| 1. When The Lights Go Out |
| 2. That's What You Told Me |
| 3. It's The Things You Do |
| 4. When I Remember When |
| 5. Slam Dunk (Da Funk) |
| 6. Satisfied |
| 7. It's All Over |
| 8. Partyline 555-On-Line |
| 9. Until The Time Is Through |
| 10. Everybody Get Up |
| 11. My Song |
| 12. Got The Feelin' |
Editorial Reviews
Initially lumped in with Westlife, Boyzone, etc., as just another fabricated pop boy group, Five were one of the few bands who actually did stand out from the crowd. Eschewing soppy love songs in favor of far more in-your-face rowdy pop, Five bounced onto the scene with attitude, slightly more streetwise styling than their contemporaries, and some truly great pop tunes. From the inspired sampling of Joan Jett's "I Love Rock & Roll" on "Everybody Get Up" to the sing-along-and-clap-your-hands party vibes of "Got the Feelin'," it's hard not to be seduced by Five's charm. Things do go a bit Backstreet Boys on weaker tracks like "Until the Time Is Through" and "Satisfied," but these are forgivable blips on an otherwise stellar trajectory. The opening line of "Slam Dunk (Da Funk)" says it all: Five have "the power to rock you." --Helen Marquis
Five,Five,Msi/Bmg
Average customer rating:
|
Five Score and Seven Years Ago
Relient K Manufacturer: Capitol ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000MX7SR8 Release Date: 2007-03-06 |
Tracks:
- Plead The Fifth
- Come Right Out And Say It
- I Need You
- The Best Thing
- Forgiven
- Must Have Done Something Right
- Give
- Devastation And Reform
- I'm Taking You With Me
- Faking My Own Suicide
- Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care
- Bite My Tongue
- Up And Up
- Deathbed
Amazon.com
Relient K's fifth CD is a diverse modern rock album that's so varied at times it sounds like a mix tape. "Take the Fifth" pulses with lush, Beach Boys-y harmonies, "Forgiven" is a piano-driven tune that sounds like early U2, and the dueling guitar feedback that opens "I Need You" displays deeper punk rock heaviosity. "Faking My Own Suicide"--a great tune powered by Death Cabby vocals, ironic yet playful lyrics, and a killer classic rock organ--seems destined for a movie soundtrack. The true standout is of course "Deathbed," an intense eleven minute ode to regret co-starring Jon Foreman of Switchfoot. Relient K have not only weathered lineup changes (the bassist and guitarist are new here) and mainstream success without "selling out" and foregoing their introspective messages of faith and hope. But they've made the best album in their career in the process. --Mike McGonigalAlbum Description
Relient K's fifth album in seven years and the follow-up to 2004's mmhmm. Special Deluxe Package w/bonus DVD of Five Score and Seven Years Ago also available.Customer Reviews:
Done something right!!.......2007-08-01
Their most recent disc "Five score and seven years ago" gave them their highest placing yet on Billboard's album charts by debuting at #6.
Comprising 12 songs (not counting the intro "Plead the fifth" and interlude "Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care", the latter which comically declares" I just wasted ten seconds of your life") which average at about 3 minutes (again, minus the closing 11 minute epic ballad "Deathbed" which as its name implies is about a man pondering his life on his deathbed, with Switchfoot's Jon Foreman taking the role of Jesus), it bursts with energy.
Standouts are "Forgiven" (great cutting guitars, and a lyrical plea for forgiveness), the sunny "Must have done something right" (with a great Beach Boy-esque harmony bridge), the frenetic punk rock of "Devastation and reform" and "I'm taking you with me" (the latter two wouldn't sound out of place on a Fall out boy CD), the hilarious "Faking my own suicide" about a desperate attempt to gain someone's attention, set to soothing harmonies and a sunny sound, "Bite my tongue" about the need to carefully guard what proceeds from ones lips, and "Up and up" (with lyrics about trying to be a better version of me for You).
Great sounding music with something to say.
Same old Relient K.......2007-07-12
Not the Relient K I know.......2007-07-05
Some of the songs have that intentional ambiguity that song writers use to try to get secular air time. The most common technique is to write a song that is unclear: is this to God or to a girl? For instance is "I must have done something right" to God or to a girl? I don't think that it makes complete sense either way. Getting a Christian message out to non-Christians is the point, but the problem is that it means that people who are not Christian will never get the message.
A lot of the songs are talking about how messed up he is. Recognizing our brokenness and need for a savior is a necessary step towards salvation, but the songs stop short of pointing to WHO we need. It just comes off being gloomy and hopeless. "Devastation and reform" is an exception. It does mention God as the answer to the devastation he has created.
The last song, called "Deathbed" is a rambling ballad that goes on for 11 minutes. It is about a man dying of lung cancer recounting how he had messed up his life with alcohol, smoking, a bad marriage and divorce. It has some valid points about the destruction caused by dad's abandoning their families, drinking and smoking, premarital sex, etc. But at the end they tag on something about how he accepted Christ so now it's all ok. What I am missing is any indication that Christ transformed his life. When did he make this decision to follow Christ? How did his life change? It seems like he just wasted his life on bad choices and just used Jesus as his ticket to heaven at the end. Maybe the song is a warning to not be like that, but the point is dulled by the happy ending.
But it gets worse. The song "Faking my own suicide" is just disturbed. Maybe I just don't get it, but I can't find anything redeeming about that song. Is it supposed to be funny? Making light of suicide is not something I can appreciate.
Great new CD from Relient K!.......2007-07-05
Another masterpiece.......2007-06-20
Average customer rating:
|
Mozart for Mothers-To-Be: Tender Lullabies for Mother and Child
Manufacturer: Philips ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B0000041EV Release Date: 1996-04-09 |
Tracks:
- Divertimento In B-Flat (Adagio)
- Cassation (Final-Musik) In G - Adgio
- Divertimento In G Minor (Andante)
- String Quartet No. 12 In B-Flat - Adagio
- Divertimento In D, KV 131 - Adagio
- 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik' - Romance (Andante)
- Divertimento In D, KV 136 - Andante
- Serenade In B-Flat 'Gran Partita' - Adagio
- Prelude No. 3 In F
- String Quartet No. 1 In B-Flat - Adagio
- Violin Concerto In D - Andante cantabile
- Divertimento In B-Flat - Adagio
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful.......2007-06-26
Great for putting kids to sleep!.......2007-06-08
Very Relaxing.......2007-04-10
A Must Have for all Parents of Little Children !!!.......2006-11-25
A truely great gift for new parents, or if you have a sleepless little one at home. Turn on the cd, turn down the lights and let it sooth them to sleep.
Inspire the baby-within.......2005-12-13
The selections on this CD are all excellent and represent a nice range of Mozart's compostions, emphasising those that are ideal for creating a pleasant backdrop for leisure, dining and social occasions ("divertimentos"). The recordings are from the creme of musicians famous for their Mozart. Few works are as elegant and soaring as the Serenade #10 for winds - an astonishingly beautiful tune made famous from the early scenes of the movie, "Amadeus." Mozart supreme gifts of music are even seen in such humble "background music" as these pieces. And such continuity of warm, leisurely tones as these over 70 minutes is ideal for inspiring the baby to-be if that is why you are considering this CD. Better to expose a baby to the gentile, lyrical music of Mozart than to the dissonant, loud and disturbing tones of some classical music written well after Mozart.
As the reviewer below rightfully notes, compilation CD's of various unrelated works like this one is not quite how classical music is best meant to be heard. But in a way it is better for many to start with such collections like this - especially for those who just want the more quiet selections that are unintrusive. In that respect, this collection can be satisfying for most anyone (not just moms or babies). I have a huge classical music collection, but still really enjoy listening to one full CD of similar-temperament music like this one that flows easily and smoothly that doesn't demand my attention but only seeks to delight. And, in the end, that was the simple and primary goal of many of Mozart's compositions - to be purely enjoyed and delighted.
Average customer rating:
|
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Complete Works (170 CD Box Set)
Manufacturer: Brilliant Classics ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000BLI3K2 Release Date: 2005-10-25 |
Album Description
Mozart Edition: The Complete Works will make a great gift this Holiday season for the music lover in your life or someone who is hard to buy for. This collection contains 170 discs of completed works by Mozart in one beautiful package. Also included is a cd-rom containing essays on his works, artist bio's, text and libretti's. At this super low price all music lovers will enjoy the Symphonies - Concertos - Serenades - Divertimenti - Dances - Chamber Music - Church Sonatas - String Ensembles - Violin Sonatas - Keyboard Works - Sacred Works - Concert Arias - Songs - Canons and Operas in this collection.Customer Reviews:
Wonderful.......2007-07-30
It's absolutely fantastic, great music in a excellent box!
I really loved it!
a surprising offer.......2007-07-05
Welcome to Perfection.......2007-06-28
Buy this as an encyclopedia of Mozart, then add other recordings..........2007-06-22
The Requiem, conducted by Nicol Matt (2001 recording) has had better performances, and for this I would recommend Bohm/Vienna Philharmonic (DG) and Colin Davis/London Symphony (Philips), which use a larger choir and orchestra, and have more drama where it is needed. The other choral works conducted by Nicol Matt are better, especially "Exsultate Jubilate" motet, the short Masses, and "Ave Verum".
Also worthy of mention are the "Posthorn" and "Haffner" Serenades, by Colin Davis/Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, licensed from Novalis for this release.
This is a great overview, and Brilliant Classics are to be commended for making it available at a low price, to get Mozart's music out to the mass public. It's a great buy, but I would get the Bohm Symphonies, and also Piano Concertos by either Ashkenazy/Philharmonia (Decca), Perahia/English Chamber Orchestra (Sony) or Anda/Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg (DG) for supplements. Also, Karl Bohm's recordings of the operas: The Magic Flute, the Marriage of Figaro, Idomeneo, and La Clemenza di Tito (all DG) are required listening, too. Recommended, but not as the only recording of Mozart's works.
Great value..Cant beat this deal at all!!!.......2007-06-13
Average customer rating:
|
House Party
Dan Zanes Manufacturer: Festival Five Rec. ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B0000CC85J Release Date: 2003-10-07 |
Tracks:
- House Party Time
- Wabash Cannonball - with Bob Weir
- Queremos Bailar
- Hop Up Ladies
- Washington At Valley Forge
- Jamaica Farewell - with Angelique Kidjo
- Tankoh-Bushi
- Down In The Valley
- Waltzing Matilda - with Deborah Harry
- West Indian Counting Song
- Sunny Old Sun
- Tennessee Wig Walk
- Shining Star
- How Do You Do? - with David Jones
- Daniel In The Den
- Surrounded By Friendship
- Old Joe Clark
- Hey Little Red Bird
- We Shall Not Be Moved
- A Place For Us - with Phillip Glass
Amazon.com
For parents, listening to Dan Zanes provides not only instant Raffi relief, but also the warm sense of belonging to the right crowd. On each disc he trots out a posse of cool friends like Sheryl Crow, Suzanne Vega, and Lou Reed and he delivers his openhearted lyrics with the rare roots-rocker's gift for stirring grace into grit. It would seem that the release of his fourth record, House Party would be ripe for a backlash--how long can the hokey conceit of a bunch of aging groovsters banging out kids' tunes in a Brooklyn basement hang onto its charm? Looks like we'll have to wait and see, because House Party rages on with the same winning, welcome-to-our-homespun-revolution vibe as its predecessors. Deborah Harry takes a twirl on "Waltzing Matilda," Bob Weir fires up the "Wabash Cannonball," and Angelique Kidjo bids "Jamaica Farewell," but the Zanes originals are this record's proving grounds, and they pin the tail on the donkey with bulls-eye precision. Contributions from returning regulars Barbara Brousal and Rankin' Don--the best couple of favors a party could hope for--send Zanes' campaign to become the guy who turned lampshade-wearing into a kindergarten fashion craze soaring. --Tammy La GorceCustomer Reviews:
GREAT! Brings back lots of Memories.......2007-07-27
Great fun.......2007-07-25
Dan's first album...Wiggle the Wiggles out of your CD Player.......2007-06-12
So do yourself a favor, swap out Wiggles or Barney for Dan and his Friends, and enjoy kids music once again.
Thank goodness for Dan Zanes!!!!!!.......2007-05-21
When I was a single college gal, I remember listening to very hip, fun music. Then came pregnancy and babies. Then Baby Einstein music (which is good, but sounds like someone's ballerina jewelry box after awhile), Barney, Sesame Street and nursery rhyme CDs that took over my music collection. Ack!!! What happened to me? I decided it was time to search for something new for me and the kids to listen to.
After finding this CD and loving it, I just assumed that my one-year-old and four-year-old would not like DZ because it sounded too different from what they were used to. Boy, was I wrong! My older one thinks she is listening to "cool music" -- which she is! We especially like the "Wabash Cannonball" but every song on here is a hit with my kids. The guy is truly talented, and it's just great stuff. And it's fun to hear the celeb singers on a kid's album. Finally, we all have "cool music" to listen to!
My daughters favorite!.......2007-05-14
Average customer rating:
|
Catch That Train!
Dan Zanes & Friends Manufacturer: Festival Five Rec. ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000EXZ2JW Release Date: 2006-05-16 |
Tracks:
- Catch That Train!
- Let's Shake
- Welcome Table (with the Blind Boys of Alabama)
- Mariposa Ole (with Barbara Brousal)
- Train Station Humor
- Choo Choo Ch' Boogie (with Father Goose aka Rankin' Don)
- Pigogo (with the Children of Agape)
- Country Life (with Donald Saaf)
- Loch Lomond (with Natalie Merchant)
- While The Music Is Playing
- I Don't Want Your Millions Mister (with the How Not To Get Rich Orchestra)
- The Fine Friends Are Here
- Walkin' The Dog (with the Rubi Theater Company)
- Wander In The Summer Wind
- Grey Goose (with the Kronos Quartet)
- Pata Pata (with Father Goose aka Rankin' Don and Wunmi)
- Sweet Rosyanne (with Nick Cave)
- Moonlit Town (with Anna and the Flutes)
Amazon.com
With each new Dan Zanes and Friends release, many fans worry that his homespun magic will eventually hit the right note with the masses. Zanes' music, as offbeat as it is organic, is so special to forward-thinking young families that plenty have batted around half-baked plans to attach a password to it. Anybody else can sell out, the thinking goes, but please, please not him. Catch That Train, then, is bound to meet with a lot of hand-wringing. For one thing, it's the first Zanes and Friends release since the crazy-haired, asparagus-stalk thin artist started appearing in videos on the Playhouse Disney channel. For another, Starbucks has stepped in to lend a promotional hand. Those are ominous indicators indeed, but if the largely on-track Catch That Train proves anything, it's that Zanes isn't lock-stepping it with the boardroom goons just yet. Once again, the high-profile collaborators (The Blind Boys of Alabama, Nick Cave, Natalie Merchant) could cause a childless hipster to heed the all-aboard call, but also as on previous discs, it's the usual suspects who supply some of the strongest tracks: Barbara Brousal on "Mariposa Ole," Father Goose on "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie," and the Rubi Theater Company on "Walkin' the Dog." True, "Let's Shake" seems suspiciously TV-ready; skip it and pretend it never happened. Then keep your fingers crossed that, once this train leaves the station, Zanes--plainspoken hero to so many--won't trade it in for a stretch limo. --Tammy La Gorce
More from Dan Zanes
|
|
|
|
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful CD.......2007-07-28
my 2 1/2 yr old son loves this.......2007-07-24
Very good, but not our favorite.......2007-07-01
As other reviews have indicated, Dan Zanes is fun, loose and all about the sing-along. I suspect that's why he collaborates so often and so well. If you're looking for tight, sophisticated arrangements, look elsewhere. If you're looking for music that everyone can get into, music that is accessible to children without being cloying to adults, then start filling your cart. Bruce Springsteen gets a lot of credit for bringing the Seeger catalog and other folk treasures to younger audiences, but we think he got the idea from Dan! We love the folk/americana covers, Dan's originals and the songs that he pulls in from other cultural traditions. Here are the albums we own and how we'd rank them:
1. Sea Music
2. Parades and Panoramas
3. Rocket Ship Beach
4. Family Dance
5. House Party
6. Catch That Train
Kids music has changed for the best!.......2007-06-12
Music kids and parents can enjoy.......2007-06-01
Average customer rating:
|
Two Lights
Five for Fighting Manufacturer: Sony ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000G6BLFG Release Date: 2006-08-01 |
Tracks:
- Freedom Never Cries
- World
- California Justice
- The Riddle
- Two Lights
- 65 Mustang
- I Just Love You
- Policeman's Xmas Party
- Road To Heaven
- Johnny America
Amazon.com
On his third disc, the one-man musical marvel known as Five for Fighting proves yet again that all that's standing between him and peace of mind--not the fleeting kind, but full-on, to-the-bone, heart-and soul-cleansing peace of mind--is a song. Two Lights picks up where America Town left off, diving smack-dab into the national consciousness and hitting, predictably, a sorrowful spot. First track "Freedom Never Cries" is a self-skewering lament that calls out to complacent countrymen by way of confession and an artful, piano-enhanced weighing of consequence. It's followed by "World," which reminds unpreachily, and not unpleasantly, that "history starts now." Where Two Lights better resembles 2004's hugely successful The Battle for Everything is in its more inward-looking tracks, the tender first single "The Riddle" among them. There, and on the near criminally pretty "I Just Love You," the mush-hearted may find themselves fighting the urge to hug the closest stranger. But despite his now-dependable dips into mopiness, John Ondrasik--Five for Fighting to you and the rest of the world--doesn't deny himself the opportunity to rock when he wants to. If anything makes this guy happy, it's the state of California: on "California Justice," he kicks off his shoes and works on his tan like a latter-day Beach Boy from the dark side, and "'65 Mustang" rambles down the coast with the kind of carefree vibe that, outside of a song, only a convertible can deliver. --Tammy La Gorce
More from Five for Fighting
|
|
|
|
Customer Reviews:
Must Have CD.......2007-07-24
Freedom Never Cries !!!.......2007-07-16
Unexpected.......2007-07-07
As good as in concert.......2007-05-30
Outstanding!.......2007-05-12
Average customer rating:
|
The Battle For Everything
Five for Fighting Manufacturer: Sony ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00012FNDG Release Date: 2004-02-03 |
Tracks:
- NYC Weather Report
- The Devil in the Wishing Well
- If God Made You
- 100 Years
- Angels & Girlfriends
- Dying
- Infidel
- Disneyland
- Maybe I
- The Taste
- One More For Love
- Nobody
Amazon.com
Math wiz and multi-instrumentalist John Ondrasik's third album under his rather misleading Five For Fighting rubric shows that he's lost little of the cranky ire that he unleashed on American Town, but this time his targets are a little closer to home. He skews faithless friends and bad habits on the tetchy opening track "NYC Weather report," oddly borrowing from both Guns N' Rose's "Paradise City," and Barbara Streisand's "People" to hammer his ornery point home, before training his sights on the human life span, fleeting relationships, and even Disneyland. But it isn't until "Girlfriends and Angels," that he shows his real brilliance, imagination and grit; Ondrasik finds the exact place where the Beach Boys intersects with the Velvet Underground and plants himself in that spot, spewing out his own hard won romantic philosophies, proving once again that the hunter does indeed get captured by the game. More ribald, sonically inventive, and lyrically edgy, The Battle For Everything, shows that Ondrasik's combative days may be behind him. --Jaan UhelszkiCustomer Reviews:
The Battle for Everything Five for Fighting.......2007-03-18
Very good! John is amazing!.......2007-03-09
trying to believe.......2007-03-05
The album's opener, 'NYC Weather Report', fairly lilts. Ondrasik's irony seems less bent on anger venting than on description of life as a stranger, one passing through with wistful memories of places and relationships that failed but somehow cast their expectation forward into destinations that await the end of this moment in the journey. Back, yet somehow forward, to New York City.
The man can also sing a mean love song. Shades of Sting's lyricism haunt 'If God Made You':
'Hey Kid .. Your time has come to change
Though I need you more than I've needed anyone in any way tonight
Hey Kid ... I know it won't be long
The Captain's calling .. come to see you back where we belong
Something inside me is breaking
Something inside says there's somewhere better than this ...
Sunset sailing on April skies
Bloodshot fire coulds in her eyes
I can't say what I might believe
But if God made you he's in love with me'
Ondrasik places the chord transition exactly where it releases the listener's attentive energy. The man can score a song.
Then comes the high-air-play '100 Years', a wistful survey of live's brevity that conjures up Cat Stevens, John Mellencamp, and Billy Joel. Ondrasik stands up just fine in such company. It's a tune made for hearing over and over again, then once more.
'Dying' underscores Ondrasik's thickening credentials as a baladeer of lost love, though hardly with the campiness that such a description might suggest. It sounds real, not postured. Ondrasik has been criticized, of course, for the latter. This album should in part quiet that angle of criticism.
In my judgment, the balance of anger with deeper and more varied sentiments, together with Ondrasik's growth as a writer, make THE BATTLE FOR EVERYTHING his first five-star offering. One feels confident it will not be his last.
Five for Fighting-The Battle for Everything.......2007-02-25
A Winner!.......2006-12-08
Average customer rating:
|
The Most Relaxing Classical Album in the World...Ever!
Johann Sebastian Bach , Léo Delibes , Gabriel Fauré , Erik Satie , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Edvard Grieg , Johann Pachelbel , Claude Debussy , Felix Mendelssohn , Camille Saint-Saens , Henryk Gorecki , Antonio Vivaldi , Edward Elgar , Jocelyn Pook , Sergey Rachmaninov , Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni , Luigi Boccherini , Jules Massenet , Ludwig van Beethoven , Jacques Offenbach , Pietro Mascagni , Antonin Dvorak , Giacomo Puccini , Ralph Vaughan Williams , Alexander Borodin , Joaquin Rodrigo , and Samuel Barber Manufacturer: Angel Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00000I93Z Release Date: 1999-03-30 |
Tracks:
- Air 'On the G String' - Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields
- Morning - Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields
- Canon In D - Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields
- Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring - Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields
- Gymnopedie No.1 - City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
- II. Andante - Stephen Hough
- Viens, Mallika - Mady Mesple
- In Paradisum - Choir Of King's College, Cambridge
- Clair De Lune - Dame Moura Lympany
- II. Andate - Yehudi Menuhin
- The Swan - Osian Ellis
- II. Lento E Largo - Tranquillissimo - Zofia Kilanowicz
- II. Andantino - James Galway
- II. Largo - Yehudi Menuhin
- Nimrod - London Symphony Orchestra
- Blow the Wind - Pie Jesu - Jocelyn Pook
- Variation 18 - Cecile Ousset
- Pavane Op.50 - Gareth Morris
Tracks:
- Zion Hort Die Wachter Singen - South German Madrigal Choir
- Adagio In G Minor - Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields
- Minuet - Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields
- II. Largo - Andrei Gavrilov
- Meditation - Hans Kalafusz
- I. Adagio Sostenuto - Dame Moura Lympany
- Belle Nuit, O Nuit D'amour (Barcarolle) - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
- II. Andante - Nigel North
- II. Adagio - Jack Brymer
- Intermezzo - Philharmonia Orchestra
- I. Moderato - London Chamber Orchestra
- O Mio Babbino Caro - Montserrat Caballe
- Fantasia On 'Greensleeves' - Sinfonia Of London
- II. Adagio Sostenuto (Opening) - Cecile Ousset
- Nocturne - Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields
- II. Adagio (Opening) - Julian Bream
- Adagio For Strings Op.11a - The Philadelphia Orchestra
- Entr'acte To Act III - Orchestre National De France
Amazon.com
You want relaxing classical music that'll soothe your soul but won't lull you into sleep? Here's a double CD for you. The Most Relaxing Classical Album in the World ... Ever! does its best to cover both well-worn classical favorites (Bach's "Air on the G String," Pachelbel's "Cannon," Debussy's "Clair de Lune") and some eclectic left-field choices (an excerpt from Górecki's Symphony No. 3, Jocelyn Pook's "Blow the Wind," and Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. The performances of most of these excerpts are top-notch--artists include Sir Neville Marriner, James Galway, Jacqueline du Pré and the Philadelphia Orchestra--and there's enough variety here for everyone. --Edward GarabedianCustomer Reviews:
Lives Up To The Title, Fine Variety Of Genre's........2007-02-04
Good for relaxing pregnant women.......2007-01-17
Too much opera.......2007-01-10
Does what it set out to do, very well.......2006-11-15
That said, i totally adore this set because i have learned to take it on its own terms. These discs weren't meant for expert classical listeners, so a review from that sort of mindset is useless. This set was meant for pure, easy listening, and for a basic starters kit for classical newbies. Most of all, it was just meant to do what the title says, to relax the average human being. classical expert or not.
Yes, some of these pieces have been altered or shortened, like Mozart's Flute and Harp Concerto Andantino, but they have been edited for a good enough reason: the full versions would have been too long to flow with the rest of the album. And also, the full versions contain so much development that they don't become easy listening anymore. The shortened versions work in the context of the album. Most essentially, the shortened versions on the discs still convey the main flavor the composers were going for. The melodies and themes remain unchanged.
To sum up, it is true that when i want to actually listen deeply to classical music, this album would never be a choice. I would want to hear the complete works like the composers intended. But at certain times when i simply don't mind about that stuff, when i just need to loosen up and free my mind of stress with some nice melodies, this set does the job well enough.
Last but not least: being a purist and a classical buff, i am very particular about performance quality. I was very glad to find that EMI did not get lazy about this. All the artists are world-class, and all the performances are at least exceptional. Some performances are even quite excellent, like the Clair De Lune, which is one of the best i've heard. (Credit to Dame Lympany, the pianist.)
So once again, recommended for its stated purpose, to relax. I am a purist, a classical buff, and i still enjoy this disc. That says something.
TRULY The most relaxing and beautiful music ever written........2006-11-10
SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL !!!!!!!!!!
Average customer rating:
|
Twenty Five
George Michael Manufacturer: Sony ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000H1QYXY Release Date: 2006-11-20 |
Tracks:
- Everything She Wants - George Michael, Wham!,
- Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - George Michael, Wham!,
- Freedom - George Michael, Wham!,
- Faith
- Too Funky
- Fastlove
- Freedom! '90
- Spinning the Wheel
- Outside
- As - Mary J. Blige, George Michael
- Freeek!
- Shoot the Dog
- Amazing
- Flawless (Go to the City)
- Easier Affair
Tracks:
- Careless Whisper
- Last Christmas - George Michael, Wham!,
- Different Corner
- Father Figure
- One More Try
- Praying for Time
- Heal the Pain - Paul McCartney, George Michael
- Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
- Jesus to a Child
- Older
- Round Here
- You Have Been Loved
- John and Elvis Are Dead
- This Is Not Real Love - George Michael, , Mutyo
From Amazon.co.uk
The last quarter-century has been nothing if not colorful for George Michael. But through all the controversy--the high-profile arrests and audacious videos, the falling-outs and band splits--he has emerged intact as a vital figure on the global pop scene--a fact compounded by his current 25 Live tour and this accompanying Greatest Hits package. Twenty Five is the fourth such collection in Michael's career, though it carries the obvious advantage of being more up to date than 1998's lauded Ladies & Gentlemen and features not only solo material but music from the early Wham! days. As such, it's the most comprehensive anthology yet, featuring upbeat Wham! classics like "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" and "Freedom" amidst somber solo material like "Praying for Time" and "Jesus to a Child." Spread across two discs (29 songs in total), the collection not only includes a host of evergreen classics but also recent singles "An Easier Affair" and "This Is Not Real Love" (with former Sugababe Mutya Buena) and two unreleased tracks. There are some notable absences from the collection--"I Want Your Sex" and "Kissing a Fool" are two glaring omissions--but it still remains the most comprehensive survey of the artist's legacy to date. --Danny McKennaAlbum Description
2006 two CD collection celebrating George's 25 years as a recording artist, both solo and with Wham! He has been British Pop royalty ever since he took the charts by storm with Wham! in 1982. He's been a solo star for over 20 years, achieving huge international success, selling over 80 million records worldwide with hits like 'Faith' and his most recent acclaimed album Patience. He has since been hailed as the Most Played Artist on British Radio in the last 20 years! Features plenty of hits pluse four new songs including the recent radio favorite 'An Easier Affair', 'Heal The Pain' (a duet with Paul McCartney) 'Understand' and the brand new single 'This Is Not Real Love', a duet with Mutya Buena, former member of the Sugababes. Sony/BMG.Customer Reviews:
In a class of his own!.......2007-07-20
Twentyfive is broken down into three discs - the first of which -
For Living - is the dancier, more upbeat of the trio.
For Loving, the second disc, is more ballady, containing last-slow-dance, from his first solo outings Careless Whisper and several duets ex. (Paul McCartney, Elton John, Pavarotti, Sugababe Mutya, Aretha Franklin, Elton John)
And then there's the final disc, For The Loyal, containing B-sides, rarities and curiosities.
Overall, a must-have for any George Michael fun!
NOT MY USUAL SCENE.......2007-06-27
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?
gotta have a little faith, eh?.......2007-05-27
This compilation tells its own story........2007-04-08
An exaggeration, perhaps, but you get the point: in recent years, the output of a man who once bestrode the charts like a colossus has been thin in both quality and quantity.
This album brings together his best moments with Wham! and as a solo artist in one celebratory 25-year compendium, with the bonus of three new, or newly recorded, songs; buy the three-disc special edition, and you get four.
So what does it tell us about Mr Michael? Simply this: that he was a great talent who ran out of tunes.
From the unforgettable "Careless Whisper" to the unmemorable "Older", this collection tells its own story. As for those extra tracks: the new songs are fine, especially "This Is Not Real Love", his duet with ex-Sugababe Mutya Buena.
But the finest is "Heal the Pain", an exquisitely sad duet with Paul McCartney. It's beautiful, and it was first recorded in 1991.
Twenty Five is a lovely number!.......2007-03-08
Well done GM!
Average customer rating:
|
Rockin' the Suburbs
Ben Folds Manufacturer: Sony ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00005NZKK Release Date: 2001-09-11 |
Tracks:
- annie waits
- zak and sara
- still fighting it
- gone
- fred jones part 2
- the ascent of stan
- losing lisa
- carrying cathy
- not the same
- rockin' the suburbs
- fired
- the luckiest
Amazon.com
On the evidence of Rockin' the Suburbs, Ben Folds's decision to jettison the two-piece Five that had backed him on four largely excellent albums has not resulted in any significant shift in trajectory. The Ben Folds Five were only getting better, gradually discovering the confidence not to hide their musical uniqueness (there have been too few piano-led power trios) and lyrical intelligence behind undergrad Barenaked Ladies-style gags. Songs like "Mess" and "Brick" signaled an extraordinary new songwriting talent worthy of comparison to Folds's obvious idols, Elvis Costello and Paul Simon. Only this album's title track harkens back to Folds's fondness for comedy, and it is by far the weakest track here. The rest is mournful, reflective, and, at best, quite magnificent. Folds's hymns to his family, "Still Fighting It" and "The Luckiest" are shot through with an honesty that's rare in alternative rock. The acerbic essence of character sketches such as "Carrying Cathy," "Losing Lisa," and "Zak & Sara" are leavened with a generous compassion. Folds's second solo effort is his best album yet. The remainder of his career must be anticipated with equal parts expectation and impatience. --Andrew MuellerCustomer Reviews:
One of the best abums that I own!.......2007-04-27
Moving to the 'burbs with Ben Folds.......2007-04-05
It makes "Rocking The Suburbs" something of a concept album, about what happens to the smart aleky kids who find themselves with a little growth and a touch of adulthood. Less smart-aleky than his work with Ben Folds Five (save for the title track), Folds solo doesn't veer too far in sound or general point of view from his previous work. This was easily his most mature album, dealing more with adult issues and adult love. The final song on "Suburbs," the beautiful "The Luckiest" is an unsentimental ode to life long relationships and is probably one of my favorite Ben Folds songs.
The rest of the CD covers a lot of ground. The Elton John/Billy Joel influence is still predominant ("Zak and Sara" opens with a direct lift from Elton's "Teacher I Need You"), but you will also hear traces of Todd Rundgren and The Beach Boys. Folds also is looking at the fear of maturity, and how getting older is not always getting ahead ("The Ascent of Stan," "Fred Jones Pt 2" and "Fired" being prominent examples). More to the point, there isn't a throwaway song on the entire CD, which makes "Rocking The Suburbs" consistently good all the way through. Along with "Whatever and Ever Amen," this is my favorite Ben Folds album.
You either like him or you don't..........2007-04-04
Ben Fold is Songwriting genius.......2007-03-02
Rockin My Suburb!.......2007-01-28
Meditation Music:
- For Now Forever
- Fore!
- Free
- Gee Whiz
- Good Time Gold
- Grammy Lyrics, Vol. 2
- Guitar Treasures
- Home
- Hootananny Soul [Explicit Lyrics]
- Hot Chart R&B Hits (karaoke)
Meditation Music
Vivaldi: 5 Concertos and 2 Sonatas for Flut, Oboe, or Violin, Bassoon and Continuo
Vivaldi - Suonate da Camera a tre, op. 1/VII-XII / L'Arte dell'Arco · Hogwood