Reconstructed: The Best of DJ Shadow

After 20 years of sonic experimentation and legendary record-crate digging, DJ Shadow finally serves fans with a “best of” album. This 16-track compilation features fan favorites from throughout his career, including hits from some of Shadow’s genre-bending work with trip-hop super-group U.N.K.L.E., as well as cuts from his time as one member of hip-hop’s most remarkable underground crews, Quannum collective. It also includes songs from his most recent works. “Redeemed” (from 2011’s The Less You Know, the Better) evokes drifter isolation with dusty vocals and mariachi-like trumpets, while “Blood on the Motorway” from the album Private Press (2002) has a palpable melancholy created by the juxtaposition of haunting vocals and cathedral-esque bells. “Organ Donor,” off of Shadow’s much-heralded all-sampled debut, Endtroducing…, gets an extended makeover as Shadow adds an additional 90 seconds of cutting and scratching over the song’s classic beat. “Listen” (featuring ’60s English rock vocalist Terry Reid) is one of two brand-new tracks on the compilation, and the pop-soul tune showcases another facet of one the greatest musical minds of his generation.