Customer Reviews

Best Of: New Light Through Old Windows

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Can someone tell me why an artist re-records their own songs when there was NOTHING wrong with the originals. Like most 80's albums, this one suffers from the 'let's do a remix' thing. Chris Rea has redone most of the songs on this set including a single which had only been released the year before. I refer to 'Let's dance' which was redone to a disappointing outcome. The difference is annoying. The most notable reworking is 'Fool if you think it's Over' which I cannot understand. The original was just beautiful ... why destroy it? The original is difficult to locate on CD, so thanks for being inconsiderate record company! 'On the Beach' is also redone. Once again, WHY?
Note that the Australian hit 'Diamonds' is missing, and one wonders why that was never released overseas as clearly it is better than several tracks on this set. This compilation could have been so much more if they had left the originals intact. Please release a Greatest Original Hits!

Living in the shadow of Clapton and Mark Knopfler seems to have been the unjust fate of this amazing guitar player-songwriter when he can easily equal them in any of those arias.This is the best introduction to his exceptional and diverse work;the first thing that should be immediately obvious to the new listener is the great class and fine taste of this musician-Chris Rea is indeed a poet of great elegance and refinement.

It was this compilation that orginally got me hooked on Chris Rea. Sadly and typically I had only heard "Road to hell" and "Fool (if you think it's over)" before. This compilation opened up my eyes and ears to the world of Chris Rea. I would highly recommend you purchase this album to begin exploring the world of all things Rea. Yes the songs are remixed/redone from the original versions, but I love these too!
I'll put it this way. 6 months ago I had nothing from Chris Rea. Now I have 14 cd's. This compilation just scratches the surface, but it such an engrossing musical retrospective.

This Chris Rea compilation from the 80's shows the strength of Chris Rea's songwriting and guitar work. For many years now Rea has received little, to no acknowledgement, of his exceptional music. He has been labeled "too British" for the American mainstream. In Europe, he has a large following and this CD explains why.

I say I have to agree with S. B. Rotherforth "smithville boy" on this as driving music in its purest form! When I first had the cassette single much earlier days THIS SONG was my TGIF song. Later I lost the tape and by pure coincidence I have stumbled on the complete Greatest Hits which I must say if you like pure rock music you will LOVE Chris Rea! Needless to say now I am a little older but it still has that certain appeal to it, that is why I purchased it today 12/12/2005.

I didn't even realize that the songs on this album were re-worked versions of the originals, but that hasn't stopped me from enjoying them. I was familiar with Rea before this, having the Dancing with Strangers album and having heard him get a lot of radio play in South Africa. In fact, his popularity there got him invited to the Gunston 500 surfing championship in Durban in the `80s. Rea doesn't exactly write surf music, but he has had enough references to the beach on his mellow albums that earned him a fan following from beach bums.
New Light is a great compilation, providing fair coverage of all of Rea's albums up to this time. Let's Dance is the obligatory nod to Dancing with Strangers, with Windy Town thrown in for good measure. Then there's the pleasing ballad Ace of Hearts from Wired to the Moon, four songs from Shamrock Diaries: the rousing Stainsby Girls, as well as Shamrock Diaries, Josephine and Steel River, then Candles and I Can Hear Your Heartbeat from Water Sign, On the Beach from the album by that name, and his first hit Fool (If You Think It's Over).
If listening to this album doesn't win you over to Chris's mode of mellow blues-rock and pop, then you just don't like that type of music.

The first time I heard Chris Rea's "On The Beach", with its compelling Leonard Cohen-meets-Wes Montgomery groove, I literally had to pull off to the side of the road..."Who was THAT?!" I was surprised to hear the name "Chris Rea", as I had written him off as a one-hit-wonder about six years previous (with his fine 1978 pop hit "Fool If You Think It's Over"). As it turned out, he had been recording ever since, but his albums were only coming out in Europe. This particular collection is basically a straight reissue of the 1984 U.S. album "New Light Through Old Windows" (inexplicably out of print) plus "Fool.." and 1 or 2 other cuts, which I suppose justifies the subtitle "The Best Of..". Rather than a "greatest hits", this collection actually amounts to a domestic sampler from Rea's import-only albums released in the early to mid 80's. A good introduction to a consistently top flight artist who has (sadly) yet to get his due from the listening public.

when this first was released, I'd heard 'working on it' on the radio. I couldn't get the driving music out of my head. why I waited so long to purchase the music, only makes having it that much sweeter.good stuff.

I bought this album solely for the song Driving Home for Christmas. I heard it 5 years ago and I thought it was fabulous. I still do. It is now my favorite Xmas song. Buy this for that song alone. You will be glad you did.

I first heard "Driving Home for Christmas" on a British Airways flight from London to the USA. It really grew on me and I bought this album just to hear it again. Very few songs make me tear up, but this is one of them...BEAUTIFUL!