Customer Reviews

Synchronistic Wanderings

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Just bought the set today and absolutely love it. Not only are all the old hits there, but some new ones as well. This anthology contains everything a Pat Benatar fan will need to keep rocking into the millenium. A special thumbs up to Pat's version of Roy Orbison's "Crying." It is absolutely beautiful! This is definitely a much needed addition to any Benatar collection.

If you're looking for a "collection" of great female rock - this is a great place to start. "Synchronistic Wanderings" is a cumbersome 3-CD set with all the Pat you'll ever need. Other collections such as, "All Fired Up" (1994) come in a close 2nd place, and "Best Shots" (1989) misses the boat. "Crimes Of Passion" and "In The Heat Of The Night" are classic Benatar and easily her strongest studio releases... and the best songs are well represented on "Synchronistic Wanderings". However, a vast majority of Benatar's other release are hit & miss. This is a great chronological view of her career from the 1970's, thru the late 1990's. All her classic stuff is here, "Heartbreaker", "Treat Me Right", "You Better Run", "Love Is A Battlefield", "Hell Is For Children", "Precious Time", "We Belong", etc, and the more recent "Somebody's Baby". Benatar had 19 top 40 hits and 4 Grammy awards to her credit... this girl can rock & roll with style. The only female rockers from Benatar's era I can put in the same boat are/were Blondie & Heart. Having seen the recent "VH1" special on Pat Benatar made me dig these CD's out of my collection. They still sound great today. Some great off-the-beaten-road tunes are here... "Please Come Home For Christmas", "Crying", "Rise - Part 1 & 2", and "Run Between The Raindrops". Only knock on this collection is that I wish the liner notes were as extensive as they are in the other 2-CD package of her best "All Fired Up". Overall... excellent box set.

For my money this box set lacks nothing. In terms of extras, the demo versions and b-sides are very cool. My personal favorite inclusion is the song "Shooting Star" from the Harry Chapin Tribute. If you saw the concert on PBS, it was a moving night to begin with- and when she first appeared she seemed almost out of place with the folksy stars like Judy Collins and CSN. Then she belted out this tune and turned the theater upside down. Probably my personal highlight of the show and I'm thrilled to have a copy on something other than an old VHS tape. Well worth the relatively inexpensive box-set-price.

I admit, I'm biased -- I think Pat Benatar has one of the truly greatest voices in rock music history. Her flexibility and range are phenomenal, and her power is simply amazing.

What I like about this collection is that it shows off many of the sides to this spectacular talent. For those who think of Ms. Benatar as just a "rocker-chick," this set will show you things you might not have encountered otherwise. Diverse would be a good one-word summary of this set.

The hits are well-represented here, along with some great album tracks, but this set also brings together quite a few rarities -- demos, songs from soundtracks and other collections, and some unreleased songs. Not all the material is of the caliber of "Promises in the Dark" or "Love is a Battlefield," but Pat shines on each and every track.

For fans of Pat Benatar, this is a must-own set. Even the casual listener will find this set quite complete in its selection of songs they've heard on the radio, although with quite a bit of other stuff tossed in. If you're only after the hits, I'd suggest you go with one of the single-disc hits collections, but if you're interested in the diversity and scope of Pat Benatar's career, this is the set to buy.

Pat always keeps tuned into what is going on currently and continues to release fresh material. I make it a point to attend one of her live show's every summer, and she never disappoints! Synchronistic Wanderings is a wonderful collection of all of Pat's notable material! I truly love having an entire anthology in one place that I can pop in to the cd player and enjoy. Most impressive tracks on the collection are the live acoustic version of "Run Between The Raindrops" and the rare gem "Crying". Do yourself a favor and buy this collection and furthermore, go see Pat live and experience her one of a kind vocals...she will wow you will all the vintage material and new material that just get's better with each release!

This collection rocks. It has everything a Pat fan would want and many interesting songs for the casual fan. Her foray into the blues is evidenced on disc 3 with some power blues tunes to start you off. This set allows the listener to hear how her voice and style has changed and grown throughout the years. Definitely the definitive greatest hits collection for Pat Benatar.

Pat Benatar is, in my mind, the greatest female rock singer of all time. She had an amazing voice, was incredibly sexy, and made some great music. Up until now, my only introduction to her was the single disc "Greatest Hits" album released this past June. It had some amazing stuff on it. But I wanted more.

So, I went searching through Amazon, and I found the three disc boxed set "Synchronistic Wanderings". I saw it and went, "I got to get this". And when I saw how cheap it was, I said, "I have to get this now.

Well today, I finally found it. I popped it into my cd player. My thoughts? Read on for the practically inevitable positives and negatives.

Positives:

-Three discs filled with nothing but Pat! What more can you ask for? This cd has all the big hits, including "Heartbreak", "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", "Hell Is For Children", "Shadows Of The Night", "Love Is A Battlefield", "We Belong" and "Invincible" are all included.

-Many underrated album cuts and rarities are incuded as well, including b - sides, demos and live performances.

-Fantastic liner notes.

-Great remastering job.

-No edits! All songs are in their original length.

-This set is CHEAP! I thought I had to shell out a good sixty or seventy dollars for it, but I got it for less than forty bucks. That is one offer you should not pass up.

Negatives:

-While the remastering job is great overall, there are one or two songs that sound a little flat, namely "Ooh Ooh Song" and "Invincible. But other than that, everything sounds great.

Overall, this is the best Pat Benatar compilation on the market. If you're a casual or beginning fan, than this is the collection to own.

NOT JUST ANOTHER COMPILATION BY THE INCREDIBLE FEMALE ROCKER OF THE 80'S--IF YOU LOVE BENATAR THIS IS THE BEST ONE TO HAVE---HARD TO FIND SONGS SUCH AS ,HERE'S MY HEART FROM THE MOVIE SOUNDTRACK"METROPOLIS"AND ALL OF HER BEST HITS SUCH AS-- YOU BETTER RUN--LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD-HEARTBREAKER--WE BELONG--INVINCIBLE--SOMEBODY'S BABY--TREAT ME RIGHT--HELL IS FOR CHILDREN--HIT ME WITH YOU BEST SHOT-FIRE AND ICE-GET NERVOUS AND MY FAVORITE COME BACK SONG, I DON'T WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND--A COLLECTION WELL DONE--JUST SURPRISED,THE SONG "NO YOU DON'T FROM HER DEBUT, NOT INCLUDED..PAT ROCKS! EVEN A SPANISH VERSION OF OOH OOH SONG,WHAT MORE CAN A FAN OF PAT BENATAR ASK FOR?

This is a 3 CD anthology covering 1979-1999. Everything that I like and dislike about Benatar is here. The early rock stuff sometimes makes me cringe with Neil Giraldo's simplistic but bombastic '80s power chords. Benatar has a great voice but never reached her potential due to working within the constraints of AOR radio...which paid off handsomely considering she had 19 top 40 hits. There are a fair amount of unreleased tracks and alternative versions here for the die hard, but what I enjoyed most were the liner notes. Every single song has very enlightening insights from Pat and Neal, who shared their feelings separate from each other, making for some very interesting contrasts. It's great from a music standpoint as it explains why they left some things in (that's John Lee Hooker laughing at the beginning of Rise) and what they were trying to accomplish with other things, what songs they still love and others that they can't stand anymore. Reading along also allows you to really feel what they have gone through the last 20 years, from making artistic compromises with Chrysalis, to the birth of their kids and the highs and lows of their careers. Interesting reading and usually good listening.

Pat Benatar has faded from the limelight over the years, and with the passing of time it gets more difficult to appreciate how fresh her sound was, coming on the heels of (ugh) disco. This box set brings those days back in fine fashion, documenting her rise -- and subsequent fall --with a near perfect selection of tunes. Many remastered, a welcome improvement over earlier greatest hits packages.

The first disk starts with a bang -- her first hit, "Heartbreaker". No student pieces here. The disc continues through the familiar hits, with a few novelites thrown in. Especially notable is the inclusion of a cover of John Mellencamp's "I Need a Lover". Biggest ommission: Another cover, "Just Like Me", orignally made famous by Paul Revere and the Raiders. I always felt this song captured Benatar's style and musical direction as well as any.

The second disc begins her middle (muddle?) period: some hits ("All Fired Up"), some misses. There are certainly gems, here, for the dedicated fan. The third disc presents an uneven experimental period -- everything from an unconvincing (though pleasant) blues attempt to Lisa Loeb-like stylings.

For the dedicated fan, the last two discs offer a good opportunity to reflect on what happened. In the booklet notes (which are very good overall, with insightful comments from Pat and husband-guitarist Neil Giraldo on each tune) Benatar places them blame on their record label at the time, Chrysalis. No promtion, poor management, the wrong singles were picked, etc. Personally, I found this a bit too self-congratulatory. Come on, guys, don't you think changes in taste and your style shifts had someting to do it with it?

To conclude, if you are new to Pat's music and just want to sample the hits, the "Best Shots" collection is probably the way to go. But for a fan from the 80's, this collection is worth the extra cost. You get the whole story -- and you'll have fun drawing your own conclusions.