Very Best of (2009 Limited Edition) (Incl. Bonus DVD-PAL/Region 0) [Dual Disc, Enhanced, Import]

Ultravox | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 7, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Dual Disc, Enhanced, Import
• Label: 101 DISTRIBUTION
• ASIN: B001U7FW1O
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,671 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Disc 1
1. Sleepwalk (2008 Digital Remaster)
2. Passing Strangers (2008 Digital Remaster)
3. Vienna (Single Version) (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. All Stood Still (2008 Digital Remaster)
5. The Thin Wall (Single Version) (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. The Voice (Single Version) (2009 Digital Remaster)
7. Reap The Wild Wind (2009 Digital Remaster)
8. Hymn (Single Version) (2009 Digital Remaster)
9. Visions In Blue (Single Version) (2009 Digital Remaster)
10. We Came To Dance (Single Version) (2009 Digital Remaster)
11. One Small Day (Single Version) (2009 Digital Remaster)
12. Dancing With Tears In My Eyes (Single Version) (2009 Digital Remaster)
13. Lament (Single Version) (2009 Digital Remaster)
14. White China (Album Version) (2009 Digital Remaster)
15. Loves Great Adventure (2009 Digital Remaster)
16. Same Old Story (Single Mix) (2009 Digital Remaster)
17. All Fall Down (2009 Digital Remaster)
18. All In One Day (Single Version) (2009 Digital Remaster)
Disc 2 (DVD)
1. Sleepwalk (Live St Albans 8/80) (Bonus DVD)
2. Vienna (Live St Albans 8/80) (Bonus DVD)
3. Passing Strangers (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
4. Vienna (With Spiders! 2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
5. All Stood Still (Top Of The Pops, June 11th 1981) (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
6. The Thin Wall (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
7. The Voice (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
8. Reap The Wild Wind (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
9. Hymn (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
10. Visions In Blue (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
11. We Came To Dance (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
12. One Small Day (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
14. Dancing With Tears In My Eyes (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
15. Lament (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
16. Loves Great Adventure (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
17. Same Old Story (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD)
18. All Fall Down (2009 Digital Remaster) (Bonus DVD) --Tracklisting

Product Description

Special Edition 2 disc CD/DVD (PAL/Region 0) package. Collating 18 tracks with 17 videos, this is the first time everything has been available together and is released to coincide with the bands 2009 UK tour. Reunited to play live for the first time in over 20 years, the band line up will feature the original 80s Ultravox incarnation of Midge Ure, Chris Cross, Warren Cann and Billy Currie. One of the primary exponents of British electronic pop in the early 1980s, fans can look forward to hearing all of the band's hits live including Vienna, The Voice, Dancing With Tears In My Eyes- all of which are included here on this Special Edition 2 disc set. EMI. 2009.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ultravox 1980 - 1986: Sight & Sound (CD & DVD) Remastered, May 7, 2009

By 

Jason W. Bellenger (Byron Center, Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Very Best of (2009 Limited Edition) (Incl. Bonus DVD-PAL/Region 0) (Audio CD)

The Very Best Of Ultravox

CD & DVD (this is NOT a DualDisc release as stated)

2009 Chrysalis/EMI release

CD ~ 75 minutes. Audio remastered by Steve Rooke at Abbey Road Studios in 2008 & 2009.

DVD ~ 73 minutes. Region 0 (all regions). NTSC format (not PAL format as stated on Amazon). Aspect ratio: 4:3. Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo. Produced by Abbey Road Interactive. Steve Rooke 2008/2009 digitally remastered audio re-synced by Andrew Walter.

UPC: 5 099926 672229. Made in the EU.

I love when record labels put out these kind of sight and sound packages! The 2009 'The Very Best Of Ultravox' CD/DVD package gathers 18 U.K. hit singles on CD and 17 promo videos on DVD spanning the '80s incarnation of Ultravox -- Midge Ure, Chris Cross, Billy Currie, and Warren Cann. All four of these members reunited in early 2009 for the first time since 'Live Aid' in 1985 in order to tour the U.K. and celebrate their 30th anniversary, releasing this special collection in order to coincide with the occasion!

The Ultravox '80s reissue campaign started in late 2008 with the 2-CD re-mastered definitive edition of 'Vienna', following with additional 2-disc editions of 'Rage In Eden', 'Quartet', and 'Monument' in early 2009. Sliding in during this campaign is this excellent sight and sound package from Chrysalis/EMI, released in April 2009. Of the 18 tracks featured on the CD a whopping 15 of them placed in the U.K. Top 40!

I've been looking forward to this kind of package from Ultravox for quite a while now since I`m not really that familiar with their hits and back catalogue and have been curious to discover more. One can imagine my excitement when I first read about this release. It's not often that record companies combine stunning audio and video in one package!

All audio tracks have been digitally re-mastered by Steve Rooke at Abbey Road Studios in 2008 and 2009. Seven-inch/single versions, mixes, and edits have been used whenever possible as well (see the tracklisting provided by Amazon), giving fans the chance to hear them as originally played on the radio and issued on 7" vinyl. It's worth noting, too, for those picky about sound quality, that the music has not been brick-walled to death, meaning that the audio is not overly loud. While everyone has different preferences when it comes to audio compression, and frankly I'm fine with brick-walled sound most of the time, the audio restoration is impeccable!

I don't think that these recordings have ever sounded this crisp and clean. One can hear that painstaking work went in to transferring and re-mastering this music from the original master tapes. I really appreciate it! The clarity of tracks like "All Stood Still", "Lament", and "The Thin Wall" have left me "dancing with tears in my eyes".

I was pleasantly surprised with the DVD as well since Abbey Road Interactive, the studio which produced this DVD and has compiled other music DVDs for the EMI branch, can be hit and miss. While the work from this studio is almost always good sometimes videos are not all presented in their best audio and visual form. Fortunately, all promo videos have been re-synced with the 2008/2009 digitally re-mastered audio, and video quality, considering the age, is good as well.

On another note, this DVD is actually NTSC format, not PAL format as stated by Amazon (thanks to Brendan for pointing this out to me!) I had the privilege of watching these promos on a big screen plasma tv and was quite surprised at how grainy some of the earlier videos are. It's different watching them on a huge screen versus a laptop screen. Maybe the quality has something to do with the conversion to NTSC from PAL, the standard format in which these videos were recorded. I would be curious to know what kind of, if any, effect that this conversion had on the quality. For a European release why weren't these presented in PAL anyway? That's the standard format!

I am no visual expert, but based on other promos that I've viewed on similar releases of this era they all still look about as good as I have expected them to be. I am not expecting the clear and vibrant picture of today's standards because it is simply not present on the original tapes. Having these promos, including the uncut clip of "Vienna" and the uncensored cut of "Visions In Blue", on DVD for the first time is enticing enough!

I must admit that I only really discovered Ultravox about 5 or 6 years ago after hearing a handful of their tracks on '80s Internet radio stations and `80s compilations that I`ve added to my own music collection. "Vienna", their biggest hit -- #2 in the U.K. for 4 weeks and #1 in Belgium, Ireland, and Holland -- amazingly never charted on the U.S. Hot 100. In Europe and around the world it is often cited as a masterpiece and classic, even ranking #1 on the countdown of the Top 75 songs of the 1980s by BJMA in 2008. It's amazing how many songs never made the charts in the U.S. yet are regarded as iconic recordings elsewhere. No matter how many more times "Vienna" will be licensed for future collections I will still never tire of it! It never gets old!

In the U.S., however, Ultravox are probably best known for the lone Hot 100 chart single, "Reap The Wild Wind", #71 in 1983, and managing to chart most of their albums in the lower half of the Billboard 200 Albums tally despite only gathering scattered radio airplay. Elsewhere, "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes", a #3 U.K. smash and massive single throughout Europe in 1984, is probably the band's second most familiar cut after "Vienna". However, these guys have so much more to offer than these best-known hits. Want to discover more of their Top 40 placements? Start here!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great anthology, November 26, 2010

By 

Timothy R. Neel "billybackpacker" (San Diego, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Very Best of (2009 Limited Edition) (Incl. Bonus DVD-PAL/Region 0) (Audio CD)

This is a great anthology of post-John Foxx Ultravox. It includes most of their biggest hits in two different formats: songs and videos. I would recommend it to both the big Ultravox fan and to someone who hasn't heard of this great band nor heard much or any of their songs.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the classic 80's Great Bands, October 31, 2010

By 

John N. Marzich (arroyo grande, ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Very Best of (2009 Limited Edition) (Incl. Bonus DVD-PAL/Region 0) (Audio CD)

I always rate bands on unique offerings and not the amount of popular songs they had. Okay on this album and DVD really bought for the three songs I love. But the 80's to me were crap on a lot of music levels thanks to 'M" TV showing that videos were more important than being a musician with a great song...#@#@#$%3 idiots.

But these guys came through and rocked and actually are one of the great era bands of that time.

This collection in unique like them and made for the definitive collector of great bands.