Singer/songwriter Tanita Tikaram's debut album, Ancient Heart, stands as one of the most underappreciated albums of the 1980s, and she, along with Tracy Chapman, preceded the 1990s' onslaught of female singer/songwriters by almost a decade. Tikaram, who was only 19 when this album was released, created a melancholy and wistful work, mature beyond her years, of startling originality and honesty. While this album may be considered folkish and artsy, it never stoops to the clichés that dominated those styles of music in the later Lilith Fair years. Her near perfect signature song "Twist in My Sobriety" is a stark, sinuous, desperate torch song that managed to garner a bit of radio and video airplay in its day and sounded like nothing else then or since…

The Best of Tanita Tikaram sums up the singer/songwriter's first five albums, with a little too much emphasis on material from Lovers in the City and Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, and not enough from Everybody's Angel and Sweet Keeper (only one song from each album made it onto this set). Still, this is a lovely collection from start to finish, and showcases Tanita Tikaram as a singer who deserves much more attention than she has received. The album contains all of her U.K. hit singles, including four from her stellar debut, Ancient Heart, among those the sublime "Twist in My Sobriety," easily one of the greatest songs to have come out of the 1980s (an additional dance remix of that song closes out the album). Other highlights include the astounding, heartbreaking "Only the Ones We Love" (quite possibly the best song on this collection), the Phil Spector-ish "You Make the Whole World Cry," and the haunting "I Might Be Crying." Another definite standout is this album's only new recording (and the only cover), which is her version of "And I Think of You" (originally titled "E Penso a Te").

Easily Tikaram's most polished album to date. As usual, several of the songs sound like rough drafts, but for the first time since the raw poetry of her debut, Ancient Heart, Tikaram has come up with enough knockout numbers to justify the record's release. "I Might Be Crying" features an inventive arrangement in which a full string and brass orchestra merely underscores a sweeping landscape of vocal harmonies. "Yodelling Song" is a fresh, manic jam with acoustic guitars, fiddles, bongos and yodellers. Tikaram's eccentric folk-pop has always been creatively produced, but for this record the husky-voiced songwriter has penned some melodies well worth the studio time.

Tanita Tikaram made a splash on both sides of the Atlantic at a mere 19 years old with her dramatic, singer/songwriter-influenced lyrics. The offspring of Malaysian and Fijian parents, Tikaram moved to England at age 12 and began writing songs as a teenager. She played her first gig at 17 in London after a favorable response to her demo tape from a club she had sent it to…