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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
So nearly brilliant, 13 Oct 2009
Even listening to compressed versions of this album, it's obvious that the remastering has had an amazing effect on the tracks from some of the "muddier" albums, such as Shamrock Diaries. You could easily convince yourself that these are complete re-recordings, like the "New Light Through Old Windows" album, rather than cleaned-up remixes. However, in some ways the collection disappoints. Although it's a matter of personal taste of course, I would imagine that very few Chris Rea fans would include "Tell Me There's A Heaven" on a compilation CD, whilst omitting great songs such as "Windy Town" or "Looking For A Rainbow".
On balance though, I'd say this is an album well worth owning, even if you have the originals.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Reasonably Comprehensive, 2 Oct 2009
I enjoyed the irony of Rubberlips comment about not reviewing something until it's been heard, followed by the admission that he/she's not heard the album yet either!!
Moving on. I've not listened to this either in a literal sense. However, I've downloaded the 2 new songs and own the rest, so in many respects I have listened to this before. My concern is that a release of yet another Greatest Hits compilation will damage Chris Rea's reputation further. Even now, when I tell my friends that I like Chris Rea, they ridicule me, with comments like 'lift music...' If only they knew the truth. In my humble opinion he's released some of the most thoughtful modern day blues going - especially in recent years. The trouble with a compilation like this is that it provides only a shallow insight to a far deeper body of work...
There have now been numerous Chris Rea best ofs containing staples such as Josephine (and not the original and best version at that), Steel River, Road to Hell (naturally), Fool If You Think It's Over, On The Beach..etc, etc. Why release another one? Sure the songs have been re-mastered, but you're buying a glorified regurgitation. This could have been an opportunity to release a real 'best of..' album, rather than another greatest hits. Sure, the inclusion of some of his latter blues makes a welcome change, but this could've been so much better. Imagine if we'd been offered remasters of 'Set Me Free', 'Chisel Hill', 'Curse of The Traveller', 'Looking For A Rainbow', 'Changing Times', 'Shadows of The Big Man', 'Reasons', 'Hired Gun' and many more lesser known gems. Now that would've been worth buying.
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19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At long last, a quality overview of Chris Rea in state of the art digital remasters from Rhino. The "Road to Paradise", no less!, 30 Sep 2009
It took me a simple glance at the titles assembled in this 2-CD collection from an artist that means a lot to me to pre-order this CD. I began appreciating Rea's music since first buying "Tennis" in 1980. This led me to discover his two previous albums and brought me to buy a large chunk of his subsequent LP's (then CD's). My top picks regarding his albums discography would be "On the Beach", "Road to Hell", "Auberge", "The Blue Café" and the live "The Road to Hell & Back". Of course, excellent individual tracks abound in his many other original albums.
It is true that several compilations from Chris have been released over the years, but every significant artist's record company does it and these albums do not normally cater for the dedicated fan but rather for the casual fan who likes to own some of the hits he dug. I also feel that the record labels policies cannot be held against artists who - truth be told - have most often nothing to do with this kind of compilations.
As regards song selection, the best single CD compilation of Chris Rea's music to date has to be "The Very Best of Chris Rea" that was released on the East/West label as early as 1995. My own Warner Music UK Limited copy of this CD sports a 2001 copyright. I bought it in hope that it would be properly remastered. This was not the case and I am lucky to have stuck to my LP versions of several (although sadly not all) of his albums.
Now, I feel like I should point out that I pay a lot of attention to the sound quality of my favorite recordings. I am using a Linn turntable and a Linn CD player in my otherwise all English hi-rez audio system. From an "audiophile" point of view, it cannot be denied that Chris Rea has been poorly served as far as quality remasters go.
I also wholeheartedly sympathize with another reviewer who complains that he has to buy this compilation when he only wants to own a single, previously unavailable and excellent song ("Come so far, yet still so far to go"). Again, this has nothing to do with Chris Rea himself. This dirty trick has been performed time and time again by every label for a long, long while. To put this into perspective, I will say that I received, today, a copy of Paul Simon's UK "Greatest Hits" Greatest Hits : Shining Like A National Guitar in order to own the original version of "Slip Slidin' Away" (although I already owned a demo of this track on the remastered "Still Crazy After All These Years" CD Still Crazy After All These Years.) I would also have much preferred to see the original studio version available alongside the demo itself. This is a personal choice that everyone has to make according to one's dedication to the artist involved and/or the audio quality that one wants to listen to from one's own audio rig.
In the end, I have put an advance order for this CD not for becoming the owner of the hitherto "unavailable" track but essentially for the reason that all of the tracks have been remastered by the talented team of digital engineers at Rhino's. Without having heard the results, numerous previous experiences with their work convince me that the remasters are going to be definite. Of course, I would much prefer to be able to buy remastered CD's of all of my Chris Rea's favorite albums. However, it is highly unlikely that this will be possible anytime soon (after all, did it not take all of 22 years to be able to buy state of the art re-releases of the Beatles' original albums after the first remasters appeared at the end of the eighties). To paraphrase Warren Zevon's words expressed in his "Looking for the Next Best Thing" song from "The Envoy" album: "I appreciate the best, but I will settle for less" The Envoy. When buying this remastered compilation, I simply buy the best sounding available versions of prime material that is so precious to me. Still, I will keep on listening to the remainder of Chris Rea's output in either very good or much less stellar quality sound.
As far as I am concerned, 34 remastered prime quality tracks are surely not something to be ignored.
This compilation could also prove a boon to those of Chris Rea's more casual fans when the recommended retail price is also taken into consideration.
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