There's an episode in Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where the author's acid-twisted companion demands that a plugged-in tape deck be dropped in his bath at the same moment Grace Slick's voice peaks in "White Rabbit." That, for him, was the way to go--electrocuted as Slick wailed, "Feed your head!" That zenith in Jefferson Airplane's 1966 hit may have also represented Slick's apex. This 18-song overview of the rock goddess's 20-year recording career starts out in high gear and loses momentum with each passing track. The aforementioned "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" represent the icy-voiced thrush in all her San Francisco Sound glory. "Lather," "Mexico," and "Eskimo Blue Day" (an eco rant with the great Slick line "The human dream doesn't mean shit to a tree") come from a period when the Airplane was arguably the most significant American rock band in the land. And the honed-for-radio "We Built This City" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" betray a woefully compromised artist with little left to say. --Steven Stolder