Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The virtuoso's virtuoso., 25 May 2006
Sam Brown stopped compromising when her record company asked her to put a "hit" on her deeply personal and introspective album 43 Minutes, and she refused. She has been steadfast in not compromising ever since and this collections reflects that magnificently.
"Stop" is all present and correct, of course, (it's a belter, after all) but many of the singles are absent, to make way for a journey through Brown's musical range, from the slightly spooky "I'll Be In Love" through the introspection of "Fear of Life" and "One Candle" and the heartbreaking (but ultimately life-affirming) "Letting Go" we travel some dark roads, before reaching the near-music-hall respite of "Valentine Moon" and "Three Bells". Then there is the unsettling but really rather wonderful "Away With the Faeries", with just Brown's top-drawer voice and her ukelele. Child-like the woman, indeed.
Remember, this is a "Best of", not a "Greatest Hits" and it is all the stronger for Brown choosing such a varied illustration of her amazing talents. More strength to her (and then of course, there is the splendidly daft "Tea").
Treat yourself and see what a real musician can do.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not the very best, but Sam's voice shines..., 31 Mar 2006
It seems that Sam selected the tracks herself for this compilation, but I'm not sure that was a wise move. Whilst we get the most obvious tracks here, namely "Stop" (strangely, a weaker demo version is included at the end when the CD would have been better served with a different track), "Fear Of Life" and "I Forgive You", there's some very good official singles missing here, such as "With A Little Love" (the first single of hers I bought), "Mindworks", "Once In Your Life" and the only single from her Reboot album ("In Light Of All That's Gone Before").So what of the non-single tracks included here? A mixed bag I'm afraid - "I'll Be In Love" is too ethereal and drifting really and is the weakest point in what is otherwise a generally winning sequence of the first 10 tracks. Things go a little off the rails after that with esoteric choices like "Blood Runs Cold" and the almost-novelty cover of "Three Bells". Criminally omitted non-single tracks include "Piece Of My Luck", "Sometimes", "Contradictions", "Hypnotised", "Now And Forever", "In The Rain" and "Liberty In Reality". Despite all my grumbles, Sam's voice is fantastic throughout of course and there's enough good tracks on show for someone to extract 40-45 minutes of classic material here. Just a shame that much of Sam's best material is sadly omitted for reasons that are difficult to fathom. I strongly urge you to check out all her original studio albums...they're excellent listens without exception. I like "April Moon" for her poppier material and "43 Minutes" if you're in a more mellow mood - start with those two first. Maybe this should have been a double CD with the singles on the first disc (and maybe one or two new tracks in there) and Sam's favourite non-single tracks on the second CD? We might have been better served by such a deal. BTW, I'd *love* to see a Best Of DVD release - there was an old VHS release 15-odd years ago, but surely we deserve a DVD version now?
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Solid Collection, 5 Jun 2006
This is a good collection of Sam material, although if you're a Sam Fan you would have almost all of the tracks. One can always quibble with the selections on these sorts of albums, but (according to the onecandle website), Sam selected these herself.
There are some rare/unreleased tracks to make this a good buy, such as the demo of Stop, Valentine Moon and the final version of Show Your Love.
The sound is good and the package is nice, but it would have been great to have a some more B-sides or live tracks in there, too: Horse to the Water from Concert for George, perhaps, or some solo live selections?
Maybe next time.
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