Like, Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box (Totally)
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Free Music Notes for Like, Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box (Totally)
Free Music Review: 80's FEVER!!!!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
I love 80's music and I personally favor it alot more than the music of today. When I first heard of this box set, I couldn't believe that there were 7 discs! I plan on buying this set once I have enough money saved up. A few of my favorite songs off the box set are Pac-Man Fever (that's how I came up the name for my title of this review!), Video Killed the Radio Star, Weird Science (I actually have the movie), Electric Avenue and many others. I grew up in the 80's as a child at the start of the decade and then became a teenager near the end. I often wish it was still the 80's and want to bring back the decade. If I can't physically be back in the 80's, then this is the next best thing. Yes, unfortunately the 80's decade is gone, but the music itself will never go away. To me, it will always will be like a "Candle in the Wind".Free Music Review: Really Dismal Attempt At Encapsulating A Promising Decade
Hit: 2 Stars
Unless you have no idea whatsoever how to create your own mix CDs out of the CDs you already own, 84.52% of this box set will be a total waste of your time. I calculated. I actually sat down with my calculator, counted up the number of tracks in each disk that I'd heard so many times via 1990s-era '80s nostalgia programs that I could automatically play each track in my head, calculated percentages, and averaged the percentages out *. Disc 2 ended up being the most "obscure" CD, mainly because the '80s nostalgia programs from the '90s never bothered with the "Greatest American Hero" theme, nor did they ever explain who Bob & Doug McKenzie (who I still don't know anything about -- I am a prototypical child of the '90s) were. Otherwise, it'd have probably been just as miserable as, oh, say, Disc 7, with 80% of the tracks included therein in my "Overplayed" list.
But that's just me. I crave little-known classic New Wave artists. I am proud to be an '80s obsessive, not because of Rick bleeding Springfield, nor because of that cursed "Sister Christian" song, but because of great obscure and semi-obscure artists such as the Comsat Angels, The Reels, Heaven 17, Toyah, Lene Lovich, and Blancmange. Sure, some of the "overplayed" songs from the '80s are quite fun and I do enjoy listening to them. I still love "Too Shy" and "One Thing Leads to Another", for example, and Madness's "Our House" is still a classic in my eyes, just to name three of the tracks on this compilation. And sure, I do think it's quite cool that they included some cool '80s tracks, such as Laid Back's "White Pony" and The Cure's "Let's Go To Bed", herein, but that doesn't make up for the 1,359th time Robert Palmer's "Addicted To Love" (sorry Mr. Palmer -- big respect for you and all, esp since you were a huge advocate for the aforementioned Comsat Angels, but dude, people have GOT to give that "Addicted To Love" song a rest) or "Don't Worry Be Happy" land on an '80s compilation.
If you do indeed have a burning desire to listen to '80s Top Twenty tracks, I'm sure you own a few dozen '80s compilation CDs that have pretty much every '80s track included in this box set. Go ahead, rip them, build your own '80s compilation box set. Use the power of Google to bring up any of the many great '80s resources online and make up your own liner notes from the information found within. Chances will be good that what you get in the end will be much, much better than what this '80s box set promises. And you won't spend nearly the amount of mad dough on your own homemade '80s box set as you would on THIS '80s box set.
(Note: I'm a huge Duran Duran maniac. I will be the first to tell you that "Hungry Like The Wolf" is WAY overplayed and ALSO needs to be given a rest. If *I* can state that....)
(*: I calculated that 76.19% of the tracks on CD 1, 70% of the tracks on CD 2, 90.48% of the tracks on CD 3, 90% of the tracks on CD 4, 95% of the tracks on CD 5, 90% of the tracks on CD 6, and 80% of the tracks on CD 7 fell under my "Overplayed" banner, i.e. I'd heard the songs so many times on '80s nostalgia-themed syndicated radio programs throughout the '90s or seen the videos so many times on 1990s-era '80s music video shows that I could play the whole of the song in my head just by reading what the title of the song was and who perfomed it.)
Free Music Review: Ah, the 80s....
Hit: 5 Stars
....although some of the biggest hits and stars are missing, notably Prince and Madonna, this collection will certainly bring back memories of the good, the bad, and the ugly from this tumultuous decade. A must-have for your music collectionFree Music Review: Nice overview - may be addictive...
Hit: 4 Stars
Be forewarned, the sugar-coated empty calories found in the LIKE, OMIGOD... box set from Rhino will just leave you wanting more. 142 tracks across seven CDs and it just scratches the surface on a shallow, yet oddly endearing decade.LIKE, OMIGOD... hits almost all of the popularly acknowledged high points, including "867-5309/Jenny," "Tainted Love," "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," - as well as great novelty numbers and underground tunes like "Pac-Man Fever," "Da Da Da," and "Turning Japanese." While not in strict chronological order like Rhino's 70s set, HAVE A NICE DECADE, LIKE, OMIGOD... is well-sequenced and provides a relatively satisfying trip - as well as a great set for any party. No need for "random play" here - just load this set, hit "play" and dance away.
While this set is almost certainly a one-stop shop for the music fan simply looking for a well-balanced 80s collection, the completist and discerning collector will no doubt view this as the tip of the iceberg. Those such as myself, more enthralled with the simultaneous New Wave movement, will find lots more to love (approximately 300 tracks worth - with minimal duplication) in Rhino's 15-volume JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH 80s collection. Even then, LIKE, OMIGOD... will spur you on to fill up your shopping cart with with entire albums by Billy Squier, Duran Duran, The Fixx, Pretenders and more.
The only downside to be found is that LIKE, OMIGOD... also forces the listener to take the bad with the good (or the worse with the bad?), presenting end-of-the-decade stinkers such as New Kids on the Block and Richard Marx toward the end of the seventh disc. For this listener, those musical tragedies are still too recent, too terrible to revisit with any degree of nostalgia.
As gaudily packaged as the decade it represents, LIKE, OMIGOD... is presented in a hardcover book format identical to HAVE A NICE DECADE and contains a similar full-color booklet complete with essays, trivia, 80s timeline and notes on each of the performers and songs included. The sound of the CDs, as with all Rhino product, is pristine. As for the sound of some of the music - well, you can't blame Rhino...
Free Music Review: FREAKIN' AWESOME COLLECTION!
Hit: 5 Stars
I can't tell you how many 80's compilations I have and, aside from each of them usually having the same couple songs, like The Fixx or Squeeze, (which isn't on here), you're always surprised when you listen to a compilation by which songs you hear that you never knew the name for and all of a sudden you're "like, omigod! (no pun intended) That's THAT song!?! I KNOW that song!" LOL...hearing a lot of these brought back some great eighties memories for me, even though I was only a kid back then. This compilation had most of my fave 80's songs on it, so I could just copy the one or two songs off my other compilations, make one CD out of them, and sell the rest. I advise anyone who's interested in this to do the same. But read Amazon's list of songs first, if you haven't already, to make sure your favorites are on here. Definitely worth the money, considering you're getting seven CD's, so it equals out to about ten dollars or so per CD, (I got mine for $73). As further proof, I'm letting my co-worker listen to disc 6 right now and she's so impressed, she's downloading it to her hard drive at work and will be purchasing it with her next check to bring it home! :-p If you love 80's, get this compilation. No collection is complete without it. Plus, the awesome booklet it comes with gives you a little info on each song, a historical timeline following the songs, and many many many colorful photographs! Impressive and worth it!