Daniel Amos certainly deserves the prize for most under-appreciated rock band. For more than 20 years, DA has toiled in obscurity, evolving with the times from a smooth country-rock ensemble in the '70s (a la Eagles, Gram Parsons, etc.) to a quirky, new-wavy-type outfit (i.e. Cars, XTC, Thomas Dolby) to a more straight-ahead rock band with the occasional nod to '60s psychedelia. The one constant amidst these changes has been singer/songwriter Terry Taylor, whose unique vision and thought-provoking wordplay has helped keep Daniel Amos one step to the left of the mainstream.
This eighteen-song collection (sarcastically titled 'World Famous Hits' because of their obvious lack of hits) is a representative smattering of everything DA has been. Though not exactly the eighteen songs I would have chosen for a best-of, this disc is still a treat - an excellent sampler plate for the as-yet-uninitiated, and, for the fan, a few tracks that up to now have been hard to find on CD.
Of particular interest to fans will be the inclusion of songs like "Ain't Gonna Fight It" (from a 1975 Maranatha! album long out of print), "Father's Arms" (from their '77 masterpiece "Shotgun Angel"), and two cuts from Alarma!' (the title track and :Walls of Doubt"). A live, unreleased track, "Twilight Love," sounds like a bad board mix, but it's cool anyway; plus a handful of songs from recent albums Bibleland and Motorcycle encapsulate the stylistic distances the band has traveled over the years.