Essential [Original recording remastered]

Concrete Blonde | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 29, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B0007TKH52
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,621 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Still in Hollywood

2. True

3. Dance Along the Edge

4. God Is a Bullet

5. Happy Birthday

6. Sun

7. The Sky Is a Poisonous Garden

8. Caroline

9. Joey

10. Tomorrow, Wendy

11. Little Wing

12. Walking in London

13. Someday?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What is the point?, May 20, 2005

By 

Keith A. Sarson "Blackbeard" (Falls Church, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Essential (Audio CD)

It is nice to have re-mastered cleaner versions of songs, but the song selections are pretty much the same as the ones on Classic Masters. In fact the first four songs are in the exact same order!

The differences between this collection and Classic Masters and Essential are three songs. Classic Masters has Mexican Moon and Essential has Happy Birthday and Sun. I was happy to see Sun on a re-mastered CD, but there are many more songs that could have been included. Essential also fails to give you your money's worth as far as number of songs.

I would recommend Still in Hollywood or Recollection as a starting point for Concrete Blonde, but neither of them have the re-mastering. Still In Hollywood has some unique songs that are not on other CD's, and Recollection has more of the best songs. But both have more of the Best songs than either of the re-mastered CD's.

Essential went to cut-out status in less than two months, and that is when I picked up my copy. Not because the songs are not good, because they are, but since I own every Concrete Blonde CD, there was no hurry to get this one.

My personal "Best Of" for Concrete Blonde is:
01-Still In Hollywood
02-True
03-Jenny I Read
04-God Is A Bullet
05-Fried
06-Probably Will
07-Bloodletting
08-Walking In London
09-Everybody Knows
10-100 Games of Solitaire
11-Sun
12-Roses Grow
13-Someday?
14-Joey
15-Roxy
16-Tomorrow Wendy
17-Carry Me Away

And that was before Mojave came out...I can find songs from there to put on a Best of CD such as Ghost Riders in the Sky or Tornado at Rest...

The omission of Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) and Everybody Knows makes Essential and Classic Masters both incomplete.

I am also amazed that there are four Greatest Hits CD's for Concrete Blonde and not one of them has the song Carry Me Away on it...or that none of the 3 later Best of CD's has 100 Games of Solitaire on it...

My three star rating is more due to lack of originality of this collection rather than music.

I wonder when the 5th greatest hits CD is due out...

Keith S. :{)>

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential?, April 11, 2005

By 

H3@+h "Over 1500 reviews!" (thanks for the helpful review votes) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential (Audio CD)

I'm not sure what the point of this collection is. Despite the fact that is was released in 2005, it only includes songs up through the 1992 album "Walking In London". Nothing from "Mexican Moon", "Group Therapy", or "Mojave". Plus the only extra here is the b-side "Little Wing", it's good, but c'mon. Of the period represented I would call this their greatest hits, but again, just the first four albums? Just 13 tracks? However, the songs that are here are excellent, this is better than the "Classic Masters" collection, and the cover is pretty cool. I suggest searching out the "Recollection" best of in your local used store, it's alot better overall. Or pick this up with the past few albums.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential (but mainly for one reason), December 25, 2005

By 

Mark O. Goode "Mgoode" (Signal Hill, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Essential (Audio CD)

This is a great collection of songs, but recollection is the better cd. The only reason for the non-casual buyer to get this cd is because the version of Sun on here is different than the original version on "Free". I'm not sure if it was a mistake with the masters or done on purpose but this version of sun has a different vocal track and is about 18 seconds shorter than the original. It was a nice suprise when I got the CD (Sun is one of my favorites), but the casual fan that these collections are aimed at probably won't care.