Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

During the 90's Reba recorded four albums that had some of her strongest material to date. 12 of those have made it unto this latest Greatest Hits collection.

In addition there are three new songs on the album; the title track and "Myself Without You" both of which follow in Reba's long litany of 'women gaining strength through adversity' ballads and which can hold their own with most of the cuts on this disk; and the final cut, a cover of the old Kenny Rogers tune, "Sweet Music Man," which unfortunately closes the album with a dull thud and is the reason for not giving the album 5 stars.

Two of her powerful duets, "The Heart Won't Lie" with Vince Gill and "If You See Him, If You See Her" with Brooks & Dunn made the cut, the latter one of two songs on the disk co-written by Tommie Lee James, the other being the powerful, "and Still" which is one of my all-time favorites. The AIDS song (though the word is never used ), "She Thinks His Name Was John" and "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" which are both powerful ballads about tragic figures but are weakened by being sung in the third person as opposed to her ballads about strong women which are sung in first person.

A little of the sassy, self-assured Reba makes it here too with, "Take It Back" and "Why Haven't I Heard From You" along with her cover of "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia." Of the remaining four ballads, "One Honest Heart" stands out. It's just a shame that the last cut was wasted on the Roger's tune instead of any number of great songs from the last four albums that didn't make the final 12.

I can assure you one thing, if you buy this album you won't "Take It Back!"