by Dean Carlson
Compilations with a name of this sort are generally insufferable, but sometimes, like here, you can't blame them for giving you exactly what you'd expect. From the pompous (Chicane's &Offshore,& Way out West's &The Gift&) to the preposterous (Alice Deejay's &Better off Alone&) to the undeniably epochal (Paul Van Dyk's &For an Angel,& Energy 52's &Café del Mar,& System F's &Out of the Blue&), The Best Trance Anthems Ever wasn't the best-packaged, best-executed summary of the finest moments of trance and not even one of John &00& Fleming's more credible efforts, but it gave old fans a harmless reminder of when trance ruled the continents and offered latecomers a reasonably valid excuse to investigate the scene a little further.