Customer Reviews

The Best of Luna

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There's one thing that can be said about these compilations and that is they aren't made to appeal to hardcore fans. They're not supposed to, which is why it is baffling to see some reviewer who casually glances at the tracklisting and decides to slag it off and give it a bad rating.
What needs to be asked is 1. 'Does it provide for a good listening experience?', and 2. 'Does it contain essential music from the artist?'.
The answers to these questions in this case is YES. My goal in this review is to persuade those who may have come upon this page to buy either this or something else from Luna. That's just how much I love them. I don't own this compilation and don't need to. I already have all the CDs. If you are reading this, it is because you probably already know about them anyway and possibly own one of their CDs. I put this tracklisting together and played it back on my way to work just to see if this album worked. Yes, it did, and I loved it. Sure, there will always be tracks that could have made the cut and didn't but let's give whoever put this together a hand for doing a good job with it. There is NOTHING on this CD that isn't essential. All of the songs flow together beautifully. That's what matters. You already know the music is great. No need to give the same comparisons that have been said about them for the life of the band. It's in the product description.
If you own just one Luna Cd or are a Galaxie 500 fan who never gave Luna a chance, do yourself a favor and give this compilation a shot. If you are new to the band, consider this a great starting point. There's a good possibility that the rest of the CDs will be out of print within a couple of years so start here and keep buying more of it if you like. This is a wonderful souvenier of a superb band.
Everyone has to start somewhere when discovering new music. Greatest Hits comps are undoubtedly the starting point. The Doors-Greatest Hits. The Best of the Byrds. Queen-The Greatest Hits(original). You know where this is going.

Why Luna wasn't a major hit still mystifies me. But then why didn't people appreciate Big Star and The Ramones? Without a doubt one of the best rock bands ever. And now you have the opportunity to see what you missed the first time around.

Throw all the Luna albums together on iPod, hit random, and any of their songs that fill one cd are a best of. I couldn't stand them until I shut up and listened two years ago.

Let me state upfront that I was only vaguely aware of Luna in its heydays, knowing several of their songs, but nothing more that that. My interest in the band was peaked after reading the excellent memoir recently issued by front man Dean Wareham (more on that later).

"Best of Luna" (17 tracks, 79 min.) brings a very generous serving of the band's 7 album studio output. This is a "politically incorrect" compilation, in that 12 of the tracks on here come from just the first three studio albums (recorded 1992-1995). Luna's pivotal 1995 album "Penthouse" get 5 tracks on here, including of course the band's best known song "23 Minutes in Brussels" (which I have touted to friends for years, being from Belgium myself). The band's remainder output from 1995 to 2004 only gets 5 tracks on here, and it makes me wanna explore more of it, in particular the critically well received last studio album "Rendezvous", which only has one track on here (the great "Astronaut"). As usual, the folks at Rhino did this compilation right, with great song-by-song (mostly tongue-in cheek) liner notes from Dean Wareham himself, and useful song and album credits and history.

Back to that memoir that Dean Wareham just published ("Black Postcards: A Rock and Roll Romance"), what a terrific book that is, seriously. Wareham brings laugh-out-loud insights of what it's like to be in a band that is just *this* close to breaking big commercially but never does. A must read for any indie-rock fan.

I used to make compositions on casset tapes of only my favorite songs from many different albums. As part of the process of updating my collection with CDs, I find The Best of Luna by Luna almost matches my tape of favorites. This saved me a lot of time and money.

It's been said already that Luna was an underappreciated band with some dreamy, velvety and near perfect pop songs.
Yes, it's all true and this is a collection of some great songs and I am only giving this album 4 stars because of what's not in it. Even though it is very hard to try and decide which songs should make the cut (almost all could), how can you have Luna's Best Of album without some of their (arguably) best songs? I mean come on: Rendezvous' Still At home and Cindy Tastes of Barbecue and for that matter Romantica's 1995 and Pup Tent's Bobby Peru are a must.
So, these songs are a great place to start but once you did you will want to get a hold of them all.

The former Galaxie 500 frontman shares the wealth in this best of, chronicaling the velvety tales of Luna. The album starts of with moon palace off the Penthouse album supposedly Dean (the frontmans) favorite track. California all the way is a clasic pop song that should be a mainstay on any mix. Superfreaky memories is a rare gem that Luna put out towards the end of there career and is a welcome addition on this quality parade of well crafted songs. If your a luna fan already you probably have all these tunes and are probably wondering where's indian summer? Bobby Peru? and what's up with this rash that I can't seem to get rid of? If you're one of those folks you might be better off buying the DVD instead or anything by Neutral Milk Hotel,Cat Power,Elliot Smith,Wolf Parade,Jeff Buckley or my mother.If your a fan of the velvet underground/yo la tengo and like deeply intimate melodic tunes that are both well written and catchy but never heard of luna-then taste the kool aid and let luna's blanket of warmth cover you. I often piss myself so what do i know?