While Universal's budget-priced best-of series, 20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection, is welcome for introducing inexpensive compilations of a wide range of recording artists, it also complicates things for consumers when an act already has one or more collections currently in the marketplace. A good example is Joe Walsh. Walsh originally gained renown in 1969 as a member of the James Gang, which recorded for ABC Records, the catalog for which is now controlled by Universal and released through MCA Records.

Even before their debut album, Happiness, became one of the fastest-selling albums in the U.K. in 2010, Manchester duo Hurts already had a rabid online fan base, stoked by several arch, expertly art-directed videos that the group self-produced, which captured the eye while showcasing the band's mix of '80s synth pop melodicism, Krautrock angularity, and '90s Hi-NRG balladry. The videos expertly juxtaposed a Helmut Newton-esque black-and-white aesthetic with the group's musical love of dance-club dramatics, á la Depeche Mode, Erasure, and Pet Shop Boys, eventually attracting the attention of Euro-pop diva Kylie Minogue, who ended up singing on the track "Devotion."