"Snap!" Was The First Jam Compilation Ever Released. The Year Was 1983. The CD Edition Was To Omit 8 Tracks.
Quite a gem, this is the CD reissue of a double LP that collected all the singles and the best album tracks that the epoch-making band led by Paul Weller produced during its time together. Eight tracks have been dropped to make it all fit into one CD – the eight album tracks. That makes the CD stand as a sort of singles collection.
Every A-side is featured, and that includes the compositions “’A’ Bomb In Wardour Street” and “Dreams Of Children”, songs that were released as part of double A-sided singles. Of course, all the non-album tracks that they were to release are featured – “Going Underground”, “Strange Town”, “When You Are Young”, and their final #1: “Beat Surrender” (a song that feels more Style Council than The Jam). Continue reading →
"Closer" Compiles Together Sarah Mc Lachlan's Greatest Hits Up To The Year 2008
This one took a little to sink in, and it didn’t sink in completely. But the bits that managed to do it are ones I now treasure indeed. Sarah Mclachlan is a Canadian artist that began her career in 1988 with the album “Touch”, in which her trademark mixture of folk and pop was already fully manifested. That record included the hit single “Vox”, and that is the one song which starts this 16-track compilation which was first issued in 2008.
I think I don’t have to tell you it is one of the tracks that I truly treasure from it. The other two that I deem as exemplary songs are “Possession” and “Building A Mystery”. Both were quite successful in terms of chart performance – “Building A Mystery” topped the Canadian charts and almost hit the top 10 in the US. For its part, “Possession” garnered a lot of publicity since it dealt with a famous stalker that even filed a lawsuit against McLachlan – he was to eventually commit suicide before the trial started.
Some might find it startling that songs dealing with such negative realities turn out to be such compelling listens – just look at Elvis Costello’s “High Fidelity” or The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”. But when songs like that are successful, I don’t think that means people are “evil”– quite the opposite. It just showcases that “normal” people are naturally attracted to what happens on the other side. The more people who are keen on songs like these, then, the more representative sample we have of people’s saneness. Continue reading →
Alabama's "In The Mood: The Love Songs" Was Released In 2003. It Featured 2 New Tracks.
Alabama has gone down in history as the most successful group in the history of country music. That is, in a scene that has traditionally been dominated by single performers they did give collectives a definitive chance to push the boundaries of the genre, and the way it has always been perceived.
I was overjoyed to find this compilation when I traveled to Argentina to attend an Elton John gig during The Rocket Tour, if only because not a single disc by them is available where I live. You might think that is strange, but what would you say if I told you that there are no albums by Garth Brooks either here? The ones I have are all imports. That reminds me I live in the opposite end of the world, but it makes me place a high value on these albums that I import, while it also makes me do my homework and figure out which ones could be sound purchases. Coming back to this compilation, when I bought it I knew I was only getting a part of the story that (while compelling) is not necessarily the defining one. Any compilation that hasn’t got “Mountain Music”, “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band)” and “Dixieland Delight” (their calling card in South America) is incomplete by definition. It’s like watching Star Wars and omitting the part when Darth Vader reveals he is Luke’s father. In a sense it doesn’t matter because everybody and his wife know that by now. With this compilation, it is the same – everybody knows these compositions I have mentioned by heart. Every single person who is into country music is more than familiarized with them. Continue reading →
Emmylou Harris' "Heartaches & Highways" Compilation Was Released In 2005
A compilation like this one is particularly useful when it comes to artists whose catalogs are colossal in depth. You see, “Heartaches & Highways” (2005) is an anthology which was assembled by Emmylou herself. It is interesting to listen to the story the way she wants to tell it. If you are an old fan, you get to see which songs she deems as the ones that shaped her career. And if you are a newcomer, you have the chance of sampling the songs she might like to be remembered by, effectively getting acquainted with her music like that.
Although not strictly a “best of” album, the CD definitely leans on hits, as her first song to hit the charts with force (“If I Could Only Win Your Love”) is included amid a series of tunes that she has either turned into standards or rejuvenated completely, such as “Two More Bottles Of Wine”, “Lost His Love In Our Last Date” and the sweet “To Know Him Is To Love Him” from the celebrated “Trio” album:
A nice choice (and one that clearly strays from a “very best” motif) is “Pancho & Lefty”. Emmylou’s version precedes the successful take by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. While the ones who struck gold where the two outlaws, Emmylou at least pointed the way to the treasure in a very elegant way indeed.
An absolute highlight is her duet with Roy Orbison on “That Lovin’ You Feelin’”. The mix is crisper than the one I had listened to on her “Duets” album, too. The difference is not pronounced, but the guitars have more space and the song on the whole sounds even more refined. Continue reading →
Released in 2008, this is an excellent compilation. But to get the main niggle out of the way once and for all: Joy Division was to release an EP and 2 LPs in the years they were together. The 2 albums fit one CD easily, so that coming up with a “Best Of” album which has about 50 minutes of music is always going to be objected to by many. In this particular case, the compilers made the blunder of including an instrumental track (“Incubation”) that is extraneous to the usual spark of the band, which was dependent on Curtis delivery both in terms of content and form.
There, that was the only negative thing that could be said about this anthology. Because the cuts that did make it to the CD are among Joy Division’s finest compositions, conveying in equal measure the palpitating rage and frustration that lay behind Curtis haunted glance, and the melodically ferocious approach of the band. Starting with “Digital” (one of the most delectable paranoid tirades I ever listened to) and ending with “Isolation”, the album is a perfect snapshot of what made the band so unique and (above all) so influential for generations to come.
The first three numbers in particular work like nothing else, as “Digital” is followed by “Disorder” and “Shadowplay”, two emblematic Joy Division songs. The album also includes the hit “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, “Heart & Soul”, the maniac “She’s Lost Control” and a song that makes me think of Costello’s “Radio, Radio”, only that the approach is obviously far removed. The song is called “Transmission”, and while Costello’s number deals with the way the industry dominates the airwaves, Curtis’ song takes a more personal way through and showcases the effect of what is played, not the role of the ones who decide what does get played. Continue reading →
For a general introduction to this compilation album go here.
The CD has 22 songs. I feel it is interesting to provide you with the track list, along with the album that each song was originally found in.
Bullet Proof (Dizzy Up The Girl)
All Eyes on Me (Dizzy Up The Girl)
Amigone (Dizzy Up The Girl)
Acoustic #3 (Dizzy Up The Girl)
Naked (A Boy Named Goo)
Ain’t That Unusual (A Boy Named Goo)
Burnin’ Up (A Boy Named Goo)
Flat Top (A Boy Named Goo)
Eyes Wide Open (A Boy Named Goo)
Fallin’ Down (Superstar Car Wash)
Another Second Time Around (Superstar Car Wash)
Cuz You’re Gone (Superstar Car Wash)
We Are the Normal (Superstar Car Wash)
Girl Right Next to Me (Superstar Car Wash)
Lucky Star (Superstar Car Wash)
On the Lie (Superstar Car Wash)
Just the Way You Are (Hold Me Up)
Two Days in February (Hold Me Up)
Laughing (Hold Me Up)
There You Are (Hold Me Up)
Up Yours (Jed)
I’m Addicted (Goo Goo Dolls)
As you have just noticed, there is only a song apiece from their earliest releases. That is something that (from what I have heard so far) is hard to object to, especially if you climbed aboard the Goo’s train around the time of “Iris”. These songs are mere curiosities and little else.
The albums that are better-represented are the ones whose sound will win you over like “Name”, “Slide” or “Iris” did, and these songs roughly make up half the CD. Continue reading →
(What I Learned About) Ego, Opinion, Art & Commerce
You already know how enthusiastically I listen to the Goo Goo Dolls. Maybe such a prolonged keenness was the result of buying this compilation right after having purchased their “Greatest Hits Vol. 1” CD. You see, “(What I Learned About) Ego, Opinion, Art & Commerce” delves into their studio albums one by one and offers up the best songs from each one of these CDs. In many cases, alternate mixes and/or entirely rerecorded versions are featured.
What I like best about this compilation is the way it is structured. The six albums that are featured are “Goo Goo Dolls”, “Jed”, “Hold Me Up”, “Superstar Car Wash”, “A Boy Named Goo” and “Dizzy Up The Girl”. The tracks on the CD run from back to front. That is, rather than starting with the songs from the self-titled debut and taking you chronologically to the songs included in “Dizzy Up The Girl” the CD starts with the “Dizzy Up The Girl” material and goes all the way back to “Goo Goo Dolls”. You might think that such a thing is not a big deal, but I assure you it is. Think about it, many people are familiar with the more mature sound of the Goo Goo Dolls. Arranging the songs like this lets anybody trace the way that such a sound evolved. Continue reading →
If we were to look for a bigger hellraiser in the annals of Rock & Roll than Jerry Lee Lewis the search would never end. And if we were to look for an exuberant instrumentalist in the decade of the ’50s, the search would start and end at the Killer’s fingers. Much like Keith Moon, his personality and temperament were what turned him into a matchless musician. This compilation gathers together the singles and noteworthy tracks he put under the Sun label at the beginning of his career. That was when he saw some serious chart action, too, so a case can definitely be made that if you were to have just a Jerry Lee album this is it.
The tracks on offer include “Great Balls Of Fire”, “Whola Lotta Shakin’ Going On”, “Wild One”, “Breathless” and the theme tune from the movie “High School Confidential”. Also featured is the song that was to be his final hit, a cover of Ray Charles “What I’d Say”. All these are good, enjoyable songs that provide us with a true blueprint for every rock and roller that was to make the piano his predominant instrument. Conversely, there are covers of “When The Saints Come Marchin’ In”, “Matchbox” and “Jambalaya” that are not very enticing on record. Whether they worked better live is besides the point – here, they don’t deliver. Continue reading →
Only two Billy Joel compilations that span two CDs have been issued so far. I have reviewed the first one here – it is the one named “Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II”. The second definitive compilation was issued in 2001, and it is the one entitled “The Essential Billy Joel”.
“Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II” has 35 tracks. “The Essential Billy Joel” has 36. The latter covers every single album he released, the former reaches up to “An Innocent Man”. His three final albums are not covered.
There is a very glaring omission as far as the “Essential” compilation goes: “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant” has been neglected. The song is beloved by fans, and while it was never released as a single (the only justification the compilers have for the omission) its relevance within Joel’s catalog is something which can never be disputed. Continue reading →
At the time of its release (1985), “Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II” was the definitive Billy Joel collection. All his major works are covered (no less than 6 compositions are culled from “The Stranger”), and two new tracks were included to appease long-time fans that already had all the hits.
The first disc opens with his by now standard “Piano Man”, and culminates with the highlights from “The Stranger”. Included is “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant”, a true favorite of Joel’s fans along with the title-track and a song that topped the charts and which Billy doesn’t particularly like: “Just The Way You Are”. Continue reading →
