Review / 200 Words Or Less
A Perfect Circle
Three Sixty

Buying compilation albums are like going to a family reunion. It starts with a sense of misguided obligation and ends with regret for ever having done so in the first place. A Perfect Circle's Three Sixty blessedly proves that ham-fisted metaphor to be all wrong.

At first glance, it's a typical chronological affair, beginning with The Hollow from debut album Mer Der Noms and ending with a live version of "Fiddle And The Drum" from the newly released Stone and Echo box set. Disc two also includes a previously unreleased track "By And Down" - a bit more of a progressive number, but nevertheless, a standout on an album of standouts.

What makes Three Sixty stand out from most compilation albums is the cohesive nature of what is really a remarkable career. It's not a comp for the listener to cherry-pick. Three-Sixty plays almost as a two-disc concept album. An album full of emotive highs and lows, both the dark and the light. The one-disc version is a truncated version of the same concept, but not quite as fully realized. If you're trying to decide which version to get, the Deluxe is most definitely the way to go.