The Definitive Collection

This 17-track anthology might have a bunch of Isley Brothers hits, but it sure as heck isn't The Definitive Collection, no matter what the title says. Sure, it's career-spanning, starting off with their 1959 classic "Shout" and going all the way up to their most recent R&B hit at the time this CD was released, 2006's "Just Came Here to Chill." But no "It's Your Thing"? No "That Lady"? That's hardly definitive. And much of it's a long way from their best material, especially since more than half of it postdates the 1970s, putting an inordinate weight upon their transformation to a far less exciting urban contemporary soul act. There have been many attempts at Isleys best-ofs -- too many, in fact -- and this is, far from being the most definitive, one of the least definitive. For that, you'll have to go back to Rhino's two-volume The Isley Brothers Story in the early '90s, the only reasonably thorough and wise Isleys best-of, and one that didn't have to put "definitive" in its title to lay reasonable claim to that adjective.