Excellent Albums, Disappointing Box Set
930614
I was and am a big Eurythmics fan, and I already own the original versions of all these albums.  I bought the box set because I knew that I would want all the bonus tracks.  They are, however, for the most part disappointing.  Only "Grown Up Girls" really counts as essential, and some of the other bonus tracks actually detract from the albums they accompany.

The fans really should have been given something extra for buying the whole box at once.  Currently, all 8 albums can be purchased together for $4 more than the price of the boxed set--so the advantage of buying this is a cardboard box and saving $4.  There absolutely should have been a bonus disc containing the two new songs that appear on the "Ultimate Collection," plus other b-sides that do not appear on the remastered albums.  And a special commemorative booklet would have been nice as well.

What would have really made it worth the price was the addition of "1984."  I can understand why BMG didn't think there would be a public for a broader release of a remastered version of this album, but it absolutely should have been included in the box.  I would wager that everyone who bought this box would have wanted that album as well.

There is no doubt that the remastering is good, cleaning up the recordings and improving sound separation.  The horns on "Would I Lie to You" jump out of the speakers, for example.  And "In the Garden" benefits the most--it sounds fantastic.

If you take out "Peace"--which didn't need remastering, and one or two of your least favorite discs, you would save a lot of money just buying the albums individually.  If you must have them all, then this is a good way of getting them, but it should have been so much more.
773860
THE BEATLES * THE CAPITOL ALBUMS VOL. 1 is strictly for nostalgic Beatlemania fans and collectors who MUST own every possible track by the band. The box set is wildly overpriced for quality delivered. Packaging is shoddy at best. The paper album repro sleeves are cute, but that's about as much praise as I can muster designwise. The booklet included is lacking in the minutiae most enthusists seek, and is more or less a slick photo album.

If you don't sit under headphones or planted between your stereo's speakers, I doubt very much that you'll consider the inclusion of mono tracks here anything beyond redundancy. That a piano is mixed down, or a slight variation can be discerned on a particular song is again, strictly for the rabid aficionado. I consider the mono duplicates nothing more than filler necessary to pad out a woefully brief collection of music.

Consider total running times of either the "stereo" or mono album:
MEET THE BEATLES! -- 27:16 [12 tracks]
THE BEATLES' SECOND ALBUM -- 27:47 [11 tracks]
SOMETHING NEW -- 25:30 [11 tracks]
BEATLES '65 -- 27:25 [11 tracks]
Grand Total: Running Time -- 1 hr. 47 min. 58 sec. -- 45 tracks

All timings include 5 seconds of silence between songs, so subtract 1 minute per album to get the actual playing time of less than an hour and three/quarters.

My final criticism is about these highly touted "stereo" recordings-- they're not true stereo, as we've come to know it. There is no phantom center channel, or balance between the two. What you have is essentially two track monaural-- turn down one channel... oops, there goes the vocal! Its karaoke time, friend.

Content-wise THE BEATLES * CAPITOL ALBUMS VOL. 1 is five star material-- these 45 songs released in America in 1964 are superb. In typical Capitol Records fashion though, the gougers have had the upper hand, asking us to shell out about a buck for each and every song. Further insult is the flimsy paper box that stores the four slip covered CDs. Perhaps next time Capitol's designers can consult with their counterparts at a certain British label that specializes in 4 disc box sets. Oh... too late! Vol. 2 has already been released, and it's predictably more of the same. (sigh)
3360799
Excellent music by a great band, in a box set that exhibits the best and worst features that a box set can. Should have and could have been 5 stars.  The best, an outstanding DVD that includes a BBC concert of the original band doing 5 songs from "Sheet Music" and 2 songs from "10cc". This is just incredible!  The other excellent quality is the mastering. These cds sound great! They are not loud and compressed, and I do not say this lightly as I have the first 2 albums mastered by Steve Hoffman and "Original Soundtrack" on MFSL. So what are the negatives? CDs with roughly 80% of the songs on their first 5 albums, plus later tracks. The cds are not full, and all the songs should have been included. The version of "I'm Not in Love" is the short single edit, hate that.  The rarities disc is relatively short, and again since they are mostly B-sides previously available, at least include them all. One notable rarity is version of "People in Love" by original band. The book is nicely bound, but has a dumb cover photo of a channel swimmer, very few photos, mostly lyrics, and some info.  Despite flaws, I'm a big fan and glad I bought it, 3.5 stars.
1077503
I bought this album after hearing 'The Adventure' and 'It Hurts' once each.  After reading reviews by other Blink fans, I wasn't expecting a Blink clone, and didn't really know what this album would be.  What I got was an amazing album with songs such as 'A Little's Enough', 'Do It For Me Now' and the two songs previously mentioned.  This album is insightful and intricate, and very well-produced.  However, the lyrics are often repetitive, and some are just plain stupid, as is shown on 'Good Day', easily the worst on the album.  Here's a brief rundown of the top and bottom two songs on the album.

1.  Do It For Me Now- Great lyrics that flow really smoothly.

2.  The Adventure- Good lyrics coupled with good music lead to an amazing song

-

-

-

-

-

-

9.  The War- Good music, but the lyrics are just too repetitive.

10. Good Day- Horrible lyrics, the words "I think it's good" should never be used in that order in a song, ever.

This is definitely a great album, However, it didn't quite reach the 5 star mark.  I would still highly recommend this album to anyone who likes good music.
4885096
Simon And Garfunkel are one of my favorite musical duos, and this 3-CD set features each of their five original albums. The first four albums are on the first two CDs, while the last album is on a disc own its own. The booklet includes the lyrics to the songs, which is cool. The albums all have tracks on them that I don't care so much for, but I do like the set. However, the sound quality isn't the greatest. The tracks sound rather like they were copied off of cassettes. These are "earlier" CDs, and I doubt that the tracks were taken from original masters. I'll probably eventually be getting the Columbia Studio Recordings set, which is much more recent and which uses original masters (I think) and features bonus material. Don't get this set unless you just want all of S&G's original albums in a smaller package than the CSR set and don't really care about great sound quality or bonus material.
4959575
This collection is an exciting mess, with terrific live stuff and demos from 78-82 when they were at their peak.  Too bad the mastering engineer went overboard with compression and volume.  Damage seems worst on the album tracks, since weve heard them before.  A few songs (Riding With Mary, Breathless, Wild Thing) have a painful amount of treble.  Flaws aside, youll want to cherry-pick this comp for rarities.  Most are excellent.
2513534
I really enjoyed this album but I would've preferred if the track listing would be much different. Most of the tracks are from his albums released in 2004 and 2006. Now that doesn't mean that the albums sucked or anything. However, the older material is just so much more enjoyable than the newer. I really enjoyed "First Of The Gang To Die" and "Irish Blood, English Heart" among others, but the standout tracks were definitely "Suedehead" "Everyday Is Like Sunday" "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" and the other older songs. If you want the best of the new with a hint of the past then I would recommend this album for you, but if you want the best of the past then look elsewhere.
4898619
Of course the playing here is excellent: a groundbreaking, talented band in top form. The remastering here is welcome and well-performed, but that's to be expected, rather than enthusiastically praised.

My issue is with Columbia's disingenuous packaging and the unconscionable delay in releasing this material. These concerts were recorded by Columbia and originally released in edited form the very next year, in 1971.

Applying the term "bootleg" to these recordings, made and previously released by Columbia themselves, is the most transparent kind of manipulative marketing. Three songs, amounting to a fragment of a concert from earlier in 1970, have been bizarrely tucked in at the end of two of the discs, presumably to justify the otherwise-spurious "bootleg" moniker. I have had the original bootleg recording of the entire April concert for years and the three tracks released here show no improvement in sound.

It's easy to understand why in 1971, Columbia chose to task Teo Macero with editing the tapes down to lengths that would fit on a double-LP, but much less easy to forgive them for not correcting that decision on the first CD reissue in 1997. Presenting, at last, this unedited version of the concerts as if they've just been discovered ("Look what we've found! Bootlegs!) borders on the deceptive.

For the less avid or newer collector, if you have none of Miles' other music from this period, you could do worse than this box. Except, of course, that a compilation of four consecutive nights' sets amounts to buying, in essence, four versions of the same concert. More highly recommended is the previous entry in the "Bootleg Series" featuring a quintet lineup from 1969 both before and after the recording of "Bitches Brew". If you liked that recording and want more along those lines, you will enjoy this music, featuring a more polished band with richer textures, but you could almost make do with a single disc from one of the nights (my vote would be the Thursday show, with the rarely-performed "Spanish Key").

The basic paradox of this product is that the serious collector has already bought most of this music (twice before in many cases) and the more casual fan may be paying too much for a largely homogenous experience.

Another reviewer rightfully applauded the Tanglewood concert recorded a couple of months later. If Columbia is serious about bringing the best bootleg recordings to light, that might be a good place to start.
866846
"The Best of Laura Branigan" is the type of compilation that leaves fans wondering how record labels can be so stupid.  Though Laura had a string of smash singles that ran from '82 til early '84 and another dozen notable singles, Atlantic's haphazard "best of" fails to give a thorough career summary. Granted, the Gold singles ("Gloria," "Solitaire," "Self Control") and significant hits ("How Am I Supposed To Live...", "The Lucky One," "The Power Of Love") are all in evidence, but the remainder of this disc is a scattershot group of tunes seemingly chosen at random.  The three "new" tracks (including an ill-advised cover of Donna Summer's "Dim All The Lights") are nice, but hardly representative of Laura's "best".
After Laura's big splash in Top 40 petered out (following the "Self Control" album), it was her core fan-base that kept her on the Altantic roster.  Though her post-'84 catalog includes some terrific material, this collection doesn't do it (or Laura) justice.  Where are "Satisfaction," "Hold Me," "Tenderness," "Shattered Glass," "Moonlight On Water," and "Turn The Beat Around"?  And those are just the missing singles; also regretfully absent are fine album tracks like "All Night With Me," "Close Enough," "Silent Partners," "Forever Young," "Meaning Of The Word," and "The Best Was Yet To Come."  Laura's earliest (and arguably best) singles were in the Dance Pop/Rock medium, yet this collection fails to include a single one of her great dance club remixes.
A decent two-disc anthology of Laura's work is in order, but I have my doubts about whether or not Atlantic will give Ms. Branigan her due.  Until then, longtime fans are better off listening to their collection of original Branigan albums, and only the truly obsessive need to buy this disc for it's unique tracks.
-Stoned Soul
1200537
This is a fabulous and affordable collection of most of the best Journey albums from the late 70's and early 80's. Sony's BIG mistake was leaving out the Departure album and including Raised on Radio.

All of the albums in this collection appear to be the 1996 remasters based on the included tracks (see track listings below). Each of the CDs are come in a paper sleeve inside of a larger master sleeve. It's too bad that Sony didn't include a booklet with lyrics, band history, etc.

The sound is excellent on each disc and my only real disappointment is the lack of the Departure album. For just over $20 plus shipping, this is still a great deal. I'll just pick up the Departure album separately.

Track Listings-

INFINITY
1. Lights
2. Feeling That Way
3. Anytime
4. La Do Da
5. Patiently
6. Wheel In The Sky
7. Somethin' To Hide
8. Winds Of March
9. Can Do
10. Opened The Door

EVOLUTION
1. Majestic
2. Too Late
3. Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'
4. City Of Angels
5. When You're Alone (It Ain't Easy)
6. Sweet And Simple
7. Lovin' You Is Easy
8. Just The Same Way
9. Do You Recall
10. Daydream
11. Lady Luck

ESCAPE
1. Don't Stop Believin'
2. Stone In Love
3. Who's Crying Now
4. Keep On Runnin'
5. Still They Ride
6. Escape
7. Lay It Down
8. Dead Or Alive
9. Mother, Father
10. Open Arms
11. La Raza Del Sol (Bonus Track)
12. Don't Stop Believin' (Live)
13. Who's Crying Now (Live)
14. Open Arms (Live)

FRONTIERS
1. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
2. Send Her My Love
3. Chain Reaction
4. After The Fall
5. Faithfully
6. Edge Of The Blade
7. Troubled Child
8. Back Talk
9. Frontiers
10. Rubicon
11. Only The Young (Bonus Track)
12. Ask The Lonely (Bonus Track)
13. Liberty (Bonus Track)
14. Only Solutions (Bonus Track)

RAISED ON RADIO
1. Girl Can't Help It
2. Positive Touch
3. Suzanne
4. Be Good To Yourself
5. Once You Love Somebody
6. Happy To Give
7. Raised On Radio
8. I'll Be Alright Without You
9. It Could Have Been You
10. The Eyes Of A Woman
11. Why Can't This Night Go On Forever
4506616
Great Box Set! Unfortunately, I had to return it because the thin vinyl had rim warped during storage and I have no way of flattening them, nor do I have a periphery ring which would work perfectly. The parts that I did listen to, the vinyl was very quiet with very low floor noise. I would classify them as great pressings. I cleaned the LP's and put them in MoFi inner sleeves, and tried to "Cold Press" the LP's for three weeks, but to no avail (i think I took out the worst of the 'wave'). If this vendor puts these back up for sale and you have a periphery ring, this would be a great find! The product should be back to the vendor in the next couple of days.

<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Mozart-The-Symphonies-Vol-6-Nos-31-35-38-39-40-41-4-LP-vinyl-Box-digital-audiophile-Hogwood-L-Oiseau-Lyre/dp/B00TTNN1VY/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Mozart - The Symphonies Vol. 6, Nos. 31, 35, 38, 39, 40 & 41 - 4 LP vinyl Box - digital audiophile Hogwood L'Oiseau Lyre</a>
947421
Really misleading. The name of the collection is the 1980-1988 Box Set. When it arrives, it's only three albums, up to Number of the Beast. Still three fantastic albums, but what's really being sold here are three records and a slipcase for the others. Misleading. Disappointing.
3374448
I received the new Scott Walker boxset with high expectations. The format is attractive with a basically 5" square box which holds 5 cds, each enclosed in a double gate-fold cardboard jacket. Also included is an informative 15 page booklet authored by Rob Young with biographical facts on Walker as well as production notes on each album. So far so good. Unfortunately, at least for me, the problem begins when the music starts. The transfer to cd with this collection is overly "trebly" with very little midrange and/or bass presence. I "spot-checked" tracks on each cd and found this to be the case overall. For a compare/contrast session, I played tracks from the same albums released by Fontana Records on cd several years ago and found the sound to be much improved. I also played cuts from the Scott Walker "In 5 Easy Pieces" 5 cd anthology(yes, I'm a fan!) and again the sound quality is also superior. I will be looking forward to other opinions from reviewers of this new boxset's sonic quality or lack of.
4970567
First of all - I have a great collection of boxsets, lp's and 10inches of Sun Records and prefere the celebration of the 50th anniversary of one of the important labels all over the world with a 2-CD-Set. The quality of the booklet and sound are very good!

But - why the put only 44 tracks for the 50th anniversary instead of 50 tracks? There will be space enough on each disc for total 25 tracks.

The wrost thing is that some essential artists or song of the pre-sun-are missing like B.B. King or Jackie Brenston with Ike Turners Rhythm Kings with "Rocket 88", who's been recorded in Memphis for other Labels? Or where is Howlin' Wolf and Harold Jenkins who will climb in the later years under the name of Conway Twitty the country-charts over and over again? But the greatest missing thing is "Great Balls Of Fire" - this is one of the essential tracks in the history of Sun Records but the producers of this CD prefers others like Rayburn Anthony? A good idea is the compersion of the original version of "Mystery Train" from Junior Parker to Elvis - but not nessecary on a two record set or of yes - why they do that with "Red Hot", who's been missing here as another essential track from Billy Lee Riley or take "Love My Baby" from Junior Parker who's been another important track of the pre-Rockabilly-area? "Get Rhythm" of Johnny Cash is another missing effort who influncend another generation of musicians like Ry Cooder. And another important track is Malcom Yelvingtons version of "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" who's been released between two Elvis-Singles and shows the new combination between Hillbilly And Rhythm & Blues. If you are looking for the real Sun Records Anniversary Collection of all the time: I prefere the Rhino-Box-Set "The Sun Records Collection" from 1994:&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Sun-Records-Collection/dp/B0000033DF/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Sun Records Collection</a>
3231640
The music in this box set is undeniably great. Alas, unlike the German company Bear Family for which liner notes writer Rich Kienzle more frequently writes, this set was thrown together from the Tiffany Transcriptions already released twice in the past two decades, by Kaleidoscope in the 1980s on vinyl and Rhino in the 1990s on CD. There is nothing new here for true Bob Wills fans that they haven't already heard, which is unfortunate considering that there are nearly 140 more Tiffany Transcriptions that may never see the light of day now because Collector's Choice didn't care about a comprehensive, complete set of this important music. Are the rest of the Tiffanys as good as this? Well, having heard them, probably not. But there are at least 50-60 recordings that are just as strong as what's released here, perhaps more, and even the bottom of the barrel is high-quality Wills music with fabulous instrumentalists and the incomparable Tommy Duncan. The sad fact is that this box will be looked as a definitive, all-inclusive set, even though it isn't, and people who truly care about this music will never see the complete Tiffany set that they have for so long dreamed. If Collector's Choice really wants five stars for this set, it needs to augment this set with separate releases of the remaining Tiffany tracks. Until then, it's really just slapping its own label and packaging on somebody else's truly conscientious hard work. To me, that's just plain lazy and amateurish with music as historically significant and wonderful as this. True professionalism and quality can be found in Bear Family's two Bob Wills box sets. Too bad BF didn't get this project. That company would have done it right. If pressed on the matter, I'm sure even Kienzle would agree.
277600
This album contains most of studio tracks from the 1958-59 period, all of which feature Eric Dolphy.

Unfortunately at the time of this review the product page for the CD version of this album lacks both a track list and sound samples. You can see and hear those on the MP3 version's product page at&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Complete-Studio-Sessions-Chico-Hamilton-Quintent/dp/B008C7PVPM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Complete Studio Sessions Chico Hamilton Quintent</a>. Please refer to that page for the tracks I am going to discuss and to listen to the short sound snippets that will tell you almost all you need to know about the music it contains.

In essence this compilation contains three complete albums, plus a few tracks from a fourth.  Here is what is on the album:

DISC ONE:  the first ten tracks are the album titled&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/With-Strings-Attached/dp/B0013AYRHS/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">With Strings Attached</a>. This album was recorded for Warner in Los angeles on October 26 and 27, 1958. It features Eric Dolphy on alto sax, bass clarinet and flute, Nathan Gershman on cello, Dennis Budimir on guitar, Wyatt Ruther on bass and Chico Hamilton on drums. The string section was comprised of studio musicians.

The remaining tracks (and the first two on DISC TWO) comprise the album titled&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Gongs-East/dp/B0013AUV1Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Gongs East!</a>. This was recorded for Warner in Los Angeles on December 29 and 30, 1958, and feature the same line-up minus the string section.

DISC TWO: the first two tracks are from the preceding album. Tracks 3 through 14 are from an out-of-print album titled 'That Hamilton Man', which was recorded for the Sesac lable in Los Angeles on May 19 and 20, 1959. The line-up is the same as the previous albums contained in this compilation.

Remaining tracks are from an album titled&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Three-Faces-Of-Chico/dp/B0013AWTSW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Three Faces Of Chico</a>&nbsp;that was recorded for Warner in Los Angeles on February 25, 1959. These tracks feature the same line-up as the others on this album. However, the full album also features alumni from the first two incarnations of the Quintet: Buddy Collette and Paul Horn. That album in its entirety is well worth tracking down.
3856246
It seems like putting together Who compilations has been a cottage industry over at MCA lately.  Starting with the 2CD set "Hooligans", we've had the budget "Who's Greatest Hits" (which should have been deleted from the band's catalog years ago), "Who's Better, Who's Best" (a revamp of 'Hooligans' on one CD), and "My Generation - The Very Best of the Who" (a revamped version of "Who's Better, Who's Best").  Throw in the excellent 1994 "30 Years of Maximum R+B" box set and you see what I mean.  Except for the box set, "Ultimate Collection" makes these predecessors redundant.  The sound is also much improved.  What gets me is that the first CD is only 67 minutes long and the second disc is 69 minutes.  Because discs hold about 79 minutes of music, I view this as a lost opportunity (22 minutes to be exact).  For starters, it is inexcusable that the song "Relay", which was issued as a single and appeared on none of the groups original (non-compilation) album, is left off of this collection.  "Relay" was essentially part of a trilogy of post-"Who's Next" singles that included "Let's See Action" and "Join Together", which are included.  And even if John Entwistle hadn't tragically left us, I still would have felt that this collection could have featured more of his songs.  "Heaven and Hell" is a second major oversight, and I also think autobiographical cut "The Quiet One" deserved inclusion.  Personally, the only song in the collection I wasn't crazy about was "Sister Disco", all of the others deserved to be there.  And to close out disc two, I would throw in the cover of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting".  Next complaint, the liner notes.  Very mediocre.  What's nice about the latest re-issues of the band's catalogue on CD is that each included detailed and insightful liner notes.  All in all my ratings are....sound 5 stars, compilation 3 1/2 stars, liner notes 2 stars.  If you want a good introduction to the band, or just a CD that hits the Who's many highlights, spend the extra money and buy this over the "Very Best Of" collection.  You won't be disappointed.