Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

This rarities-filled overview looks back on the second phase of Joan Jett's remarkably consistent solo career. Highlights include a live reading of Jett's Runaways classic "Cherry Bomb" (with the riot grrrl band L7) and a reverential cover of Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" (this glam-era staple contains the sonic hallmarks for much of Joan's subsequent career). "Light of Day" was written by Bruce Springsteen for Jett's screen acting debut in the movie of the same name.

A career's worth of outtakes, half covers and 13 of 22 from her 1983-86 heyday, this may end up a last gasp. But her simultaneous rediscovery by Warner bigshots and angry old gurls leaves room for hope that instead it will prove a marker. And either way it's her strongest album ever, full of stuff originally judged not weak but impolitic--the censored "Starf*cker," the girl-loving "Play With Me," "EMI" as "MCA"--as well as Jett standards backed by Sex Pistols and Melle Mel and L7, soundtrack finds penned by Bruce Springsteen and Janna Allen, oldies new to me like "Hide and Seek" and "She Lost You," oldies forever young like "Rebel Rebel" and "Call Me Lightning," and "Activity Grrrl," in which she advises her spirit children to forget the animal rights stuff and buy a set of leathers. She still loves rock 'n roll. And vice versa. (Grade - A-)