Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal: An Island Anthology [Import]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 24, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Import
• Label: Universal/Island
• ASIN: B000A6OB4A
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,359 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Supernatural Fairy Tales (Mono Version)

2. Paper Sun (Mono Single Version)

3. Harpsichord Shuffle (Mono Version)

4. Rainbow Chaser

5. Pearly Queen

6. Sunshine Help Me

7. Dusty (Mono Version)

8. Meet On The Ledge

9. Song For Jeffrey

10. Carpenter

11. I Keep Singing That Same Song

12. Black Mass

13. Over The Green Hills (Part One)

14. Worry

15. Giants

16. Queen Of Scots

17. Feelin' Alright (Alternate Version)

18. Sing Me A Song That I Know So Well

19. Sailor's Life

20. New Day Yesterday

See all 48 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Island compilation yet, February 6, 2006

By 

William M. Feagin "music dealer/geek" (Upstate New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal: An Island Anthology (Audio CD)

Back in 1987, there was a 2-CD set released here in the States called Island 25th Anniversary. While the compilation contained many of the label's biggest stars of its rich and imaginative history, the title was a bit misleading--remember that Chris Blackwell actually started the company in 1959 in Kingston, Jamaica, only moving the operation to England in 1962 when Jamaica declared its independence from the UK (part of the half-century dissolution of the British Empire). Nonetheless, it was a nice primer of the label's biggest hits.
Comes 1999, and the label (having changed distribution from WEA International to PolyGram at the dawn of the '90s and then becoming part and parcel of Universal when that company bought up the failing PolyGram lock, stock and barrel) issued five single CDs covering all the label's genres--R&B, reggae, ska, acoustic folk-rock and electric/progressive rock--under the aegis of Island's 40th Anniversary. I owned copies of Vols. 3 and 4 (#3 was Acoustic Waves 1968-1975, #4 was Electric Currents 1967-1975) and had plans to buy the other sets, but as they were in apparently limited release, this ambitious plan proved unsuccessful. Nevertheless, I had been given a chance to taste of the label's more obscure (and frequently more interesting) artists who may have had less exposure in the US, and certainly not the degree of airplay on classic rock radio that the more famous ones had. Thanks to those discs, I first heard Nick Drake, Richard & Linda Thompson, Heavy Jelly, Amazing Blondel, the Incredible String Band's later and rockier material, Sandy Denny's solo material, others. I decided then that I would seek out these artists' albums as fervently as possible; after all, what true music anorak would be without essential Island discs?

And now, Island has given us the Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal box set, which digs ever deeper--gloriously!--into the label's wonderfully eclectic rock 'n' roll stable. To be sure, I have a few complaints; for instance, if they were to include Cat Stevens, why did they insist on recycling his most overplayed hits? (And that's saying something, much as I like "Wild World" and "Peace Train"--why not "On the Road to Find Out?" "Lady D'Arbanville?" "Trouble?" "Longer Boats?" "Silent Sunlight?" "Ruins?" "Rubylove," even?) And the choices for inclusions by Traffic were a bit too obvious, although I thought "No Time to Live" from the group's eponymous second album was an inspired choice--why not "John Barleycorn" or the "Glad/Freedom Rider" twofer, or yet "Medicated Goo"? And for Jethro Tull, why was "Life's a Long Song" not included? That's a hard track to find, unless you have the Original Masters comp from '85.

That said, the rest of the tracks are quite wonderful. Favourites:
Spooky Tooth, "Sunshine Help Me"
Heavy Jelly, "I Keep Singing That Same Old Song"
White Noise, "Black Mass: An Electric Storm in Hell" (those bloodcurdling screams of the damned as Satan's lightning blasts them...wow! Hair-raising. Yeah, I dug it. *g*)
Head Hands & Feet, "Song for Suzie" (a really nice, moving track)
Mott the Hoople, "Thunderbuck Ram" (long a favourite of mine, since Atlantic reissued the group's first 4 albums on CD in the early '90s, it was nice to see Island finally anthologise them properly again--would also have loved to see "Rock and Roll Queen," "Waterlow" or maybe "Death May Be Your Santa Claus"--quite possibly the best song Mott ever recorded, sheer balls to the wall rock 'n' roll)
Art, "Supernatural Fairy Tales"
Amazing Blondel, "The Siege of Yaddlethorpe" (I first heard them when "Pavan" was included on Acoustic Waves 1968-1975)
King Crimson, "Cat Food" and "Groon" (I agree with the reviewer who said it was nice to see something other than "21st Century Schizoid Man")
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, "Knife Edge" (again, a refreshing change from the overanthologised "Lucky Man" and "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Part 2," as fine as those tracks are)
Blodwyn Pig, "See My Way" (I had never actually heard these guys before, although I knew of them)
Clouds, "The Carpenter"
Nick Drake, "Northern Sky" (I love this song!)

...actually, I love pretty much everything that's included here. This box set sums up everything that was best in Island's rock 'n' roll catalogue, and leaves you hungry for more. Yes, I too own a number of the tracks on here already, but many more I do not, and until the day comes when I can fully pack out my CD collection with all of those reissued albums, this is indispensible.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sing Me a Song In the Morning...Sing Me a Song I Know So Well, November 8, 2005

By 

Junglies (Morrisville, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal: An Island Anthology (Audio CD)

I found this album at Amazon.co and thought the readers might find it of interest. With profuse apologies to Mick Abrahams for the chopped up line that I used for the title.

This is definitely a five star album. Back in the day, in the sixties, record companies would put out albums called sampler albums at a cheaper price to introduce new acts alongside established artists without compromising the chart potential of singles or, increasingly albums. CBS had great success with the Rock Machine series but then in Britain, many people fell under the Island spell with the triumverate of You Can All Join In, Nice Enough to Eat and Bumpers each containing a number of the artists herein.

Alas those days, those were the days, are long since gone and they deserve a book on themselves alone. But this wonderful triple album brings some of the magic right back, right back to where it once belongs. I already have most of these tracks on their individual albums but I wanted this one anyway. Some of the tracks, Heavy Jelly's I Keep Singing the Same Old Song (You Keep Singing It Too) are ones I have not been able to track down over the years, some of the tracks are simply essential and I have in mind the wonderful Rainbow Chase by the original Nirvana, the Northstar Grassman and the Raven and John Martyn's Glistening Glyndebourne as personal favourites.

Artists sadly missing from this mortal coil, particularly Kossoff of Free and Nick Drake, half of Traffic, Sandy Denny (why doesn't the original Bridget St. John now of New York get together with Ashley Hutchings and the Fairports - what anawesome combination?) but I digress, and others. The Island rosta was of a diversity not seen before or since and with such world class calibre.

Quite a few of these guys I saw in live performance. I will never forget Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople atop two sets of speakers perched on a s! mall table at the Sunderland Locarno working his particul magic upon the audience whilst in the middle of a bottle of Newcastle Brown or the sheer high octane energy of Robert Palmer and Elkie Brooks on fire at the same venue when in Vinegar Joe, Fairports in a blistering performance at Fusion in Sunderland. Memories yes, but plenty there too for the uninitiated: listen to the blues soaked Free with Paul Rodgers masterful voice, or the Elizabethan influenced Amazing Blondel with their unpronouncable instruments names, the still progressive not yet boring virtuoso performance of ELP.

The many different styles will suit most, from the gentle folksiness of the String Band and Robin Williamson, the introverted from Nick Drake, Cat Stevens with two of his catchy yet essentially serious songs to the slightly wierd such as the title of the collection Strangely Strange yet Oddly Normal by the infamous yet same Dr. Strangely Strange. Some well known names like Tull (great performance Sunderland Empire 1970), the almost well known but sadly missed Quintessence.

All in all these players are all in their own way the mainstays of the British progressive movement which as Chairman Mao observed were part of a thousand blossoms bloom in the early seventies. This is a collection for everyone from old to young alike. For us oldies it can be a nostalgia trip without the crass sentimentalism of the new Neil Young album, for the young 'uns it is a chance to get back to the roots of modern music. and, in conclusion I want to recommend this to everyone I would just like to quote verbation from the back of the You Can All JOin In album... And So Say All Of Us.

4.0 out of 5 stars Includes King Crimson tracks missing from 2009 re-release., July 8, 2010

By 

Interzone_Records (Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal: An Island Anthology (Audio CD)

The first version of this box set was released in 2005 and contains 48 tracks. The 2009 re-release, also available on Amazon, only has 46 tracks. The missing tracks are:

King Crimson - Cat Food (Single Version)
King Crimson - Groon (Single Version)

There must have been some sort of licensing issue that caused the tracks to be pulled.