Assembled by producers and kneecapped by the departure of their most distinctive singer, Dawn Robinson, En Vogue remains the definitive diva-soul harmony group of the '90s, less on the strength of their meringuey harmonies than on their extraordinary material. This collection, cannily sequenced to hide later, lesser tracks between the hits, skims the cream from their three albums and EP, throws in 1998's "No Fool No More" single, and generally opts for album versions rather than EV's spiffy single remixes. It reveals an act that went from pleasant Soul II Soul-ish fluff to real soul power when it dedicated itself to updating R&B and funk traditions: quoting Funkadelic (and later paraphrasing their "Knee Deep" as "Let It Flow"), harmonizing over a stuttering James Brown riff, and getting their slow jams by way of 1960s deep-soul ballads. --Douglas Wolk