The Fugees: Greatest Hits

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * )

For 15 minutes in 1996/97, it looked like the Fugees would be the pop future of hip-hop. Only the trio didn't survive the pressure to follow up their gargantuan-selling cover version-heavy second album The Score, and the subsequent solo careers of Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean showed where the band's individual talents lay. So it is not surprising that this greatest hits relies for more than half of its 11 tracks on hits such as Killing Me Softly With His Song, No Woman No Cry and Ready or Not.

Add a few lesser-known numbers and there is a reminder that it was nice while it lasted, though this doesn't exactly expose any hidden depths to their canny chart-friendly approach.

And it reminds that neither Hill nor Jean was as annoying when they had to share microphone time as they are now as solo stars.

Label: Columbia