Ute Lemper: The Best of Ute Lemper (Decca)

With this great entertainer returning to New Zealand after her thrilling cabaret-noir/showtunes performance in 2003 it seems not only timely to reprint the lengthy, career encompassing interview with her, but to point to this 21-track easy-intro overview from the late Nineties.

Here, divided into easy to assimilate sections, are songs from musicals (Chicago, Cabaret), films (Appetite, Voyager), Kurt Weill (seven in total), Dietrich and Piaf (four), Michael Nyman (just the one) and some Berlin cabaret songs which are her forte.

So this is the drop-in-and-see collection -- but really you could be investigating the whole catalogue by this woman so admired by Tom Waits, Bowie, Scott Walker, Jarvis Cocker, Nick Cave and many others who dipped a toe in Berlin cabaret/Weill songs and culture.