Customer Reviews

Contraband: Best of

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Few bands epitomize the 1980s like Men At Work did. Out of nowhere (well okay, Austraila), the Men burst open the scene with funny videos and songs with irresistible hooks. I was a fan from the first time I heard Greg Ham's sax intro into "Who Can It Be Now?" But buried under the amusing visuals and catchy hooks were underlying themes of fear and isolation -- prevalent attitudes during a decade in which we lived under the threat of nuclear war (expressed well in "It's a Mistake"). All of the best are here, including "Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive," "Overkill" and "Down Under." However, one of the strongest tracks is the overlooked "Hard Luck Story," a song about a man who's experienced the ways of the world -- and doesn't like what he's seen. It's a reminder that we create our own misery by persecuting and rejecting others. Other favorites include the beautiful ballad "Maria," the goofy "I Like To," and the wistful "Still Life." An all-around good collection of one of the best bands to emerge from the outbacks of Austraila -- or anywhere. Would love to see a reunion.

This american Hits compilation is adequate and the sound of the disc is quite good. A few minor quibbles with song selection. This disc includes five selections from the Men's third, somewhat obscure third album. But the one american hit from that album, "Everything I Need", is missing, as is another called "Sail to You." Also not included are the songs(not on any of the three albums) "The Longest Night" and "Shintaro." These songs are included on their import best of called "The Works." Having said that, this disc sounds much better. I'm also glad to see they included "Down by the Sea", the best Men song of all. Good starter disc or overview, but the true fan needs to have this and the "Works." Enjoy!

During 1982-83, Austrailia's most succesful bar band Men at Work were about the biggest musical phenomenon on the planet. They combined good songwriting, a sense of humor and decent charisma into a commerically powerful brew that carried a half dozen or so of their singles onto the U.S. charts. Their first two albums, "Business as Usual" and "Cargo" were massive sellers and I will admit to having played them on vinyl until they were worn out. Unfortunately, their success went to their heads and after a dreadful attempt to be taken seriously with their 1985 third album "Two Hearts," they faded into obscurity.

Their greatest hits album features enough of their best moments from those first two albums to make it worthwhile for anyone interested in the nostalgia. Unfortunately, it also contains a number of songs from their disasterous third album that weaken the overall package. Nevertheless, if you loved pop gems such as "Who Can it Be Now?" "Down Under," "Be Good Johnny" and "Overkill," this album is for you. It also gets a bonus star for including the lengthy "Down by the Sea," which is the excellent non-hit closing track from the first album.

I'll have to concur with the reviewer "El Marco", who inexplicably is the only reviewer to have noted the poor sound on this CD.

While the collection of songs by a band I like is fine, the mastering of this disc is nothing short of a crime. After hearing "Be Good Johnny" on my iPod for the first time, the horrible distortion of the cymbal crashes mad me figure I'd ripped the CD at the wrong bitrate. Checking my iTunes settings, I saw that it was no different from any other CD I'd ripped, so I pulled the CD back out to see what was what. Listening to the disc directly, the same flaws I noticed on my iPod are there in the original recording (which I'd not listened to critically before I put it on my player). Every track (not just "Be Good Johnny") that I care about sounds bad, either because of distorted cymbal crashes, muddy overall sound, poor bass, or a maddening shifting of the stereo image left and right across the soundstage.

Listening to this CD through headphones, you will be driven to tears by the realization that someone mucked up the transfer BIG TIME. Basically, the CD sounds as though it was produced from a bunch of 96bps MP3 tracks stolen off of Kazaa and then burned to disc. I wish I were exaggerating, but truly, this is easily one of the ten worst-sounding commercially produced CD's in my 1000+ disc collection.

Four stars for the selection of music, minus-3 stars for the sound quality. The quality of this CD is inexcusable.

Ah, Men at Work. I remember these guys from the early 1980s. Business As Usual and Cargo were two of the first rock albums I ever bought (I guess that dates me some a bit, eh?) and I played them until my record player finally give up the ghost years later. I was very gratified to find this collection so I could experience them again on the CD player.

This album contains 6 songs from Business as Usual (including a live versionof I Like To), 5 songs from Cargo, and 5 songs from the relatively obscure final album, Two Hearts. I remember when Two Hearts came out. I saw it once in a record store but didn't purchase it right away. The next time I came back, it was gone. I never had heard any songs from Two Hearts until I got this CD, and, as it says in the liner notes, many people don't even remember that Men At Work ever even made a third album.

I was thankful to see that the 11 songs from the first two albums do an excellent job of showcasing the best of the Men's output while disregarding songs that were less enjoyable. Colin Hay's strong and rich vocals and Greg Ham's saxophone/flute/keyboard versatility were, and are, the highlights of these songs. "Who Can It Be Now" was the band's first big hit, largely on the strength of the unforgettable sax hook. "Down Under" was the classic hit about the traveling Australian that turned into an unofficial national anthem. "Overkill" is probably the best song on the album, a haunting song about stress, overwork, and worry with Greg Ham's best sax performance. "It's a Mistake" sounded light-hearted at first, until you listened closely to the lyrics and realized that it was a song of angst and fear of nuclear war (remember that the song came out in 1983). "It's a Mistake" also spawned a classic MTV video, culminating with the priceless look of "D'oh!!" on "General" Colin Hay's face as he goes to stub out a cigar in his ashtray and accidentally pushes "The Button".

The rest of the songs on the album from Business as Usual and Cargo don't disappoint. I suppose some would have quibbles with some of the selected songs, but I was quite happy with the ones they chose to include. As for the 5 songs from Two Hearts, well, they are.... OK. They aren't bad songs by any means, certainly they are better than some of the aforementioned songs from the first two albums that were left off this CD, but they aren't anything particularly noteworthy, either. Remember what I mentioned above about Hay's vocals and Ham's instrumentals? Well, both Hay and Ham were involved in the creation of Two Hearts, but their hearts just don't seem in it (no pun intended). The album faded quickly out of the record stores and got almost zero airplay, and when one listens to these songs, it is easy to see why.

That having been said, I still highly recommend this CD. Anyone who remembers the Men fondly will enjoy it, and anyone who may have only heard "Who Can It Be Now" and "Down Under" (both of which can still be occasionally heard on the radio) will get a nice cross-section of this band's music. Well worth picking up for any 80s music fan. The liner notes contained in the CD are a nice little short history of the band and make a nice supplement to the disc.

Most people remember the Men as being those "Down Under" guys. This disc should help to squash those thoughts. Some great tracks highlight this set. While not all of them qualify as hits, there are some very good songs here.

My personal favorite, "Overkill," was highlighted as lead singer Colin Hey performed it acoustic on NBC's "Scrubs." Add in "Who Can It Be Now?", "Be Good Johnny", "Dr. heckyll & Mr. Jive", and "It's A Mistake" and you've got a solid set of reasons to invest in this CD.

In the early years of MTV Men at Work was a phenomenon. They had creative videos and unique, catchy music. The group launched a string of hits in 1982 and 1983, with their success finally winding down with the release of the 1985 album "Two Hearts," which yielded no bona fide hits. The group's success and popularity well exceeded their three album release, and those of us who were there when MTV launched remember them fondly.

The group actually released only three albums, "Business as Usual," in 1981, "Cargo," in 1983, and "Two Hearts," in 1985. In 1998, two of the original members of Men at Work released "Brazil," a live album that contains some different music from their original three albums.

The music on this CD is a "best of" rather than a "greatest hits." The name is appropriate given that the group hardly had enough hits to scrape together a greatest hits collection. However, the music on this CD is typically very good, with only a few lesser works. The best music is generally the music released as singles and a few others. "Who Can it Be Now," "Down Under," "It's a Mistake," "Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive," and "Overkill." Several other songs are of a quality similar to these, "Underground," "Upstairs in My House," "Be Good Johnny," and "Down by the Sea." The remaining seven songs are of varying quality, depending on your personal taste.

Others have recommended "The Essential Men at Work" over this collection. However, that CD is missing "Down by the Sea" and "Upstairs in My House." Conversely, that album has "Blue for You," "I Can See It in Your Eyes," and "Everything I Need." The result is that it is impossible to find a single CD that contains the best music of Men at Work, so you are left with the less desirable choice of having to procure several collections, particularly if you are going to get such obscure songs as "Shintaro."

I was a big fan of Men at Work, and loved each of their videos. The group had a lot of energy, and was very creative. The video for "Down Under" had a Monkees quality to it. "Who Can It Be Now?" was presented as a paranoid's nightmare. "It's a Mistake" takes place in a war room, where someone has accidentally pushed "the button." If you find you like Men at Work's music, I urge you to consider buying their videos.

Men at Work have long faded from the music scene. That is unfortunate because they had a unique style. However, their music is readily available in collections and re-releases of their original three albums. I believe this collection is one of the better collections for Men at Work, in spite of the lack of some songs, and recommend it as your first choice for music representative of the group.

This collection takes pretty evenly from their three albums. The tracks from "Two Hearts" are decent, but they definitely make up the filler third of the disc. Fortunately the majority of this includes all the great songs from "Business As Usual" and "Cargo". So you get the huge hits "Who Can It Be Now", "Down Under", and "Overkill", as well as the favorites "It's A Mistake", "Be Good Johnny", and "Dr. Heckyll And Mr. Jive". Plus a live "I Like To", and the excellent closer "Down By The Sea". If you need more than this just get the first two albums. Otherwise this "Best Of" is even more essential than the "Essential Men At Work".

I was in college radio my Senior year when a mysterious blank "white label" 12-inch single came to the station with the cryptic title "Who Can It Be Now?" Speculation ran wild about who the catchy and instantly memorable song was from...with Sting and The Police being a heavy favorite at the time. When "Business as Usual" arrived a few weeks later, we got our answer. It wasn't long till the comical video was taking over MTV and Man At Work began to take over the national musical landscape.

Their run was both stunning and swift. The catchy singles and clever video presence made the debut a number one album, with both "Who Can It Be Now" and "Down Under" topping the charts. The follow-up, Cargo, had another pair of top tens, "It's a Mistake" and "Overkill." At one point, both albums were in the top ten at the same time. They nailed a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1982. The were great interview subjects and made for great copy, after all, they helped make Australia hip for a spell. "Crocodile Dundee" and Vegemite became new topics due in part to the way Men At Work opened the gates.

Then it fell apart just as fast. Colin James Hay quickly became the dominant force in the band, with the tight confines of never-ending close quarters and swelling egos splintering the band by the time Two Hearts appeared. This time there were no top 40 singles and Hay broke up the band for a solo career. The novelty had worn off the group's sound, and despite CBS trying to model Hay's solo debut Looking for Jack into a Sting-like image, the audience had moved on.

"Contraband," however, helps gather what was great about Men At Work and put it into perspective. While the favored songs lean heavily on those first two albums, "Maria" and "Hard Luck Story" show that maybe "Two Hearts" wasn't that bad after all. (It's also worth noting that five of the 16 songs here come from that much maligned album.) And while the band eventually seemed to be viewed as Hay's vehicle, members Greg Ham and Ron Strykert made major songwriting contributions, to the point where Strykert sings lead on the live version of "I Like To" (originally a B-Side). Ham's sax and flute playing were a major factor in the band's attention grabbing sound. Men at Work were, first and foremost, a band.

Aside from the hits, there is also ample evidence that Men At Work had substance on those first two albums. Had there not been an unwritten rule about releasing too many singles from albums at the time, "Be Good Johnny" probably would have been a third top ten from "Business." Bear in mind that Michael Jackson's Thriller was hot at the time, and it was considered radical that Jacko had gone as far as to release a fourth (and eventually a seventh) single. The dreamy "Down By The Sea" was a far cry from the super accessible image the band cultivated in their videos, and its addition to "Contraband" (along with the live "I Like To") shows that the band were better musicians than the breezy pop would lead one to believe.

The reason for the three star review is two-fold. Any one of the unmentioned songs from "Two Hearts" could have been bumped for something else from "Business as Usual." And given that the only song to chart at all from the final album was "Everything I Need," its exclusion seems odd. The other reason is no unreleased material - which I guess they were saving for the release of the expanded album CD's a few years later. Even Hay's solo singles would have been a nice addition. (He still makes pretty good records. Check out Are You Looking At Me?.) Still, I am glad I have this. For an 80's buff, Men At Work make for great memories.

Excellent...I was in high school when Men At Work burst onto the scene. "Business as Usual" is still one of my favorite recordings. Thank goodness this greatest hits includes "Down by the Sea"...probably their best effort despite no air play in the US