Consumer Guide Album

The Steve Miller Band: Greatest Hits 1974-1978 [Capitol, 1978]
In which Miller selects seven tracks from Book of Dreams (I'd omit the garbled non-original "Jungle Love" and the long synthesizer intro to "Jet Airliner," but he did bag every good one), six from Fly Like an Eagle (an easier job), and one from The Joker (ditto), revealing a California singles artist as likably lightweight as Jan & Dean. This music may recycle blues riffs, but its spirit is pure escapist pop; country living replaces surf and cars as utopian metaphor and Miller's voice, always too slight for real blues, sounds suitably out-of-it. As philosophy it's venal, but as unabashed diversion it's pretty nice. After all, was he ever good for anything else? A−