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With no Son Volt chart hits to deal with, the single-disc overview A Retrospective: 1995-2000 is assembled more like an odds ‘n’ sods collection. The sussed selection of the alt-country kingpins’ best-loved songs is bolstered by a couple of four-track demos and various soundtrack and tribute album contributions, including a beautiful Jay Farrar and Kelly Willis duet on Townes Van Zandt’s Rex’s Blues and a rousing take on Del Reeves’s trucker classic Looking At The World Through A Windshield. For many artists, the multiple sources would be a problem, but for Son Volt, whose studio albums typically suffer from a lack of variety, the frequent shifts in tone and tempo just enhance the listening experience. If you’ve always wanted a Son Volt disc and didn’t know which one to get, this would be it.
