Way We Used To Be, The (The Anthology)

This three-CD, 68-track compilation doesn't have everything Jim Croce did, missing some of the obscure 1960s recordings he made (some with his wife Ingrid Croce). It does, however, include everything that most fans of his would be most keen to acquire, most notably the entirety of his 1972-73 albums You Don't Mess Around With Jim, Life and Times, and I Got a Name, which together encompass all of his most familiar material. Alongside those three albums, it has everything from Live: The Final Tour; some of the posthumous compilation The Faces I've Been; and ten folky songs from 1969 demos for a television show project (six done as a duo with Ingrid), some of which have surfaced on other collections. It stalks an awkward middle ground: it's not a box set with every damned last thing, and it's got too much stuff even for some dedicated Croce enthusiasts, who might find the two-CD 50th Anniversary Collection a little more manageable. For listeners who want everything from his brief hitmaking period and some extras, though, it's well-packaged with thorough liner notes. The first-half of the program (presenting his three proper solo albums in order), though, is certainly more consistent than the rest of the anthology, which is peripheral in comparison, either because the material's weaker and/or the instrumentation is skeletal folk (on the 1969 demos and Live: The Final Tour). ~ Richie Unterberger