Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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98 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
After 25 years - 'new' material from Brel!, 20 Nov 2003
Ok, this is another collection of Brel's music, on double-CD there are 40 tracks and most of them are very clear choices: 'Ne me quitte pas', 'Jacky', 'Les bonbons' 'Chanson des vieux amants', 'Amsterdam', 'Les bourgeois' and so on. But everything has been remastered for a clearer sound and obviously there is an attempt to cover the whole career, with early songs like 'Le diable' to the last album - and with five songs that were intended "for the next album" as Brel decided - and died before being able to make it. Of these 'L'amour est mort' is the most impressive one, with extremely cold piano sounds and Brel's passionate, coarse voice. The leaflet contains the words for these five songs, others have been published earlier in other collections. Or if you want all the lyrics, try to find 'Tout Brel', everything he wrote in one book.How necessary is this after all the collections? Very. Not only because of the newly found records but because even the oldest songs sound better than on older CD's. However, I still wonder why 50's songs are so poorly presented in this and other collections, after all 'Seul', 'La mort', 'La tendresse' and 'La colombe' from the end of the 50's are all powerful songs and bring out Brel's themes clearly, and from the earlier years there are lots of interesting songs, like beautiful 'Sur la place'. All of these are missing from this collection, which follows the very mainstream 'best of Brel'-tradition. Still, Brel family has done a good job, when finally releasing the previously unedited songs, so I simply can't give less than five stars and would like to give more.
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two-disk definitive introduction to all things Jacques Brel, 27 Feb 2008
Jacques Brel remains an integral and hugely influential singer/songwriter in the scheme of twentieth-century music; with his gloomy and orchestral tales of whores, sailors, tramps and harlots influencing everyone from Scott Walker, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Shane MacGowan and Nick Cave, to bands like Jack, the Divine Comedy and Pulp. Like those acts, Brel's music is literate and theatrical, unfolding in a bleak world populated by lost love, loneliness, angst, melancholy and despair, but with the darkness softened by witty arrangements, satirical motifs and moments of dark comedy. The atmosphere of the songs is rich and evocative throughout... so, like the work of his contemporary Serge Gainsbourg; the songs practically reek of cheap booze and cigarette smoke, with the music occupying a special place upon the stage within the low-rent night club scenario that play out inside our minds.
The forty tracks collected here represent Brel at his best, offering a great introduction for those previously unfamiliar with his work. Although it is true that there probably could have been a third disk included, with some of Brel's equally great (but lesser known) songs missing from this collection, the real point of this set is to introduce Brel's music to a new audience, or to act as a definitive collection of hits for those of us who can't afford the epic Jacques Brel box-set released a few years before this. If you're at all interested in European music, theatrical-decadence, grand orchestration and a genuine outpouring of pure emotion through song, or perhaps if you're already familiar with Brel through the references to him from subsequent artists like Scott Walker, Neil Hannon, Nick Cave and Jarvis Cocker, then this really is a must-have purchase.
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44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely the greatest!, 15 Nov 2005
Jacques Brel was most definitely the greatest Chanson singer of all times, and I find it regrettable that his work is so little known in the English-speaking world.
Of course, many people have heard "Ne me quitte pas" ("If you go away") or "Le Moribond" ("Seasons in the Sun") sung or played by other musicians, but listening to Jacques Brel can also be a wonderful experience, even for those who do not understand the French language: you can feel the passion in almost every word, and songs like "Amsterdam" or "Quand on n´a que l´Amour" are bound to move you.... Try it!Jean-Luc Dancy
French singer / songwriter
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~ Scott Walker
~ Serge Gainsbourg
~ Jacques Brel
~ Edith Piaf
~ Charles Aznavour
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