George Michael - Twenty Five
|
List Price: Our Price: $8.92 You Save: $14.06 (61%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.65 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Twenty Five
Free Music Review: Nice sounding 25 year overview although it is missing key songs. See if you agree
Hit: 4 Stars
1998's 2 CD set "Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael" was an almost 5-star release when it came out, but it obviously could not include songs that had not been released as it made it thorough "Older."
This 2006 2 CD set "Twenty Five", which celebrates Michael's 25 years in the buiz, differs in that includes material from his 2 last releases(1999's "Songs From The Last Century" & 2004's "Patience" a couple of new songs, and a handful of hits from George's days in Wham!
So what to do if you don't have either release?
I am a huge fan and went ahead and bought the 3 CD edition and I can safely tell you not to waste your money as the third CD, which could have been an amazing set of remixes and the like, but settles for including good/ok but in many cases less than stellar material from his last two releases and a great song from his Wham! days.
If you have been a fan since George's Wham! days, you really ought to buy one of many best of sets that are out there for the group itself as they cover that era very well and Wham! had some of the catchiest songs Michael has ever recorded.
Putting "Twenty Five" and "Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael" side by side:
I would chose the 1999 release, although the new one seems to have been remastered better as it sounds cleaner (at least to me).
But "Twentyfive" does have a lot going for it as includes key songs from "Older", an amazing (AMAZING) duet with Mary J. Blige covering Steve Wonder's "As, which was not included in the 1999 release due to marketing/label/"moral values" issues, it also includes two new songs, one of which "An Easy Affair" that I think rocks, but it misses key songs.
On the other hand "Twentyfive" surprisingly overlooks key songs in George's catalogue (you CAN'T have a best of that does not include "I Want Your Sex" or "Hard Day" just to name a couple). It does include key songs from the underrated "Older," but does not cover key songs from his "Songs From The Last Century" or "Patience." If you buy the 3 CD set while find some songs from the last two releases but they are tepid with the exception of a couple of great interpretations from "Songs".
In a nutshell, you could not go wrong buying this release, esp. if you've been a casual fan since the early 80's and don't mind not having "I Want Your Sex" on it. Even non-casual fans will appreciate songs that they may not have had in their collection and they all sound like a million bucks.
I do wish that this release has done more as it squandered a really good opportunity to reward long-time fans with more new material and remixes of songs. I give it a 4 when there is enough material in Michael's catalogue to produce a 5+ release.
One last non-rating related personal comment: Here's hoping that George gets back to recording songs that remind you of why he became such a superstar in the first place. He seems to think that growing up means that his music has to somehow be more mature, but mature need not be the adult contemporary road and I wish that he could pull or attempt to pull what Madonna did with "Confessions on the Dancefloor" to remind new artists that some acts that came of age in the 1980s had talent to spare and were not simply by the number acts from Disney. Have you guys looked at the charts lately? Scary.
Free Music Review: The King of European Pop/R&B
Hit: 4 Stars
This is a brilliant and complete hits compilation of George Michael. It contains 2 cds, (even though there also are a version for the most fanatics with 3 cds - one cd for odd extra songs, and other DVD version (2 dvds) for watch him in live).
Well then, he had launched in his solo career another Greatest hits double-album "Ladies and Gentlemen, the best of George Michael", eight years ago, but this is a better choice to get the best stuff of George Michael, because this one summarise the songs he has done next and also contains Wham! songs (the former duet where he was the frontman and the lead singer but his mate Andrew was the background singer, played the guitar and written along to him). Wham! are great, there are missing songs as: I'm your man, Club Tropicana, A different corner (accredited to George Michael solo), etc; but there's no complains, the songs which appears here: "Wake me up before you go-go", "Last Christmas", "Freedom" and "Everything she wants" are the best Wham! songs ever and he have to make a summarise of the 25 years in the music world (so the album is called "Twenty Five", although actually 25 years ago he wasn't in the scene yet, but he was working and preparing to launching with Wham!).
But if you want to listen to more Wham! songs, the duet has got several Greatest Hits compilations.
Also I want to say it's a good way what he has done dividing in one cd the ballads and in the other the upbeat and fast songs.
Always as a marketing strategy there are hits missing, I never don't like that so "I want your sex" isn't here (and neither in the last hits compilation, where there appeared only the part II of the song. What a pitty!). You can't either find the jazz-swing ballad "Kissing a fool" of Faith. But except for this and which this compilation is a double album - perhaps it may be a bit longer as a first George Michael purchase, He could have released the last time "Ladies and Gentlemen.. as a single album of just a cd...this was the main mistake I think"-, anyway I love Greatest hits and listen to the best of an artist or group. Well done George!.
This album contains unreleased songs and nowadays new singles, like "An eassier affair", and for example a stunning duet with Paul McCartney of the song "Heal the pain" (originally single from "Listen withput prejudice Vol. I"), and the solo hits: Faith, Careless whisper, One more try, Freedom '90, Outside, etc. All of them are well worth it.
If you love the personal George Michael's voice you can also enjoy to the singer Christian Burns, involved as the lead singer from Inhaler band, and former BBMak member. He has a voice in that style more or less of the earlier George (I think the best and gold stage): 80's.
Free Music Review: NOT MY USUAL SCENE
Hit: 4 Stars
It is well over twenty years since I first heard Careless Whisper. My children were playing a tape of it during a long car journey, and it caught my attention and has haunted my recollection ever since. My own musical home ground is classical, and I have never followed the charts to any great extent. However music to me is just music, its effect is unpredictable and irrational, and there is never any mistaking the unaccountable thrill that some music can give me, whatever category of music it supposedly belongs in.
This set has just been given to me as a birthday present by one of the children, who are now of course adults. The idea is apparently to take me out of my classical comfort zone, but if one thing has consistently struck me in half a century of hearing pop music it is just how conservative it is in certain ways. The harmonisation would in general have seemed unenterprising to composers in the year 1700, yet this is the kind of music that millions really listen to and are really affected by. From this I have to draw the conclusion that a simple harmony that lasts unaltered through untold numbers of changes of musical fashion, style and idiom can hardly be thought of as outmoded, whatever the earnest intellectual theories of the 20th century.
George Michael has apparently composed most of the music here himself, and I certainly seem to detect a resemblance in the style of many of the numbers. Unsurprisingly, I like some of them better than some others, and still none matches up to Careless Whisper for me. Bottom of the charts for me is the joint number with Elton John `Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me', I have to say. However something that does a lot for even the items that interest me less from a musical viewpoint is George Michael's voice. This is really most striking and distinctive in its higher register, a fine tenor sound that will continue to keep me listening to songs that would not hold my attention otherwise.
Whether I was in that much of a musical comfort zone I rather doubt, but the matter is not for me to judge. I am not at all comfortable with some 20th century `classical' music and I am rarely uncomfortable with the pops, even if only intermittently interested. This set is going to be chiefly background music for me, I'm sure, but it's mainly new music to me at the moment. I'm not shaken in the least although I genuinely am stirred up to a point. Why should that be otherwise? It's music innit?
Free Music Review: Older Go-Go
Hit: 4 Stars
The 1980's have brought us so many definitive performers we look up to today. Acts like Madonna, Whitney Houston and especially Michael Jackson and Prince have reshaped, and made us believe what pop music really is. That also could be said for George Michael as well. Since he came out almost a quarter of a century ago, his music has been everywhere overseas, although his main claim to fame here on his own, mostly is considered towards the Faith record. There also was a definitive hits record reflecting George's solo efforts released nearly a decade ago, Ladies & Gentlemen, which did very well on his career. Now, another hits album thrives it way to earning new George Michael fans, but does it really work?
Twenty Five, George Michael's 2006 Greatest Hits record, is like the previous one, Ladies & Gentlemen is a double album reflecting, and expanding on George Michael's longevity as a singer, and performer. The album includes 29 songs, including a couple of new recordings that also shine on this album. The songs here have all been remastered well, and shine brightly as they were released years ago. the album includes great tracks like One More Try, Father Figure, the somber 1996 ballad Jesus To A Child, as well as other classics. The album also does a little better of a job highlighting George's era as a part of Wham with Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, and Everything She Wants. Sadly though, like many good hits packages, there is always something missing. The album overlooks songs like Knew You Were Waiting For Me, his duet with Aretha Franklin which was highlighted on Ladies & Gentlemen, and other great tracks from his Wham era like The Edge Of Heaven and Young Guns too.
All in all, Twenty Five is a fairly well put collection for die hard George Michael fans, as well as die hard fans of his Wham era. Although I wish it could've highlighted more, I still recommend this as a great addition to your music library, and that is everything you want.
Album Cover: B+
Songs: B
Price: B 1/2-
Remastering: B+
Overall: B
Free Music Review: Very Talented Cat
Hit: 4 Stars
George Michael made some of the tightest cuts back in the day. the guy truly could write and Sing. his wham days had moments,but his Solo career is what made him a household name. and I still feel with the right type of record now he could easily come back.he has serious talent and for my Money Justin Timberlake could't hold one of George Michael's Choose Life Shirts. Carless Whisper, Jesus to a child, fastlove, one more try,praying for time,etc... George Michael was that dude back in the day who had style,charisma and brought alot of feeling in his music. i'd like to see him make one more serious run because he has the kind of talent that could easily hang today and even longer if he wanted to. this is a very good collection and a reminder of a true talent. in truth the Cat is very Underrated.