This somewhat arbitrary four CD snapshot of Gary Moore’s career around the turn of the millennium kicks off with 1999’s A Different Beat, which was a continuation of the detour he’d started a couple of years earlier on Dark Days In Paradise, setting his bluesy guitar against an electronica backing and sampled vocals. Viewed from a distance of a quarter of a century, it’s not as radical as it sounded back then.
The drum and bass that propels Moore through Lost In Your Love and the cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Fire is bold, as is the lengthy, ambient Surrender. But the purists will still hate it. They’ll be relieved by 2001’s Back To The Blues, with its rollicking You Upset Me Baby, although they might be perturbed that so many Moore originals have a familiar ring to them.
