Radiohead - The Best of (Special Edition 2CD)
|
List Price: Our Price: $22.74 You Save: $2.20 (9%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $19.94 (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 The Best of (Special Edition 2CD)
Free Music Review: THE BEST OF
Hit: 5 Stars
GREAT CD! EXCELLENT COMPILATION OF HITS YOU CAN JUST POP IN THE CD AND LET IT PLAY ALL THE WAY THROUGH!Free Music Review: Good road music..all the hits plus
Hit: 5 Stars
This is great road music on my long commute. All the hits are here, without any skippable moments.Free Music Review: best of radiohead..
Hit: 5 Stars
just buy it..
you know you want to..
ghost
Free Music Review: The Best Of
Hit: 4 Stars
It's weird. If you would have asked me what one band I thought wouldn't have a greatest hits sort of record, Radiohead probably would've been on the top of the shortlist. Not because Radiohead don't have their far share of great tunes, but because if there was an album band in the ninties and early 00, it was Radiohead, where each record had it's own distinctive flow and feel.
Containing songs from their six EMI albums (nothing from "In Rainbows" is included here as it was recorded after their contract expired), "The Best Of" is surprisingly well done, with each album represented fairly well, and is a good primer for people who may not know much about Radiohead, or don't own any of their albums.
DISC ONE:
"The Bends" and "OK Computer" are best represented here probably, with five of disc one's tracks coming from "The Bends" and four coming from "OK Computer", while "Pablo Honey", "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" all account for the other eight songs.
Any song here that a caual fan would want are here, from their first hit single through their alt-rock radio staples "Fake Plastic Trees", "High and Dry" and "Karma Police". This disc also features some of their more experimental material, as "Everything In It's Right Place" (which is even odder sounding I think not leading off a record), and "Pyramid Song" represent. The selection of songs on this disc, the one that will be more widely availble as a single disc variation, is strong, and will please the casual listener.
The problems with the disc come down to sequencing, as it is weird to hear "Fake Plastic Trees" between "Optimistic" and "Idioteque". As a group with records that were individual entities, it provides for a slightly incoherant mix, which might confuse people, and doesn't help out the overall flow of the record.
Another problem with the first disc, again the one that is going to be more widely bought over time I have to believe, and I never thought that I would say this being a non-fan of these albums, is that "Amnesiac" and "Hail to the Thief" are underrepresented. By focusing so much on "The Bends" and "OK Computer", still my personal favorite Radiohead discs, it doesn't show Radiohead in it's fullest light. And I have to wonder where is "Sit Down, Stand Up", still one of the best Radiohead songs in my opinion.
But hey, you can't please everyone, so...
DISC TWO:
The bonus disc for this special edition is where you can find more album tracks, and is pretty cool in it's own right. It's pretty interesting to hear "Anyone Can Play Guitar" on the same disc as "I Might Be Wrong" and "The National Anthem". And the selection, too, is strong, with any lesser known more popular favorites (odd statement that), and the inclusion of "True Love Waits", availble on the live EP "I Might Be Wrong" is a nice choice.
The problem with this disc is it renders itself fairly worthless. Not the quality of music (in fact, the stuff from "Amnesiac", my least favorite record from the band, sounds better not on the album itself, if that makes sense), but one has to wonder who needs the second disc. It skimps on new material (no surprise as Radiohead did not endorse of support this product) or even remixes, meaning that fans who dig the band don't need it, and casual fans will shrug it off because the single disc edition already has everything they want.
The packaging and booklet for the record are strong, on par with what you see with most comps of this sort.
Overall, EMI put their work into putting together this record. It features everything that a casuel fan could ask for, and for those who decide to splurge on this edition will get a fairly strong overview of Radiohead's music thus far. It's a strong collection, well put together, flawed but for sure does what it was setting out to do. Fans probably don't need it, but newcomers will enjoy it.
Free Music Review: Great music, but for whom is this intended?
Hit: 4 Stars
Music: 5 stars.... Compilation: 3 stars
When Radiohead decided with the "In Rainbows" album not to re-up with EMI, it was only a matter of time before the label would squeeze a few more drops out of the money machine that Radiohead was for EMI. The label simply had to find a good time and excuse to do so, and that time has come now (new tour!). The band has made clear that it has nothing to do with this "best of", all the while also acknowledging that EMI has the legal right to do this. Now the question is: is this compilation any good?
"The Best of Radiohead: Special Edition" (2 CDs, 30 tracks, 135 min.) is a very generous overview of Radiohead's best songs from the 7 albums it recorded for EMI. CD1 (17 tracks; 76 min.) brings the "greatest hits", and hence not surprisingly focuses on tracks from three albums: a whopping 6 tracks from 1995's commercial breakthrough album "The Bends", including the singles Just, My Iron Lung, High and Dry, Fake Plastic Trees, and Street Spirit (Fade Out) and also the fabulous title track. 1997's "OK Computer" album, viewed by many as one of the most important albums of the 90s, gets 4 tracks, including the singles Paranoid Android, Karma Police, No surprises, and also Lucky. 2000's so-called experimental "Kid A" album gets 3 tracks: Optimistic, Idioteque, and Everything In Its Right Place. With that, 75% of this "best of" compilation is filled. The remaining 3 studio albums get a mere 4 tracks: the monster hit Creep from 1993's "Pablo Honey"; Pyramid Song from 2001's "Amnesiac; and finally There There and 2+2=5 from 2004's "Hail to the Thief".
CD2 (13 tracks, 59 min.) brings deeper tracks from the various albums, and is just slightly more of a headscratcher to me than CD1. There are 2 singles that didn't make CD1 (Knives Out from "Amnesiac" and Go to Sleep from "Hail to the Thief"), and after that it's a bit all over the place: You and Anyone Can Play Guitar From "Pablo Honey"; Planet Telex from "The Bends" plus Talk Show Host, a B side of that era; Airbag, Let Down and Exit Music (For a Film) from "OK Computer"; The National Anthem and How To Disappear Completely from "Kid A"; I Might Be Wrong and Knives Out from "Amnesiac"; and even the live mini-album "I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings" is represented with "True Love Waits".
In all, while it is always possible to split hairs and argue over the selection of the tracks, it is difficult to be upset with the final result. EMI actually did a pretty good job of it! I will say that I am not crazy with the sequencing of the album. I would have preferred a chronological sequencing, for one. Notice that on CD1 the 3 tracks from "Kid A" are scattered and buried in the second half for some reason. For anyone not all that familiar with Radiohead, if you are wondering whether to buy this, or to buy the single CD, I would urge to buy the single CD compilation. If you like what you hear there, the next step is to explore the individual studio albums of Radiohead. I have no idea to whom the 2CD Special Edition is marketed to, to be honest. The causal Radiohead fan doesn't need that much and the rabbit Radiohead fan already has all of this. But the music is fantastic, let there be not doubt about it.