U2's 'Best Of' recounts a heroic decade

That Phish likes to improvise is not news. Being at the forefront of the jam band movement, the band is celebrated for its ability to go off on a tangent without losing its audience. But "The Story of the Ghost" takes Phish to a different level entirely. Although some songs were totally improvised while others were consciously composed, it's often difficult to figure out which is which. Credit the quartet's sense of discipline for some of that musical coherence, for unlike many jam bands, Phish rarely rambles and almost never overplays. Mostly, though, what holds the likes of "Birds of a Feather" and "Roggae" together is that no matter where the improvisations may take them, Phish always manages to keep its melodic bearings. ***

J.D. Considine

Bruce Dickinson

The Chemical Wedding (CMC International 06076 86259-2)

Few heavy metal guys have a voice good enough to sell any old album. Maybe ex-Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, Glenn Danzig, Ian Astbury of the late Cult and ... Bruce Dickinson. So the only question with "Chemical Wedding" is whether it provides the proper lung workout. Oh, yes. Dickinson burns on "The Tower," "Book of Thel" and the title track, even if his tastes in songwriting have gotten a bit one-note. The gist of the CD, from "Killing Floor": "I've never been held/by the hand of God./Who's rocking my cradle/if He is not?" Guess who. And so it goes, Satan this, Satan that, guitar solo, incantation. As my wife once cracked dismissively of Marilyn Manson, "Isn't he a little old to be talking like the devil?" Amen. Dickinson's hard-core fans will love this. Still, he needs a change, maybe like "Dickinson sings 'Cats.' " Better yet, a duet with Bono or Bacharach. He'll never sin again. ** 1/2

Steve St. Angelo

Soundtrack

Various Artists

Ultimate Broadway (Arista 18999)

Beginning with "Oklahoma!" and ending with "Rent," the 40-song, two-CD set "Ultimate Broadway" is the first compilation of Broadway's greatest hits assembled from various record labels. But that's not all that's "various" about it. Purists will note that, despite the word "Broadway" in the title, the collection includes "Try to Remember" (from off-Broadway's "The Fantasticks"), a number from a movie soundtrack (Liza Minnelli singing "Cabaret"), Judy Collins' rendition of "Send in the Clowns" ("A Little Night Music") and, oddest of all, Aretha Franklin's recording of "I Dreamed a Dream" ("Les Miserables"). There is justification for some of this diversity. In the heyday of musicals, movie adaptations were the rule instead of the exception, and pop singers regularly turned Broadway songs into radio hits. That era may have passed, but this eclectic album makes you think it just might come again. ** 1/2

J. Wynn Rousuck Pub Date: 11/05/98