Customer Reviews

The Best of the Moody Blues: 20th Century Masters-(Millennium Collection)

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

 

 

"Knock, Knock" (Who's There?) "Ivana" (Ivana who?) "Ivana know vat you vere tinking ven you bought dis CD, dummkopf!"

Listen, don't be suckered into buying these chintzy 20th Century Masters products. Nine times out of ten there's a better alternative. That's certainly true here.

For a mere $ more you can get The Best of the Moody Blues, which not only includes all eleven songs from the 20th Century Masters CD, but also six additional songs: 1)"Go Now" from the original Moody Blues (and a top 10 in the U.S. in 1965), 2)"Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)," the second single from Days of Future Passed, 3)"Voices in the Sky," 4)"Isn't Life Strange," 5)"Blue Guitar," a Justin Hayward solo single from 1975 and 6)"Forever Autumn," a Justin Hayward single from Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds in 1978. These are all terrific songs and certainly make a better single-disc retrospective.

Any, repeat, ANY Moody Blues greatest hits or best of compilation in the world is better than this piece of crap, yet another in the series of "Millenium" cd's where 10 or 11 random singles are carelessly thrown onto a cd.

Can you possibly take seriously a Moody Blues best-of that includes "Slide Zone" and "Blue World" and OMITS "Tuesday Afternoon" and "Isn't Life Strange"?! I mean, HELLO! We're lucky they even included "Nights in White Satin" at this rate!... Trust me, if you want a greatest hits set for the Moodies, get the "Best Of" cd or, even better (if you wanna spend a few extra bucks) the Anthology. This cd is most certainly NOT worth the investment.

What in the world would anyone do with another Moody Blues greatest hits package? I am a big fan of the band, but I can't see rereleasing the same old tracks over and over again. There are not even any bonus tracks or rarities. There are much better greatest hits collections out there that show more of the band's depth and talent - buy one of those.

Getting 11 tracks from one of the world's most respected and enduring rock bands ...(£8) is excellent value by any measure. Speaking as an Englishman in England, I wouldn't have bothered reviewing this item except that (a) it's not available in Britain and (b) Amazon's own editorial review is so long on self-esteem and so short on reality that I felt something had to be done to redress the balance. So I give this compilation 5 stars when, musically, it's perhaps really only worth four stars.

It's not just that the negative reviews are so full of silly crap that they shoot themselves in the foot, it's more that this item is already a collector's item. I'll take more notice of reviewers who savagely criticise The Moody Blues when they've written more than 290 tracks and have been at the top of the music profession for 25 years.

Hot air indeed.

This is a good length compilation of some of the British rock group's more well known songs. Personally I'm not in favour of gargantuan 30 song compilations. There's no way you're going to play something of that length right through. Back in the LP days, a record side lasted 15 - 25 mins. After that, only occasionally would you go on to play side 2. If you're wanting a disc crammed with material, the recently released 'Gold' is your best bet. Thankfully 'Go now' isn't on this compilation. It is from a former incarnation of the Moodies and really doesn't fit with any of their subsequent material.
The song sequence is chronologic here, and starts therefore with their most well known song 'Nights in white satin'. It's great to start a Cd with such a potent number. The first 5 songs come from their progressive rock period (first seven albums, 1968 - 72) and the remainder from 1977 to the present day. While the 68 - 72 period yielded the more essential music with each of the first seven LPs basically flawless, this compilation is only looking at songs that were or could have been singles. The quality of the songwriting and production is very good throughout. If you're more into the cosmic, poetic, introspective, haunting, Moody compositions then you're not going to like the orchestrated rock and roll of 'Just a singer' or the synthesised plodding of 'Gemini dream.' But everyone's 11 song Moody compilation is going to be different. Generally this one is consistent, evocative, melodic multichordal pop rock. A great buy if you want a digestible chunk of high profile Moody songs.

Moody Blues have been entertaining for 40 years. There is a reason for that!!

Given the fact that I picked this up in a checkout line for 8.99, I have little to complain about. Also, the fact that every song here is a keeper helps. Just be aware that, when it comes to Moody Blues collections, this is a shorty and a cheapie, and you'll get exactly what you pay for.

The three stars come by a couple things, but the main gripe is the single edit of "Nights In White Satin." I really wanted the postlude from the full Days of Future Passed version and it isn't here. It does divide the songs rather neatly in half, with five from the classical overblown period and then six from their 70/80's arena rock phase (from Octave on). If you really want to know what the Moodies are about, pick up Voices in the Sky: The Best of the Moody Blues instead.

The Moody Blues. They hit it big in the 1960s and 1970s, and they really hit it big in the 1980s with their comeback. This set documents every major landmark song they've had over the years. '20th Century Masters' did a nice job putting this one together.

You get major hits on here, but as previous reviewers stated, 'Tuesday Afternoon' needs to be on here. And, with a maximum of 12 songs per compilation in the series, it could have easily been placed here.

Despite that one complaint, this is an excellent entry point for the new Moody Blues fan and it's probably all the casual fan will need. And, the sound quality is excellent.

Highly recommended for the new or casual Moody Blues fan.

The only thing that keeps me from giving 5 stars is the fact that there could have been more songs on the disc. There is plenty of room. That said this disc is worth it to me for this version of The Voice alone. It has a wonderful expansively panoramic and coherent soundstage that doesn't seem to be found on other albums that contain it. On the Gold 2-disc collection, for example, the sound is slightly crisper but at a huge loss of that gorgeous, sweeping sonic mosaic on this album. In fact the whole disc seems to be a very good remastering job. A trait that seems to be shared by most of the 20th Century Masters/Millennium discs. I consider it a worthwhile addition to my moodies collection.

All of these 20th Century "Millennium" series are pretty bad. For one thing, it's not the millennium yet except in the world of exploitative marketing. Anyone who can't even count or read a calender shouldn't be assembling compilations of music by bands this worthy. Maybe in 2001 (the actual millenium ), there will be a better collection available.