David Wright Returning the Tides (Best Of) Play: Lo-Fi   Mid-Fi   Hi-Fi   Download: Lo-Fi   Mid-Fi   Hi-Fi (Excerpt from track 'Returning Tides')

A career retrospective has long been overdue for David Wright but this is not a treading water exercise given David's steady output and 'Returning Tides' focuses solely on David's solo output and not his collaborative work. However, with at least 15 albums to choose from there is no shortage of material. In fact some will be surprised that 'Returning Tides' is not at least a double album, or was Part 1 left off the title in error? Nevertheless, this is a well compiled 'best of' and no doubt some fans will quibble over the tracklisting but the fact is that this serves as an excellent introduction to the canon for the uninitiated and for the faithful a timely celebration of David's longevity and creativity.

I can understand why a chronological approach wasn't followed given the advances in recording and excellent sound quality of more recent offerings. Not that the early work was not creditworthy, I still hold 'Reflections' as one of my DW favourites, but to start with 'Rysheara' from the excellent 'Dissimilar Views', well represented here, is an intelligent choice given that one of the purposes of a 'best of' is to attract the uninitiated and perhaps those that only have an album or two in their collection. 'Rysheara' as much as any single DW track embodies the key elements of his music, melody, romanticism and cinematic textures. 'Nomad' appears from 'Ocean Watch' followed by 'Taiga' pulled from 1992's 'Between Realities'. Arguably, David's most consistent release to date 'Walking With Ghosts' is also, quite rightly, well represented here by 'No More Angels', 'Beyond Paradise' and 'Flame Sky'. It is also good to revisit tracks such as 'Midas' from 'Moments in Time and 'Sioux Falls' as well as the eponymous and apposite 'Returning Tides'. 'Sygyzy' from the acclaimed' 360 'set closes the album.