Jim Brickman - Greatest Hits

While many Jim Brickman fans claim a stronger allegiance to the pianist/songwriter's non-vocal works, even they have to concede that the Cleveland native has an uncanny touch for crafting catchy, affecting love songs. Many of Brickman's best-known heart-tuggers are on display here, a relatively brief disc (43 minutes) that samples nine of the 10 recordings released during the first decade (1994-2003) of Brickman's career. The breakdown: Five instrumental tracks (one of them "Partners in Crime," his oversaxed, smooth jazz-targeted duet with Dave Koz), six older vocal selections, and two new vocal tracks--the winner being "'Til I See You Again," an engaging, upbeat piece authored by producer David Grow and sung with from-the-mountaintop vigor by Christian vocalist Mark Schultz. Outside of the straining, Mariah Carey-like excesses of "Destiny," the selections here are easy to digest, yet they exhibit a level of sophistication that smartly counteracts their modest saccharine/sentimentality content. This is no small feat--a testament to Brickman's intuitive link to deeper, hard-to-articulate human yearnings and his connection to clear-eyed romantics searching for an antidote to a world gone wild with cynicism. --Terry Wood