Touch the World Review

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(More customer reviews)When life deals you lemons, you make lemonade. After the tremendous failure of The Fire's 1983 cosmic voyage, Electric Universe, the legendary band came crashing down to Earth. After a four-year hiatus and a few solo efforts, a reformed EW&F picked up the pieces and released Touch The World, which I consider to be their "down to Earth" album.
Just the fact that the group was willing to come back was enough to make me smile, but how is the album??? Well, I know you want to hear that all the original members came back with their instruments cocked and ready, and just blew the roof off the joint, but let's be real. Those Phenix Horns don't work cheap, and hey, wouldn't a drum machine be more economically sound than dragging Ralph Johnson back into the studio? No, the synthetics that dominated the last album are still there, but wait a minute. This actually sounds like R&B! Also, the album has a much more street feel than ever before, with much attitude and plenty of "boom-bap" in almost every cut. The joints to cue up here are "System Of Survival", which challenges everyday stress with dance; "Evil Roy", for those cats that stay doin' nuthin'; "Thinking Of You", another slick R&B cut; and "Touch The World", which features the Hawkins Family and is the first gospel joint from this group since "In The Stone" off their '79 album, I Am. This album stands out because of its era-appropriateness at the time of release.
No song on this album is truly wack, but the album does have its faults. One being the lost chemistry between Maurice and Phillip, possibly due to the already seasoned solo career of Phillip Bailey. Another being that there are virtually NO live instruments outside of synthesizers. Andrew Woolfolk saxes it up on "New Horizons", but then he's ghost. The group did an excellent job in redefining themselves, but even with only 5 members, you know there is just too much talent there for this to be the best they can offer. These negatives are, however, outweighed by many positives: Not only did this album put EW&F back on the map to gold status, but it also brought them back to their core R&B audience, and most importantly, Earthly subject matter. Overall, this is a trump tight budget album that brought a glimmer of hope to Earth Wind's future and truly touched the world.


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Door to Door Review

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(More customer reviews)After all the reviews I've read about this album, I was expecting it to be a total downer. Suprisingly, it isn't, at least to me. There isn't one song on Door To Door that I dislike, and a few of them I really find to be among the band's best. Overall though, it's still the Cars' weakest album. Most of the magic that had surrounded Heartbeat City and their great 1985 single 'Tonight She Comes' (my favorite Cars song) had worn away by 1987. Most of the band members seemed more interested in their solo albums working on Door To Door. It's no wonder they split up after this album. At least it starts out great, with 'Leave or Stay', packed with more of that familiar Ric Ocasek humor and a nice, melodic chorus. After that comes the sole 'hit' on Door To Door, 'You Are The Girl'. A charming song with some of the band's best harmonies, and pretty, trademark keyboard-driven melody. There's still magic here at least. This was the first Door To Door song I'd ever heard, as it was also on The Cars Complete Greatest Hits collection. 'Double Trouble' is good, but not great, though it has a good chorus and driving guitars. 'Fine Line' is one of my favorite Cars songs. Moody, atmospheric, and filled with great lyrics, this has, like 'You Are The Girl', a classic Cars feel. One reviewer dubbed 'Fine Line' as a limp 'Drive' remake, though it's always reminded me more of 'A Dream Away' from the Shake It Up album or 'You Wear Those Eyes' from Panorama. Possible the best song on Door To Door. Then there's 'Everything You Say' which is one of a few of the songs on this album that has a different feel than your average Cars song. It's almost country or rockabilly-ish. I still like it though. Another great chorus. 'Ta Ta Wayo Wayo' is weird and different, but still quite good. Reminds me of Sandinista!-era Clash, sort of. Check out that boogie-woogie piano riff; very weird for a Cars song. 'Strap Me In' is a failed single, which is too bad, since it's a great, classic-feeling Cars rocker. Killer chorus; should've stormed the charts. Killer intro too, very stately and classical. The next song, 'Coming Up You', I really love. It's bordering on soft rock, but I don't care. Can't get enough of that melody and Ben Orr's honey voice. Miss 'im. This was yet another failed single, but I can't get enough listens to it. 'Wound Up On You' is a wonderful ballad, a la 'Why Can't I Have You'. Pretty chorus, filled with soft, subtle hooks. Shoulda been a single. 'Go Away' is more friendly than the title implies, with the narrator imploring his significant other, "why don't we go away?". This one also has a great hook in the chorus, and no matter what people say about this album, the Cars' gift for songcraft and melody still remains intact. The last song on the album, and the last Cars song ever, is the near-punk attack of the title track. This one is a bit of a mess, production-wise, but I guess we all got used to the slickness of Heartbeat City. It's not bad, but coulda been better, just like most of this album. Though I like Door To Door for the most part, I just wish they'd more and better albums after this one. Ah well. Any car can run out of gas.

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Bad Review

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(More customer reviews)All the press oversaturation and rumours of bizarre behaviour really hurt Michael Jackson's public image, thus obscuring the fact that Bad, hokey cover and all, is a very strong album and another jewel in Jackson's crown.
Jackson contributes more songs to this album than ever before, penning four out of the album's five record-breaking #1 singles: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", a duet with the wonderful Siedah Garrett that is probably Jackson's last great ballad performance; "Bad", funky and weird, very catchy, with its signature "How Now Brown Cow" rhythm; the gyrating "The Way You Make Me Feel"; and "Dirty Diana", a metal song with great production and a cacophonous guitar performance by Steve Stevens. The fifth chart-topper, "Man in the Mirror", is an undeniable classic. Taking Jackson's save-the-world sentiment and translating it into poetry, strong melodies and evocative imagery, songwriters Garrett and Glen Ballard created Jackson's best "We Are the World"-type song, complete with an appropriately booming gospel choir and dynamics to spare.
The less popular songs are equally good: The Stevie Wonder duet "Just Good Friends" is heavenly, "Liberian Girl" is breathy and sensual, and "Smooth Criminal" is Jackson at his most hard-hitting, a killer groove with crisp beats, synth work, perfectly placed sound effects, and Jackson's vocals going into manic mode. The lyrics verge on the nonsensical, but the energy is devastating and intoxicating. Even the CD bonus track "Leave Me Alone" is worthy, a funky keyboard riff opening the song which is Jackson's protest for privacy, yet with enough of a sense of humour not to make it too self-pitying. And the music videos (available on the Moonwalker home video as well as ) were groundbreaking -- "Smooth Criminal" a cinematic dance masterpiece with killer choreography and "Leave Me Alone" an animation breakthrough.
Bad was the first English-language album I ever bought (in 1988, at the height of its popularity). Needless to say, I have an unusual affection for it. To be fair, Michael Jackson's music is distinctly a product of the '70s and an emblem of the '80s, accounting for its dated sound in the context of the '90s and in the first decade of the 21st Century. On Bad, though, Jackson was still at the top of his game in songcraft and charisma, making Bad an essential listen.

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Japanese only paper sleeve pressing features all new 2009 remastering. Sony.--This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

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Kick Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been a huge fan of INXS--and "Kick", in particular--for a long time now. Often, I have felt the need to defend my passion for this album to music purists who are turned-off by the band's huge commercial success.
A decade-and-a-half after it's original release, I believe "Kick" has stood the test of time. The song-writing and performances are entirely spot-on throughout. While I concede that the production sounds somewhat dated, it should be remembered that any album is a product of it's time. With its sly references to excess ("Devil Inside"), global tension ("Guns in the Sky") and apartheid ("Mediate"), "Kick" manages to sum up much of western civilization as it exited the 80's.
Since I already owned this album on CD, I was curious as to how the sonic experts of Rhino could improve upon a recording that was recorded in the digital age. Turns out "Kick" is even more powerful in this new transfer. The mix is more spacious; it sounds like the instruments are actually spaced further apart. If you only want to hear "Kick" sound better than ever before, you should definitely buy this reissue.
But if you were looking for the album's B-sides, you won't find them here. The only bonus tracks are a handful of demos whose inclusion here is baffling. Perhaps the producer wanted these awful tracks included as evidence of miracles he performed behind-the-scenes.
Surely there had to be better demos for this album that what is included here. "Jesus Was a Man" is most motley of the bunch. On it, Hutchence howls in obvious drunken stupor. Given the descent into chemical abuse that led to his untimely death, the inclusion of this track is inappropriate and an insult to his memory.
In conclusion, the new mix sounds fantastic, but the bonus demos are bad enough to make me question their inclusion here.

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The original 12-song album remastered with 4 bonus tracks,the non-LP single 'Move On' (guitar version) pluspreviously unreleased tracks 'Jesus Was A Man', 'Mystify'(Chicago Demo) and 'The Trap' (demo). Atlantic/Rhino. 2002.

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Bad (Spec) Review

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(More customer reviews)I know some of you are going to say it's just plain sacrilegious but hey, just because everybody jumps into the lake.... "Thriller" is a great album with great tracks and because of a variety of fortunate reasons e.g. timeliness, MTV etc, has become the biggest selling album of all-time but that doesn't mean that everything else that MJ comes up with later that doesn't sell as much is crap.
In fact, this is the album when MJ's weirdness first became pretty obvious. "Hey! Is that really Michael on the cover?" was my reaction as well but I chose to look beyond the looks and not to judge the book by the cover and just listened to the tunes. Some of my favourite MJ songs ever are on this disc.
"The Way You Make Me Feel" is an MJ classic and clearly among his top 5 ever songs. "Smooth Criminal" was always a great track even before Alien Ant Farm showed us why, "Liberian Girl" and "Man in the Mirror" are also great tracks and the rest of the tracks cannot be called album filler by any stretch of the imagination.
The sound quality of this special edition has also been remastered to near perfection and the bonus interviews and tracks are a real bonus to fans. This album grows on you over time and for me has aged a lot better than "Thriller" has. Maybe I've heard "Thriller" too many times but give me a choice between the two if I had to put one of them on the cd player, I'd choose "Bad" any time and if not "Off the Wall" before I'd reach for "Thriller."
Get over the Wacko Jacko hangup and just judge the cd for the tracks if you can and then you'll see just how great this album really is. This very well remastered and special edition is very highly recommended.

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No Description Available.Genre: Popular MusicMedia Format: Compact DiskRating: Release Date: 16-OCT-2001

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The Joshua Tree Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the only album I ever owned in which I wore out the vinyl copy AND the cassette and so had to get it on CD. I was always a U2 fan going back to "War" and "The Unforgettable Fire", but I know that a lot of people see this as their watershed album which, of course, it was. However, I also think the more recent U2 albums have been unfairly compared to this one, which if you think about it is silly since we should appreciate bands that don't stick with a successful formula just because it works and this album is as much of a departure from U2's early work as "Pop" is from this one. All that aside, this is why you should own this CD:
1) The production of Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno - listen to "Where The Streets Have No Name" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" with headphones and you'll hear what sonic layering can be in the hands of masters. 2) An uncanny match of lyrics and music - in the liner notes it says that "One Tree Hill" was written upon a friend's death. I would like to think that if I were ever in a similar situation I could come up with something that would evoke half the emotion that song does. 3) No bad spots - when was the last time you bought an album that was completely listenable all the way through?
I do think it's a shame that U2 has not been able to recapture the overall karma of this album in their subsequent years (not that they haven't tried) but I think the biggest testament to this album is that I have bought it for friends and relatives ranging in age from 45 to 17 and they all love it. That's one awesome album.

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The CD format features remastered audio, liner notes by Bill Flanagan (author of "U2 At The End Of The World") and previously unseen Anton Corbijn photos.--This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

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Faith (2 CD/1 DVD Special Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)The album 'Faith' is a classic/landmark debut solo release by the talented singer-songwriter, George Michael in 1987, having just left his popular band Wham (George Michael & Andrew Ridgeley). The album 'Faith' was a worldwide instant success/smash, selling over 20 million copies & spawning 5 number one chart hits. The album also went to win a Grammy for album of the year. This 'Faith Special Edition' release has 2 CDs, 1 DVD & 40 page hardbound book with exclusive interview as well as rare photos. Disc 1 has 'Faith' album 10 tracks (2010 remastered versions). The production/sound quality is great as compared to that of my original Vinyl LP/Album I bought in 1987. With the hits "Faith", "Father Figure", "I Want Your Sex" (this song reached number one with minimal airplay/videoplay as the song was banned!), "One More Try" & "Kissing A Fool", one can't go wrong. Disc 2 (9 tracks, 2010 remastered versions) has great instrumentals ("Faith" & "Kissing A Fool"), great & rare remixes ("Hard Day", Shep Pettibone Remix, "Monkey", Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis Remix), rare versions ("Monkey", great Maxi single, "Monkey", amazing alla cappella version & "Love's In Need Of Love Today, great live performance) & B-sides "Fantasy" & "I Believe(When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever"). The DVD has music videos of hits "I Want Your Sex" (2 versions : censored & uncensored versions, this is my first look as to what caused its banning in 1987),"Faith", "Father Figure", "One More Try", "Monkey" & "Kissing A Fool", promotional music videos as well as the 1987 Channel 4, UK 60 minutes interview. On overall, this is a great 're-issue' of George Michael's classic/landmark album, a must for his fans & hopefully acquiring new ones as well, a highly recommended listening & viewing.

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When George Michael released his debut solo album Faith in 1987, it instantly caught the imagination of the entire pop world, becoming a milestone in his career and in popular culture. Written, arranged and produced entirely by George Michael, Faith confirmed his status as a songwriter of outstanding ability and emotional depth, instantly propelling him to superstar status. The album produced six Number One singles: Father Figure, Faith, I Want Your Sex, One More Try, and Kissing A Fool. After hitting the Number One spot on both sides of the Atlantic, Faith went on to sell over twenty million albums worldwide and win countless accolades, including the Grammy for Album Of The Year. Over twenty years later, Faith is still a high point in pop music as well as a measure for any artist wanting to cross genres and gain popular and critical appeal. Now remastered and available in new formats, the reissue of Faith is set to become one of the biggest music events of the year. - Original Album & Bonus CD remastered, including single edits, rare remixes, and instrumental versions- DVD includes George Michael and Jonathan Ross Have Words (60-minute 1987 Special Music Money Love Faith (25-minute original EPK) 7 promotional music videos (including uncensored version of I Want Your Sex )- 40-page hardbound book with exclusive interview, rare photos and memorabilia- Black buckram-covered, gold-foiled slipcase with original cover DVD Track Listing:1. George Michael & Jonathan Ross Have Words - 1987 Channel 4 UK television special 2. Music Money Love Faith FAITH promotional video 3. I Want Your Sex [Music Video](2010 Remastered Version) 4. I Want Your Sex [Music Video](Censored Version - 2010 Remastered Version)5. Faith [Music Video](2010 Remastered Version) 6. Father Figure [Music Video](2010 Remastered Version) 7. One More Try [Music Video](2010 Remastered Version) 8. Monkey [Music Video](2010 Remastered Version) 9. Kissing A Fool [Music Video](2010 Remastered Version)

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