Alison Moyet - The Essential Alison Moyet (Columbia)

Alison Moyet has had a quite an illustrious career. It began in 1981 when she formed Yazoo with Vince Clarke, formerly of Depeche Mode. Since then, she's won three Brit awards, along with having nine top ten singles and seven top ten albums in the UK alone. Three of those albums were number ones.

'Don't Go' is still instantly recognisable, even if it is nearly two decades old and its keyboard line sounds dated. 'Winter Kills' shows the other side of pop and is a semi-Gothic piece, with haunting vocals and naked piano. Cradle Of Filth could really do a great version of this song as its dynamics would suit them perfectly.

She has a very unique voice and there isn't really anyone around today who has emulated her style. The majority of the songs collected here are from the eighties but still remain familiar. 'All cried out', 'Invisible' and 'It won't be long' will no doubt bring those big hair and even bigger shoulder pad memories flooding back. Cringe!

If you are a fan of Alison Moyet's, you will no doubt probably own most of these already, but most likely not on CD, and this is probably why the compilation was released in the first place.

Ken McGrath