Customer Reviews

Platinum Collection

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Previously issued as three separate discs, this set covers Bowie's career through 1987. This ignores the last 20 years, in which Bowie released eight albums.

If you're a casual fan, the 2-disc "Best of Bowie" is a better bet. It includes all the hits and features selections from the later albums such as "Tin Machine", "Outside", and "Hours".

The four disc box set "Sound and Vision" covers the whole of Bowie's career (so far) but leaves off "Fame" and "Let's Dance", while including two or three rarities.

This leaves "The Platinum Collection" squarely in the middle. All the hits are here, although many of them are radio edits, which may be jarring if you're used to the full-length cuts. (The edit on "Young Americans" is particularly weird, and to my knowledge has never appeared on CD before.)

For the completist, this set includes a handful of rarities, some of which are unavailable elsewhere ("John, I'm Only Dancing Again 1975," for example).

This may be an ideal one-stop solution for a casual fan, if you're not interested in the last 20 years. However, the 2-disc "Best of Bowie" is still a better choice, because it's more comprehensive and the full-length edits are all there.

The Platinum Collection collects 58 of Bowie's most beloved recordings

Pluses:

- everything is remastered

- most of Bowie's essential hits are here

- a few rarities that are only available on the very expensive "Sound And Vision" box

- unlike "Sound And Vision", contains the hits as well

Minuses:

- I am fine with radio edits sometimes, because some are needed to save space, but... why do we get the heavily edited "Heroes" (one of Bowie's finest hours) yet 7 minutes of "John I'm Only Dancing Again", which is one of the worst disco forays ever.

- the idea that 1987 was the end of Bowie's career is kinda presented here. Any true Bowie fan knows that the past dozen or so years have been more fruitful and full of highlights than the 1980's were

- slightly overpriced considering the import is almost half the price as the US version

If you don't already have a huge Bowie collection, this one collects many of the greats for the first 20 years. However, don't think that this is all you need... check out his latter albums, such as "Reality", "Hours", "Heathen", "Outside", "Earthling" and "Black Tie White Noise", all of these albums are wonderful and Bowie's had a silent renaissance.

If I had known going in that there were so many single edit versions on this set I would have just downloaded from iPod.

Don't buy this if you want the real Bowie songs.

Only for fans of cheesey edits.

David Bowie-The Platinum Collection *****

With so many compilations to his name, some to his accord and some which he had nothing to due with, merely just record companies making money off the Bowie name, the question is, is this collection worthy of purchase with so many others available...Well yes actually. This is by far the best, and strongest collection of Bowie's entire career as far as biggest selling singles goes. This even include quite the number of songs that you wouldn't expect on the collection, and a prime example of this being 'John I'm Only Dancing (again)' which is something that most fans of Bowie would love to have on a collection like this but would never dream it possible to be included, which is further proof that you can not place a tag on David Bowie. This includes almost everything except for his mid 1990's work and 2000's work as even though he made some great music during this period it did not sell as well as his earlier material from 1968-1990.

So basically for someone who is interested in David Bowie this would make a fine introduction to the musicians career leaving gaps for newer fans to decide what facet of Bowie's career and explore it more. But as for those who are already fans this is more then just another way to expand your collection of Bowie compilations.

For the casual Bowie fan this is a pretty good and pretty thorough collection, spreading across the breadth of what is widely considered his classic years, and including most of his well known songs, as well as a hit and miss selection of various rarities and semi-rarities. But is the song selection here as good as it could be? Is it listenable all the way through? Does it contain any bad songs? And what purpose does it serve in a world that already contains several Bowie compilations?

The real reason to consider this compilation is for the third disc, as the other two are available separately. Bowie's 80's period (discounting Scary Monsters)is the one in most need of a compilation cd as it was his weakest era. Let's Dance, Tonight, and Never Let Me Down are really of interest only for their singles and frankly not worth buying to anyone but a diehard. A compilation that simply rounded up the singles from these three albums would nicely fill a gap in Bowie's catalogue. Does disc 3 of the platinum collection fit the bill? Not quite. For one thing, the superb song "Never Let Me Down", from the mostly bad album of the same name, is inexplicably ommitted in favor of dreck such as "Underground" from the Labyrinth movie, and various other movie soundtrack songs that, while handy to get in one place like this, are generally from very decent soundtracks that would be worth having on their own. Futhermore in the effort to cram as many songs, including various sundry rarities, on here as possible, the compiliers have resorted to inferior edited versions of some key songs. Thank God they at least seem to have chosen the soundtrack version of Cat People (judging by the amazon song sample) instead of the absolutely wretched remake that mars the "Let's Dance" album. [Incidently, the Cat People remake is the very thing thing that pushes Let's Dance from a mediocre album to a bad one in my book, knocking it off my to-buy list and making this compilation tempting in the first place because of its inclusion of the 3 excellent Let's Dance singles].

However, despite what appears to be the inclusion of the original version of Cat People, they have chopped off two minutes of the song, a butchery job which borders on blasphemy! I really wonder why compilers think that this sort of thing is acceptable these days. Arbirarily cutting off minutes this way just to save space shows a real lack of respect for a recorded song as a performance and a peice of art. Can anyone imagine "Stairway to Heaven" or "I am the Walrus" or "Hey Jude" with two minutes lopped off? Would they be just as good? No? Then why do it here? The soundtrack version of "Cat People" is one of Bowie's very finest vocal performances and is somewhat hard to find on a Bowie cd in its original 6 minute plus version. If the idea was to include some genuinely worthwhile rarities from this era, an unedited "Cat People" should have been top of the list. But instead they amputate two whole minutes. I'm sure apologists for this kind of mutilation have their reasons. Perhaps someone will say this edit was actually some obscure 7 inch single version and not a new edit made specifically for this compilation. Regardless of such irrelvencies, everyone knows the definitive version of "Cat People" is the 6 minute plus version, so why not include it? If space was the only reason, I would gladly get rid of boring rarity-for-rarity's-sake crud like "Drowned" and "Alabama Song" that drag down the momentum of this cd anyway, to get back those 2 minutes of one of my all time favorite Bowie songs.

Disc 2 has a similar problem in the severely edited version of "Young Americans". Some songs simply need to be heard in full. These two are prime examples. As a result it's hard to reccomend this album and I consider it a botched oppurtunity to make sense of Bowie's 80's output.

Finally, as the Best of David Bowie 1969-1974 and 1974-1979 respectivly, are identical to disc one and two of this set, it seems to be adding insult to injury not to make disc 3 available separately as well---perhaps they thought it wouldn't sell on its own. Instead, those who own the first two discs already in the form of the earlier collections would be forced to duplicate them if they simply wanted the third disc as a representation of bowie's 80's period.

Though I might make this compilation sound pretty bad, it does enough things right to make itself tempting (such as collecting together some essential singles and rarities, especially from the shaky 80's period) and, in its favor, it actually could have been much worse. At the very least the compilers should be lauded for having the good taste not to include that horrendous monstrosity of a cover of "Dancing in the Street" Bowie did with Mick Jagger in the early 80's. I consider that abomination to be Bowie's absolute career low point and hands down THE worst song he's ever recorded bar none (yes I have heard the entire Deram Anthology including the infamous "Laughing Gnome", Dancing in the Street is worse). I cannot even listen to Dancing in the Street all the way through without feeling the overwhelming urge to press skip and actually got rid of the otherwise excellent "Singles Collection 1969-1993" simply because I was tired of having to get up and skip that godawful song every time I listened to it. So, simply by not including "Dancing in the Street", this collection earns an extra star from me, bringing it up from a 2 to a 3. And I truly hope this precedent becomes a trend for all future retrospective Bowie compilations.

To end on a more positive note, disc one of this album is a terrific encapsulation of bowie's glam period. It includes great rarities such as "Velvet Goldmine" and the almost impossible to find Bowie version of "All the Young Dudes", which is almost enough on it's own to make it worth buying, even if it does include a bit too much from Aladdin Sane. Fortunately, it is available separately as "The Best of David Bowie 1969-1974".

Up until the 3 disc Platinum Collection, there hasn't really been a great overview of Bowie's prime years (1969-1987). Previous collections such as "Best of Bowie" and "Singles Collection" were only 2 discs and there seemed to be too many great songs missing. Even at 3 discs, some of my personal favorite tracks such as "Moonage Daydream" and "Watch That Man" are missing. But when you look at the track list on this Platinum Collection, it's hard to think of a better Bowie collection than this. All of the essential classics, radio hits, and even great album tracks are here. There are even a few surprises like "Sorrow" and "Underground" which are often overlooked on Bowie compilations. Most of the tracks on disc 3 and some on disc 2 are single versions, but these are probably the same versions that you hear on the radio and are necessary in order to fit all of the tracks onto one disc. From "Space Oddity" to "Let's Dance," this is some of the best music of the last quarter century and David Bowie remains one of the greatest influences in the industry. To hear why, this is the one Bowie collection to get. Highly recommended.

David Bowie / The Platinum Collection (3 CD set): Yes, these are the radio edits of the songs (i.e. the familiar hits) and not the album cuts. This is a fantastic set for the casual fan who wants a compact history of Bowie's music. This also fits the needs of those who have the albums of a particular period, but wants the hits from the other periods as well. This is a very well done set of Bowie's best. Five Stars.

If you are not familar with David Bowie and I can't see why you would not be this is good place to start. I simply love everything Bowie has ever done so I'm a bit biased but anyway, buy this cd and get caught up to speed with what David Bowie is in the music world. You won't regret it, I promise. Then go buy his other stuff and enjoy what real music is.

make it this one i say this because one you get all those songs of him and plus its onlly 25 bucks not bad. plus this set contains all the essential songs of david bowie two you get all these songs that you can explore throguh and listen to, three just buy it youll be satisfied i was inleast

Im no audiophile Im thinking I just may be a little fanatical when it comes to audio because my car is even more extensive than this but in my home I own a 9.4 setup consisting of a Onkyo 5008 a Emotiva XPA-5 amplifier, 4 Mythos STS's, 4 Mythos Gem XL's, 4 Super cube Reference sub woofers and a Oppo bluray player as my main CD player witch sounds better than my PS3 when playing music or movies. I also have over $2,000 of acoustic panels and bass traps in my room. With the Onkyo and the Emotiva together they pump out around 2,300 watts to my 9 speakers and with the 4 Super cube Refs and built in amps in the Mythos STS's I have a total of 8,400 watts of powered subs. So my point here is audio is very important to me. So now on to this David Bowie collection, I have always loved David Bowie but this is the 1st CD I have ever bought of his. So I put this CD in and overall it does not disappoint with it's audio quality. The vocals are nice and clear Bowie's voice has a good pitch and volume for the music not too loud and not too soft. The Sound stage is pretty good and sounds are distinct and not meshed together. Bass is decent and matches the music just fine. Usually older music lacks good bass and punch and have almost no deep bass at all. Hiss is completely absent in the back ground witch is very important to me and something that can become very irritating and distracting to me if it is too loud. I am happy with this CD my only issue with it is Aladdin Sane is one of my top 5 favorites from Bowie and the version on this collection is not the one I was looking for. I even bought another Bowie Cd and the song was the same one found on this collection. I wish amazon gave the option to listen to the Bowie disc's that I purchased from them. Other than that the music is still the same and amazing. I give the audio quality of this CD 5 stars and the CD it self 5 stars. You can't go wrong with this Bowie Collection.