by Philip D. Huff

After the success of Doe Maar: The Musical, Telstar Records released this Doe Maar compilation album. Basically, it is 1999's Alles with a few tracks added, and once again falls short of being the definite Doe Maar collection. Doe Maar 's strength was their sound: a light reggae-like sound with great pop hooks. The music was given weight by the lyrics. On Echt Alles, you get plenty of the sound and the lyrics, and you hear the band in its prime period between 1978 and 1984. The music here is not presented chronologically, nor are the track listings of the original albums maintained. Instead, there are 55 great Doe Maar songs spread out haphazardly over three CDs. Although the energy slackens as all the discs tend to slouch toward the end, this compilation does have some extras: decent liner notes, nice photographs on the inside, and several B-sides. However, the title Echt Alles suggests that everything songwriters Ernst Jansz and Henny Vrienten wrote and recorded under the Doe Maar moniker is here -- and this is not the case. Some tracks are still absent, the most noteworthy of which is "Blozen," the first Doe Maar song ever committed to vinyl (on the compilation album Uitholling Overdwars), and there is also a lack of Doe Maar reunion material. Also, some tracks are edited versions ("Dansen Met Alice") or non-original mixes (most of the 4US songs). That said, Echt Alles does collect almost everything anyone would want to hear of Doe Maar in one sitting. So, although the collection doesn't contain truly everything for the die-hard fan, and is perhaps a bit too much for the average listener, Echt Alles falls somewhere in between: it is a decent compilation album containing some of the best Nederpop tracks ever. It is also one more missed chance. But as it stands, it is simply a great sampler of perhaps the best Dutch pop band.