Gold Stars 1992-2002

Now, with all the rumours long forgotten, Gold Stars should go some way to restoring Hatfield's reputation as a fine songwriter, covering as it does 10 years of often excellent work. Her solo debut, Hey Babe, an album Hatfield herself dislikes for being overly open, is represented only by the chiming, poppy "Everybody Loves Me but You". But there are two tracks from each of her other six albums, including God's Foot, which Atlantic refused to release, and the recent guitar-heavy Total System Failure, recorded as "Juliana's Pony".

Elsewhere, there are covers of Neil Young's sweet "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", and The Police's "Every Breath You Take" (Hatfield used to cover Police songs in a band at school), plus four new tracks that show Hatfield to have matured greatly as a writer. Age and experience appear to have wiped away all of her earlier girlish tweeness, but thankfully not her romantic sensibilities. --Dominic Wills