Out in the Fields: The Very Best of Gary Moore

Irish guitarist Gary Moore has built an entire career on stubborn self-recycling. Just when listeners think they have him pegged within a particular musical style (heavy metal guitar slinger, soft-hearted acoustic player, jazz fusion experimentalist, electric blues purist), the enduring six-string legend throws a curve ball and changes artistic direction -- seemingly just to spite his critics. Because of this, his extensive recorded legacy as a solo artist has defied adequate encapsulation into greatest-hits packages, and in America, where his profile has never exceeded the status of a connoisseur's favorite, taking a first stab at discovering his work becomes an even more vexing task. Out in the Fields: The Very Best of Gary Moore doesn't solve this problem, but it does alleviate it somewhat by concentrating on Moore's best-known guise among the aforementioned connoisseur club -- hard rock and heavy metal guitar shredder. Included here are the rare mainstream hits ("Out in the Fields," "Wild Frontier"), balls-out metal headbangers ("Run for Cover," "Military Man"), sublime ballads ("Parisienne Walkways," "Empty Rooms"), and later-day blues successes ("Cold Day in Hell," "Still Got the Blues"). In an imperfect world and a less-than-perfect career, this is about as spot-on as one can expect.