The Band - The Band - Greatest Hits
|
List Price: Our Price: $10.99 You Save: $0.99 (8%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $5.99 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for The Band - Greatest Hits
Free Music Review: A decent effort, but not an adequate collection
Hit: 3 Stars
This album is good start for those who have not heard much of The Band's work before (also the Brown Album is a good start too). But this collection will not satisfy fans like myself; let me list just a few songs missing: "This Wheel's on Fire", "We Can Talk", "Unfaithful Servant", and "Don't Do It". It would have been much better if this collection would have been expanded to two discs.Free Music Review: A valid effort, but true fans will want the remasters.
Hit: 3 Stars
There is no question that The Band are musicians best appreciated and understood by taking the time to listen to their albums individually. That is the only way to experience the impressive creativity and diversity of their music, and to see the occasional near perfection - as well the occasional clunker -in their truly original body of work. That said, if you are not such a purist that the mere thought of a "Best Of" makes you shudder, this is a valid effort at bringing together a retrospective, and quite frankly, I'm glad to not have put in Cahoots just hear the the two songs I like off of it. All fans will miss something here and may take issue with some choices (I immediately noted the absence of a "Ring Your Bell" from Northern Lights Southern Cross and "Jemima Surrender" from The Band, and question if "Saga of Pepote Rouge" is the best representation from Islands). The thing I liked best about this CD is the liner notes, which include great descriptions of the instruments, and the techniques used to play them, on certain songs. The notes also give due credit to Robbie Robertson, not only for his highly skillful, miminmalist guitar style but for his songwriting abilities. At his finest, no one has written better narrative folk/rock songs than Robertson. The other great thing about this CD is the sound. I also got the remasters of Music from Big Pink and The Band when I got this album, and my old CDs of NLSC and Islands sounded so flat and sad in comparison I think I will wait for those remasters before listening to them again!Free Music Review: The Band Greatest Hits Yes Greatest Sound No
Hit: 4 Stars
Wow! A 24 bit remaster of the Band's Greatest Hits. Sounds great except it don't. Way too much analog tape hiss and fat mids and some lows but not too much on the high end. With processing such as JVC's K2 available it doesn't make any sense for a CD to sound the way this one does. Now having said that, this is a GREAT compilation of the Band's work as far as the hits are concerned. If you are a Band fan then you will have your favorite album(s) which have also been "remastered". This is a great primer and does sound better than earlier CD efforts, it's just that the technology and techniques are out there to have made this sound spectacular. One star deduction for promises not kept, the sound, and a full 5 stars for the content.Free Music Review: Words cannot do this music justice...
Hit: 4 Stars
I love The Band so much that it's reeeeally tempting to dismiss this collection and tell you to go buy their albums. But I guess that wouldn't be fair. The reality is, for any group or artist, there are going to be some people who only want to own a single disc. This is not definitive, but it's a huge improvement over the previous "Best of". It's longer, it sounds 10 times better, and you get "When I Paint My Masterpiece" and the magnificent "Acadian Driftwood". Yes, arguments can be made about what's NOT here (no "This Wheel's On Fire", nothing from Rock of Ages), but what IS here is of the finest quality, and better that you should buy this than miss out completely on this musical treasure.Free Music Review: It's All About the Music
Hit: 3 Stars
The Band has been rather mercilessly packaged and re-packaged since its breakup in the late 1970s. This greatest hits collection faces a rather daunting task -- collect the best moments of one of the greatest of all American rock groups.Capitol's re-packaging of the Band's monumental first two albums and their less stellar followups deserves some praise; this one seems much more like a moneymaking ploy. Four tunes each from "Big Pink" and "The Band" anchor this compilation, with the remaining 10 tunes scattered from "Stage Fright" to "Islands."
Still -- it's all about the music, and you can't go wrong with selections like "The Weight," "Tears of Rage," "Up On Cripple Creek," etc. "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" doesn't usually make it to these compilations so it's nice to see it here. Likewise with "Acadian Driftwood."
The re-mastering job sounds much better on the later tracks, particularly "Life Is A Carnival." To my ears, the tracks from the first three albums had a bit of a pronounced tape hiss. Too bad "The Last Waltz" is on another label -- it would have been good to hear some of those selections (particularly "Evangeline") here.
A greatest hits package could probably serve most bands (KISS and Foreigner come to mind) but not The Band. If any of these songs interest you, skip this and head for the original albums. This is just for the first-timers.