Customer Reviews

Keepsakes: A Collection (W/Dvd)

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In music today,the very pinnacle of the world of assumed pereftion is the greatest hits compilation. This is where a band and its creators self-congratulate in all they have achieved and - of course - this achievement is always immense and everything between the band members and their creators is always wonderful. By order.

By contrast All About Eve are one of the few bands around who are not directly guilty of doing this - but their one-time record label Mercury most certainly are. I refer here to "Winter Words" (1992) which, with intentional bad timing, was released by Mercury on the same day as their fourth album "Ultraviolet" (recorded with a different label). The sleeve notes on "Winter Words" gave no hint whatever that the group were in turmoileven though the very music proclaimed what they would not. Of course by that time turmoil had become self-destruction. Fourth album "Ultravoilet" bombed and the band disbanded just three months later.

It's been thirteen years since then and the band has split, re-formed, split again and reformed again so many times since that you have to wonder how they keep going or - more importantly - how they keep hold of their fans. Well, it's quite a simple answer really - their music is wonderful. Not safe or perfect like today's ubiquitous anodyne manufactured rubbish, just plain brilliant.

So fast forward to today and we have "Keepsakes" which is a Julianne Regan-lead (rather than record label-lead) double CD/DVD set nevertheless produced by Mercury and ensconsed with 1989-era graphics. Glitzy production may now be at odds with reality though. Since the group re-formed in 1999 - circumstance and desire on both sides have brought a level of intimacy between Julianne, the band, and the adoring hordes that is rarely seen elsewhere. Therfore, in the real world the outdated big-label mask of perfection All About Eve used to wear has not been maintained. Great cracks now appear in that visage through which the light of reality shines unhindered, but since "Keepsakes" comes from the same label that brought us "Winter Words" one has to wonder if anyone will try to plaster up those cracks?

No.

Turning first to the track selection - and immediately one sees that this isn't the obvious greatest hits material. Certainly all the hits are present, although not necessarily in original single versions, but otherwise the selection is eclectic - "Calling Your Name" is present, but not "D for Desire," "Freeze" but not "Mine" - and "Let Me Go Home" is the only post-99 song (not counting the four new ones). It also includes in "Farewell Mr Sorrow" and "Strange Way" two songs that once invited original guitarist Tim Bircheno to get lost while at the same time including 3 new (or remixed) compositions by him.

Clearly we're going to have to turn to the sleeve-notes to get some answers here and there we find "We're a semi-suicidal hydra" from Julianne on page one, and it continues like that throughout.

You should, therefore, be warned that not all the sleeve-notes make for entirely comfortable reading, especially when Julianne writes of the second album "I don't think I've wept as often in my life as I did during the making of Scarlet." Of course those of us who own "Scarlet and Other Stories" might well have suspected thatt from the music, but now we know it for a fact, it gives a whole new dimension to the tracks from that album that are here: the denied wish that is "Scarlet," the depths of the soul "Drowning," and the despeate wish to go back corret things in "December."

As to other highlights, we start, naturally, with "Flowers In Our Hair" but also get "In The Clouds," as fresh today as it ever was. "Martha's Harbour," despite now being out of fashion, is still beautiful. Also worthy of mention are the Dave Gilmour and Marty Wilson-Piper spectaculars that are "Wishing the Hours Away" and "Are You Lonely," and "Farewell Mr Sorrow" which is one of the greatest break-up songs - right up there with Lush' "Cioa" sheer "get out of my life" energy. Ultraviolet's "Infrared" is still mesmerizing and the recent "Le Me Go Home" has lost none of its energy since 2004's release.

Of the remixed songs, today's version of "What Kind of Fool" is much darker than the original whereas, conversely, the new version of "The Empty Dancehall" - featuring Tim for the first time in seventeen years - is very nice and wafty, with a little bit of trip-hop going on in the background that fits it very well. The totally new songs are "Keepsakes" which is written in the style we have come to associate with "modern" All About Eve and it deals well with it's quite deep subject - the reuniting of two ex-lovers meeting in the coldness of reality's light - realising that they still have things to offer each other (though you equally read it as a dedicaiton of the album to the listeners). "Raindrops"is an original Tim composition and there is a hint of the Bristol sound but it works very well with Tim's style of playing. It is a beautiful song that could make a very saleable single.

As to the DVD section, this is the first time all the promos have been in one place at one time - and perhaps more than anything they chart the band's ups and downs. There is the exuberance of those from the first album to the stress apparent in Julianne's eyes in the ones from "Scarlet," and the recovery apparent in by "Farewell Mr Sorrow." The "Ultraviolet" era videos are also interesting in their own way. There are some TV appearances including the "Martha's Harbour" disaster - brave to include that.

In summary then "Keepsakes" is so much more than a greatest hits compilation - it manages to catch the very essence of All About Eve from their dizziest heights to rock bottom - and everywhere in between. It is *breathtakingly* beautiful.

I think "Keepsakes" appeared in my Amazon recommendations as I am a big Cure fan and I think the two bands have a bit of gigging history together. I remember Robert Smith saying he was a fan but I only ever heard a couple of singles. Anyway I ordered a copy as it seemed like a good way to get everything I could possibly need in one handy package. And I have to say, I'm very glad I did.

The first thing that struck me is that All About Eve are much more guitar heavy than I had thought. The guitar solo at the end of "In The Meadow" is pure metal, "What Kind of Fool" sounds like it could have been mixed by Danny Lohner and the new title track is very classy indie rock. Obviously, the memory of "Martha's Harbour" had overshadowed anything else I'd heard over the years. Having said that, you can't ignore a classic, well crafted song and "MH" is precisely that. It was nice to hear it again after so long.

The best stuff here though is the new material. "Raindrops" will be a future classic and "Keepsakes" will be filling every Goth club dance floor if there's any justice in the world of music. Club DJs will be lapping this stuff up.

The DVD is a great addition to the set and best of the bunch are "Phased", "Strange Way" and "The Dreamer", as the band look particularly cool.

All in all, a very welcome surprise and for fans of The Cure, Lacuna Coil and The Church, you cannot go wrong here.

A great collection of Eves material, with the added bonus of a DVD chock-full of memories. This is a band that should have been huge... a beautiful woman with a beautiful voice, and songs that stay with you forever. Those of us who were there to experience their heyday will always have our memories, but this collection finally "puts the face to the name" for those who found them later, by adding a DVD so people can see as well as hear why this band is so special.

I can't compete with the lavish reviews already here, but this album that I purchased through Amazon is superb, not only as a collection of all the major songs, but rarities as well, and the delightful DVD, with 21 tracks - it alone is worth the money I paid. But wait, there's more! The two CDs contain 36 tracks in all, and each is as close to 80 minutes as one can get. Ten of these tracks are previously unreleased or brand new recordings!

At first, I had difficulty with the DVD - most DVD and Blu-Ray players in the USA will not play it, even though it is coded Region 0, because it is in PAL format. However, computers CAN play the DVD, and the best results were seen on my iMac - while other computers needed me to download VLC (free) media player before the disc would play, the iMac already has VLC and without any hiccups at all began playing it as soon as it was loaded into the DVD slot. And with a 24" screen it was a great 88 minute show! I'm not sure that even with a region-free DVD player I could display this on my 50" HDTV, though.

The videos are outstanding, and give you a very good take on why this evanescent band was so popular in the 1990's. I first discovered their eponymous CD in 1988 in a record store in Los Angeles, and liked it so much I bought a lot more of their albums, CD and vinyl singles along the way. I am eagerly awaiting their new album due to be released later this year.