X-TRAX

As far as I know, when this collection was released in 1986, there were no other Brand X recordings available on CD yet. So at the time it was a joy to have anything by the band in digital format. Now with thirteen tracks, they didn't do too bad a job selecting songs. They did, however, feel they had to include "Don't Make Waves", an only fair Goodsall composition, with Phil Collins an vocals, and the absolutely dreadful "Soho", a Collins waste of time that should have been on a Genesis album. And "Ipaneama" sounds like the music behind your local forecast on The Weather Channel.

But there are plenty of excellent tracks included here as well, "Nuclear Burn" and "Sun In The Night" are a couple of my favorites, and the live version of "Malaga Virgen" just cooks. Since just over 75% of this collection is worthwhile, I'll round the rating up to 4 stars.