Box Set reviews

Реших да отворя нова тема за ревютата и започвам с едно брилянтно:

Epic 2004

Much has been made of Michael Jackson’s private life: accusations (God-awful accusations), allegations, charges brought to bear. I leave that to the lawyers, judge and jury. I want to talk about the music.

Does anyone remember the first time they saw The Jackson Five (from Gary, Indiana!)? For me it was Sullivan in 1969. This guy is 4 months younger than I. Makes me realize how little I’ve really accomplished. Michael was 11 years old and fronting the group on the Sullivan show. The kid was a natural: good looking, charming and with a voice that blew you off your living room sofa. And the older he got, the better he got. That man can dance so bad, I used to love to watch him dance. I listen to a lot of oldies stations on the FM ‘dial.’ It’s not a dial anymore, is it? It’s a ‘band’ now I guess; a digital readout. Anyway, there’s always a Jackson tune somewhere and up goes the volume on my car’s stereo system.


“I Want You Back,” “ABC,” I’ll Be There;” let’s just quote soul-music guru David Ritz here: “The singing and the songs make us happy. They are moments of incandescent beauty—young, wildly optimistic.” I can’t say it better.

Michael, as he matured, gave us “Ben,” “Enjoy Yourself,” “Rock With You,” and the heartbreaking “She’s Out Of My Life.” This Sony presentation of “She’s Out Of My Life” was produced by Quincy Jones by the way, and is from “Off The Wall—Special Edition” (Epic). Brilliant.

“Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection” is just that, ultimate. It’s all here. There are 4 CDs in one big-ass box arriving in a store near you on November 16 of 2004. The discs start with “I Want You Back” and go all the way up to “The Way You Love Me.” The final cut on disc 4 is a soulful “We’ve Had Enough” that is not to be missed. It is also not to be confused with the song by Alkaline Trio or the Dudley Boyz. This is Jackson in his prime. He’s 46 years old now. I know because I know how old I am.


The current rumor is that this song is Michael’s and Janet’s lament regarding the child molestation charges and the breast flop—um, pop—from the Super Bowl. Now I’ve listened to this little devil several times this evening. The song that is, not the whole damned box! The box I have listened to once. “We’ve Had Enough” has smart lyrics and tight production and is a heart-breaking story-song about a little girl who wants to know why her daddy had to die when he didn’t even have a gun: “One more violent crime.” It’s also about a little boy who wants to know why his mommy had to die and his daddy is trying to figure out how the hell to explain this mess to his child.


“In the middle of the village in a distant land…too young to understand…his father grabs his hand. Screaming, crying, his wife’s dying, now he’s left to explain. Innocently questioning why… why his mother had to die? What did these soldiers come here for? ... Did God say that they could decide who would live and who would die? What that mother ever did, except to take care of her kid?”

Um, folks? I think you missed your idol’s point. This here is an anti-war song. Mr. Jackson has a little something to say about Iraq methinks, and he says it powerfully. Get your heads out of your asses and listen to your man. Not only is he questioning our presence in Iraq, he’s questioning what goes on here at home as well. Remember that this gent began his recording career when the Vietnam War was in full swing. He wasn’t too young to know what was going on then and he’s not too old to be unaware of what goes on today.


This release from Sony Epic is more than a compilation and retrospective on the extraordinarily talented Michael Jackson. It’s an anthem for the 21st Century as well as the ages. With the inclusion of “We’ve Had Enough,” Jackson points out what’s important in life and the fact that for as far as we’ve come, we’ve nonetheless managed to warp ourselves back to the witch hunts of the 50s and 60s. It’s not as bad as Vietnam yet folks, but it’s pretty damned close. Open your eyes. The lyrics to Jackson’s “We’ve Had Enough” evoke Hunter Thompson’s challenge to “look at the world with a special pair of eyes.” We, all of us, have them. Can’t we please use them this time, before it’s too late?

“Did God say that you could decide?”

Thanks Sony. I only wish the release date was before Election Day 2004.

—Jessie Lilley

Source: [линк]

wow
Отдавна не бях чел нещо толкова положително извън фенски форум :).

dreams and false alarms

Аз също! И това, което пише за We've Had Enough... Май ще си имаме нова любима песен. Rock, за коя медия е това ревю, знае ли се?

Видях МАДОНА!!!

Току що я прочетох в КОРа- до последно смятах че е поредното фенско излияние, но тази статия наистина ми напълни душата!Май не е писана за никоя медия, а просто ей така- един нормален човек се възхищава чистосърдечно на една страхотна песен, написана от един невероятен музикант!Без гадни намеци и забележки, без високопарни разсъждения и малоумни заключения...Мечтая зя деня когато нещо такова ще излезе на страниците на Billboard и Rolling stone...

Нямам представа дали е за някаква медия. Написала съм сайта под ревюто - не е фен сайт, по скоро ми прилича на online shop.

Такова ревю би ме убедило да си купя бокс сета. :) Хубаво ще е ако е на online shop, наистина...

Видях МАДОНА!!!

Що пък В за DVD-то?... Заради плейбека? Представям си каква щеше да е оценката ако концертът беше от HIStory tour. :)

Видях МАДОНА!!!

мерси много за Uncut magazine много добро ревю и позитивно

в Америка вече се наслаждават на Сета а ние

И във Франция вече го има, но като импорт :) Там бързо действат. :)

Видях МАДОНА!!!

Много готини ревюта наистина!Време беше хората да си спомнят за истинският Майкъл, музикантът и творецът, и да забравят за малко за клюките и лъжите...
И това Serial Thriller направо ме уби!А и снимката е просто...

Мисля, че има и не толкова положителни ревюта, но май са по-малко :)

Видях МАДОНА!!!

An 'Ultimate' trip down memory lane

Jackson's box set hits stores today

By Rashod D. Ollison
Sun Pop Music Critic
Originally published November 16, 2004

Once upon a time, not very long ago, Michael Jackson possessed special powers. And no one who surrendered to his music or felt the charge of his live performances was ever the same afterward.

But something happened. Gradually, the sweet brown face we had loved since 1969 turned chalk white. His nose shrank. What was once a warm, generous smile became a cold slash. As Jackson retreated further into his own bizarre universe, the pop legend became more erratic and one of the biggest punch lines around. Last year's child-molestation charges all but killed our faith in the man.

But admit it: You used to love him. And the new box set, The Ultimate Michael Jackson, in stores today, reminds us of the reasons we fell for him in the first place: The music was revolutionary. And with four discs of hits and rarities (plus a DVD), the box set exhaustively showcases Jackson's master craftsmanship in the studio, from 1969 to 2001. His work - especially the material up to 1982 - grows richer and more revelatory with each listen.

"There hasn't been a career-spanning deluxe Michael Jackson box set," says Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of A&R (artists and repertoire) at Legacy Records/Sony BMG Music, the company releasing the set. "It's not as if he's scheduled to have a new record [out] anytime soon. With all that's going on with him in the news, we thought it was a great time to focus on the music, because it was some of the best in pop: the vocals, the arrangements. Michael Jackson is like a one-man Beatles."

The box set stretches back to the beginning, when the pop legend was an 11-year-old dynamo with the Jackson 5 on Motown. Putting together the collection took roughly a year with full cooperation from the artist himself.

"Nothing happened without approval from Michael's camp," Berkowitz says. "He has a tremendous amount of music in his archive that is very organized, one of the most organized I've seen. We spent months working with Michael's camp, going through all this material."

Because Jackson has had such a long career (nearly 40 years) and so many hits (counting them all would probably take a week), four discs is hardly enough room to include every one. But not all the charted singles are as brilliant or as stimulating as what you get on the first two discs, which cover the stellar early years.

"There were compromises to be made for this," says Al Quaglieri, the box-set project manager, responsible for such details as combing Sony's vaults for the master recordings. "I mean, how do you pick the best songs from Thriller? We were trying to make the deep fans happy with things they haven't heard before."

Disc One appropriately begins with the Jackson 5's first hit, 1969's "I Want You Back." Little Michael's vocal exuberance on the track is still amazing, ablaze with soulful nuances and a keen sense of rhythm. The sequencing on the first disc displays how vibrantly Jackson's artistry evolved in such a short amount of time. By 1972 - as showcased on "Ben," the smash ode to a rat - the singer had developed remarkably as a lyric interpreter, enlivening the most benign tune with heart-breaking tenderness. (The best early example of this is his 1973 reading of "With a Child's Heart," a moving soul ballad that's nowhere on the box set.)

"The songs in some ways selected themselves," Berkowitz says. "You also had Michael Jackson's editorial eye on this. The criteria for the box set selection boiled down to the biggest hits, the best known, the most revealing, the most influential, the most fun."

Disc Two keeps up the momentum with selections from Thriller. But one of the best revelations of the collection is the demo version of "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)," an entirely different song from the snappy, pop-funk take on the mega-selling album. Smoother, imbued with an atmospheric Quiet Storm quality, the demo version could have easily been a smash. (The same is true of the previously unreleased "Sunset Driver," a heavily rhythmic jam recorded in 1982.)

Toward the end of Disc Two and on to Disc Three, things get a little spotty. This is circa 1987, when the artist dropped Bad, a generally decent effort with flashes of brilliance here and there. But overall, the magic had begun to fade. Such songs as "Bad," "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Dirty Diana" feel dated with the overuse of synths and tinny drum programming. And the previously unreleased material on Discs Three and Four (with the exception of the driving "Cheater") is mostly ho-hum.

The DVD, which contains a live show in Bucharest during the Dangerous tour, offers few real thrills. Jackson is still a fabulous performer throughout, but a DVD of his videos or various performances during his peak years would have been a better addition.

The box set's white-and-gold packaging is attractive. The accompanying book isn't as deep as it could have been. Ace music historian Nelson George provides the sole essay (such elaborate collections generally contain several by various writers), and Quaglieri writes a detailed timeline.

"I like to think that you can throw this box set on and there's not a [bad] track on it," says Quaglieri, who worked on expanded editions of Off the Wall andThriller. "Michael always existed in his own musical world. His music was miles apart, more sophisticated than what was out there at the time."

And in a lot of ways, it's beyond what's out there now.

Видях МАДОНА!!!

ARTIST: MICHAEL JACKSON
ALBUM: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION
(Reuters)

This four-CD collection is intended for those fans of Michael Jackson who want the smash songs but also demand unreleased and rare material. Unfortunately, because Jackson has so many hits, some are missing from this set in favor of the new tracks. What big singles are missing? Quite a few, actually: "Say Say Say" with Paul McCartney and the Jackson 5's "Never Can Say Goodbye," for starters. "The Ultimate Collection" does provide a solid overview of the legend's career -- from the Jackson 5 and his early solo work with Motown through the Jacksons era and his Epic solo career. Rare gems include the funky trio of "Sunset Driver," "Cheater" and "Monkey Business." One of the most recently recorded, unreleased cuts, "Fall Again," was produced and written by Walter Afanasieff and Robin Thicke. It's a lovely ballad that could have been a hit single. Also included is a DVD of Jackson's Dangerous tour concert from Bucharest in 1992.

Видях МАДОНА!!!

Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection

Originally released: 2004
Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

The Ultimate Collection is at least the fourth way to repurchase songs from Michael Jackson's Thriller: If you didn't fall for the 1995 greatest-hits/new-material mishmash HIStory, the 2001 Thriller special edition or last year's Number Ones anthology, here's another, even more expensive choice. Collection offers a four-disc career overview plus a DVD of a Bucharest, Romania, concert from the early Nineties. Tucked between singles are unretouched demos (including a sketch of "We Are the World" with a fragile Jackson singing the whole song), the long-missing but little-missed Captain EO track "We Are Here to Change the World" and, naturally, a bloated new anti-war ode, "We've Had Enough."

The good part: This is the first package to include Jackson's early years -- a few finger-poppin' Jackson 5 hits; the Wiz duet with Diana Ross, "Ease On Down the Road"; and assorted Jacksons productions found on the delightful Disc One. Previously unreleased outtakes include an easy-listening version of Thriller's "P.Y.T" that bears little resemblance to the original and a drop-dead-funky unreleased track left off 1991's Dangerous: "Monkey Business." Its dazzling, uncontrived exuberance makes you wonder about Jackson's artistic judgment: If he rejected this, what else is sitting on the cutting-room floor?

TOM MOON
(Posted Jan 05, 2005)

Its dazzling, uncontrived exuberance makes you wonder about Jackson's artistic judgment: If he rejected this, what else is sitting on the cutting-room floor?



...и аз това се питам от мноооого време...

Хаха, да, всички се питаме... Дано разберем някой ден! :)

Ох, какво не бих дала за само един едниствен шанс да се поровя из сейфа му със стари записи...

Дайте да измислим нещо и да действаме по въпроса. То е ясно, че най-хубавите му песни са само за ушите на ламите, жирафите и Елизабет Тейлър, но това не значи, че е честно .

you and your predators were warned

В отговор на:

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То е ясно, че най-хубавите му песни са само за ушите на ламите, жирафите и Елизабет Тейлър, но това не значи, че е честно

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Хахахаха, арми пак изби рибата. Ами освен да наемем професионален крадец с взлом и да се надяваме, че ще успее да ги измъкне. :)