Anything

by Dave ThompsonAnything, the U.S. version of Martina Topley-Bird's heavenly Quixotic debut album, arrived as something of a mixed blessing as the original U.K. pressing was utterly redesigned and resequenced, to emerge an almost completely different listening experience. The bad news first: no less than three songs have been dropped from Quixotic -- "Lying," "I Wanna Be There," and, oddly, the Tricky production, "Stevie's." The original dynamic, too, has been shattered as the original album's opening "Intro" becomes the closing "Outro," and the remaining songs are shuffled away from any resemblance to their past appearance. The good news, however, is that all this messing around works, and works well. Without ever accusing Quixotic of going on too long, trimming its length does add a new tightness to the proceedings, and the rearranged track listing (opening with "Anything," winding down with "Lullaby") has its own internal sense as well. Of course, if you really care for Topley-Bird, you're going to want the full-length U.K. album. But if you just want a great album, Anything will not disappoint.