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.