Greg Kihn

Greg Kihn has never gotten his due with the American public as one of the great power pop songwriters and performers. His catalog runs deep and wide in his choice of covers as well as finely crafted, rocked up, hooky pop songs. This Castle anthology compiles 20 tracks from Kihn's Beserkley label, including his solitary hit single "The Break Up Song (They Don't Write 'Em)," released during the golden era of MTV. But this isn't his best song by a long shot. There's "Any Other Woman," "Real Big Man" and "Sorry" that blow it away. In addition to his originals there are some interesting cover choices -- "interesting" because of the way they take on some of the more well-known material, not "substandard" -- from Hank Cochran's "I Fall to Pieces" that completely reinvents the tune as a rocker to Bruce Springsteen's "I Came for You," which is an elegiac story-song instead of a power driven paean to bitterness. This is a very solid and almost completely consistent collection that reveals the true polish in his writing and recording. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide