Customer Reviews

Single Odessey

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

 

 

Man, I can't believe I'm the first person to review this album. Meanwhile, Britney Spears' latest effort gets about 1200 reviews, most of them 5 stars. What is wrong with this picture?

If you have never heard of Velvet Crush before, then let it be known that these guys represent power pop at its finest. Actually, it is unfair to pigeonhole them under a "power pop" label -- they run through melodic rock and roll, a bit of country, a bit of the Byrds...all executed brilliantly.

If this is your first encounter with the band, then start with "Teenage Symphonies To God" and then come back to this one.

"Odessey" (named after the Zombies' album "Odessey and Oracle") is a compilation of single tracks, b-sides and unreleased material that will make you wonder why this band isn't all over the radio.

Listen to their cover version of Teenage Fanclub's "Everything Flows." Listen to the great guitar licks on their original tunes. Listen to their masterful Byrds covers. Listen to Matthew Sweet's great production work. This is one fine band.

I am giving this 4 stars only due to the fact that I gave "Teenage Symphonies" 5 stars, as their masterpiece. But really, there are no bad tracks here. Crank it up!

This collection spans their career and it's worth every penny. One of their best CD's, ironically. The covers are great and Matthew Sweet's touch shines through on the earlier material.
If you like V. Crush, Matthew Sweet, or Teenage Fanclub, you'll love this one!

There are two kinds of singles compilations. There's the kind that contain the band's best-known songs, and there's the kind that really gives you the essence of a band's sound and influences. A Single Odessey is one of the latter. I used to make Velvet Crush compilation tapes for people that had many of these songs on them. The handy part of this disc is that even though it does not contain many album tracks from the Crush's albums, it does give you a slice of what each album sounds like. The Velvet Crush's albums each have a different personality to them; the noise of In The Presence Of Greatness, the country-rock of Teenage Symphonies To God, the hard rock of Heavy Changes, the relaxed pop of Free Expression. If you're new to the band, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend you start here and use this disc to figure out where you want to go next. If you're already a fan, get it and enjoy these rare tracks which stand up to the Velvet Crush's classic albums.