Album review: JANIS IAN – The Essential 2.0

JANIS IAN - The Essential 2.0

Sony Legacy [Release date 22.09.17]

This 2 CD collection neatly brings together, for the first time, some of Ian’s best (?) works spanning her whole career from 1967 to date on the Columbia, Verve And Rude Girl labels.
All too often there are ‘gaps’ in these sorts of anthologies. And 2.0 is no exception. CD1 covers three decades, with three of her Sixties albums, and two from the Seventies, not getting so much as a look in.

Even acknowledged classics like Between The Lines (1975) which was Grammy nominated for Album of the Year and Best engineered recording, and spawned the single At Seventeen which was nominated for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best Pop Female Vocalist, only gets to dip a meagre two toes into this compilation.

But when you’ve got a recording career spanning 22 studio albums to represent over just 32 tracks, it’s always going to be a balancing act.

I must confess to not being particularly well versed in Ian or her music, so for me this was very much a voyage of exploration. The two tracks taken from her eponymous 1967 debut – Society’s Child and Hair Of Spun Gold (recorded when she was only 15) – are musically very much of their time, lyrically show a worldliness beyond her years, and have weathered the years particularly well. I’d like to have heard more of her material from this era.

Similarly, the 1970′s – represented here by about one third of the tracks on offer – the material demonstrating how Ian developed into a very fine bittersweet singer songwriter, setting out a template that many – like Suzanne Vega, would pick up and run with in the years that followed. Again, it’s a period that merits deeper investigation.

CD 2, is for me, something of a mixed bag – skipping over the Eighties, and exploring jazzier and more avant garde pastures of less personal appeal. A quarter of the tracks are also ‘live’ versions.

But it all depends on your taste, and in the round, 2.0 offers something for everyone, and provides a springboard for further back catalogue deep diving. ***1/2

Review by Pete Whalley

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Next session: Sunday 1 December

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 3 November 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 29 October 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com

Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)