Customer Reviews

Best of the Rest

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This cd is a compilation of the last CTS album for Lifesong Records (Photoflamingo) as well as missing tracks from the combination cd's (Mind Baby, The Radio Cries, We Want Mine). Also included are cuts from John Palumbo's solo works (Blowing Up Detroit, Drifing Back To Motown, I Lean On You and Dear,Dear).

A good compliation cd for those unfamiliar with CTS in the early 80's. "All American Boy" (from White Music)stands out as a tune that could be a pop hit today. "Mind Baby" included here from the first album is classic CTS and needs to be turned up LOUD. "Too Nice For That" and "Good Child Gone Wild" are strong additions from the Photoflamingo album. If you can locate the CTS 1993 compilation "RARE" there is a killer live version of the studio tune "Blowing Up Detroit" listed here.

Overall a good compilation of CTS' later Lifesong years and John Palumbo's solo works. The newly released live album "Recher Theather 6.19.99" shows CTS can still "tear it up" live.

Happily the missing songs from the Lifesong CTS "twofers" are here, but the rest of the material could have benefitted from more careful selection. While _Dog City_, _Photoflamingo_ and _World In Motion I_ were not great albums, they had some great, arty gems buried in the style of old CTS and some solid 80's hard rock. _Photoflamingo_ is represented well enough, "Last Time" is solid enough and the selection of the creepy "Only Lonely" was an inspired choice. But with "Too Nice For That" already represented on _Crack Attic_, it is unnecessary here. "The Other Guy" or the frenetic funk of "Is All We Know" would have been better choices. _WIM_ (unsurprisingly) gets completely shafted, but "Breakdown" or "All Fly Away" would have been appreciated. _The End_, a mid-80s CTS swansong of studio/live outtakes with crowd noise overdubs, is also ignored, despite having an excellent extended version of "Ice." _From The Greenhouse_ is a decent enough album, and given the target audience was a good choice, but the title track from _Dog City_ did the Floyd thing better. The compilers have chosen the cheezy "Mr President" to represent _DC_ instead. The other tracks, from John Palumbo's solo material, have badly dated, burying his songcraft under layers of icky 80s gloss like much of CTS's 80's output, and could have been excised in favor of getting deeper into some of the other CTS albums proper.