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FilterOne for the ages, this 19-song compilation reminds us how cool the future sounded back then, when Was Not Was still was. [Winter 2010, p.102]
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While hardcore fans may argue--a bit--over the sum total, even they will ultimately agree that this is the only truly representative portrait of Was (Not Was) in all their incarnations; and besides, it’s a stone killer of a party record.
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Pick of the Litter really is just a sampling from a catalogue that begs closer examination.
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Early-Eighties jams like the P-Funky "Out Come the Freaks" and the Ronald Reagan-sampling "Tell Me That I'm Dreaming" were avant-disco classics. Later, semihits threatened to make the group pop stars, but its taste for unmarketable weirdness (say, Leonard Cohen croaking about "Elvis' Rolls Royce") won out.
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Pick of the Litter provides a portrait of polarities. Very few artists or groups can successfully—and authentically—cover such a broad landscape but this long overdue compilation proves that Was (Not Was) specializes in exceptions to the rules.