Joe Nichols GREATEST HITS

Photographer: Scott Wade.
Joe Nichols began racking up country hits in 2002, reaching the top of the charts with "Brokenheartsville." A few years later he topped the charts again with "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off," then he wrapped up the decade with his third chart-topper, the crossover hit "Gimmie That Girl." These three singles serve as anchors on the brisk 2011 Greatest Hits collection, his first-ever compilation. At ten tracks, this is perhaps too tight, finding no space for "She Only Smokes When She Drinks," "If Nobody Believed in You," "Man with a Memory," and "Another Side of You" (nor are any of his seasonal single here, but their absence is not noticed), but the basics -- the three number ones, "The Shape I'm In," "What's a Guy Gotta Do," "Size Matters," "The Impossible," "It Ain't No Crime," "Cool to Be a Fool," "I'll Wait for You" -- are all here, making for a breezy collection of congenial country. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

• Format: CD
• Genre: Country