Country's honey-voiced hopeless romantic gleans his career with this satisfying collection featuring rerecordings of 14 hits, his original version of "Paint me a Birmingham," and two new numbers. He's made fresh gold with "Used to the Pain," which sounds like a classic Tracy Lawrence ballad, full of regret over a heartbroken past, yet dappled with hope for the future. There's also "If I Don't Make It Back," a sentimental male-bonding story of a departing soldier's words to his buddies with a tearjerker ending. The older tunes, like "Birmingham" and "Today's Lonely Fool," stand time's test, as does the undiminished emotional palette of Lawrence's voice. Although most of these numbers are sad or starry-eyed honky-tonk, the set ends with the rowdy "If the Good Die Young," a rocker with the kickin' line "I'm gonna live forever if the good die young." But with more #1 hits than Glen Campbell, Ernest Tubb, and a host of other legends, Lawrence has already attained his own brand of longevity. --Ted Drozdowski