopefuls," I call them) padded with filler. Mercifully, this compilation allows one to forgo wading through seven tepid albums just to get to the pop gems one really wants to listen to.

And it is a very much pop record. Laura Branigan is a far superior singer to many, there is no doubt, however much of this song writing is uninspired and the production feels very dated. There was little musical evolution during Branigan's career, so having the tracks sequenced non-chronologically isn't much of a drawback at all. If anything, the songs seem to be placed in order from smallest hits to biggest hits, with the two best tracks - "Self Control" and "Gloria" - closing the set. For most of us, it's a good way to give our CD player's "skip" button a workout.

The best song here is "Self Control," a hugely danceable ode to sleazy sex that comes off as barely naughty this day in age (and even in the 1980s it was mild compared to, say, Berlin's "Sex (I'm A...)" or Soft Cell's "Sex Dwarf" - apples and oranges, though). "Gloria" remains a fun romp through disco's last gasps...the rest of the album is pretty much disposable. Pleasant, certainly, like cotton candy. Much like Bonnie Tyler, if you have Laura Branigan's greatest hits compilation, you have all the material you'll ever need (with some to spare).