Rod Stewart
didn't devote his new millennium solely to the Great American Songbook -- he dallied with classic rock and soul -- but it sure felt that way, with
Rod
delivering five collections of standards in just under a decade. Released in 2011, only a matter of months after the fifth installment,
Fly Me to the Moon
, hit the stores,
The Best of... The Great American Songbook
rounds up highlights from those five records, and since they're all cut from the same cloth -- albeit finished with varying degrees of tailoring -- it's hard to tell the source of each without a cheat sheet; without it, it'd be hard to realize
"You'll Never Know"
never had seen release prior to this compilation. Naturally, this consistency means that this best-of holds together well -- arguably better than a few of the actual records -- because it does have the cream of the crop of records that often bleed together. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine