Customer Reviews

Ultra Dance 5

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Ultra.Dance 05 is a below-par two-disc album. At best, it's worthy of listening to in the car or at work. I specifically rate is as "decent" since these compilation albums are never "great" and it does have a tiny few fairly good songs. Also, the majority of tracks on this album certainly do not qualify as "club dance" either. They're much too popish for that in most instances, or techno-trance in others. The first two tracks on disc one, "Love Me Right (Oh Sheila)" and "Take Me To The Clouds Above", are perfect examples of the former.

"Trick Me" is a track that I absolutely cannot stand. The same goes for "Stand Back", a hideously bad cover of Stevie Nicks' hit song. The artists on this album each have their place in music, but none of them, with the exception of Sarah McLachlan, deserve to even stand in the same room with Stevie Nicks. None of them should even be attempting to redo her songs, especially the girl on this particular track who doesn't seem to have any particularly noteworthy singing talent to begin with. By contrast, "California Dreamin'" by Royal Gigolos selectively samples the 70's classic by the same name instead of trying to redo it, and the result works well.

"Seven Nation Army" by Punk Division has received pretty good radio play in the genre. Most readers will probably already be familiar with it though you may have to hear it to recognize it.

"Never Be Alone" by Lucas Prata is about as popish as you can get (with a little techno thrown in), but it works and is a really great song. Ditto for "Love Comes Again".

"Fallen" by Sarah McLachlan is the first single from her Afterglow album and the only 5-star song on this compilation. If you don't have this single or the Afterglow album, buying this compilation is almost worth it for this single song with the few other half-decent tunes as bonus material.

"Fallen" flows well into by the trance tune "Satellite" by OceanLab which is easy to get lost in and reminiscent of tunes by Ian Van Dahl or Lasgo.

Seal reaffirms his flash-in-the-pan status with the quite forgettable (if it was so obnoxious) "Waiting For You" which starts out disc two.

The majority of the other tracks are mediocre at best, but are not a total loss.

upon listening to this album i knew that is was going to be another good mix from ultra. The first disc was alright, nothing all that great but it was still mixed very well. The second disc is where its at though. every track on the second disc i found to be very good, especially track 10. The ultra series of albums have not disappointed me yet, and i am looking forward to the next release from ultra.

Usually, these compilations end up having two songs that are really great...and the rest which are just either too cheesy or too heavy. This particular outing finds just the right mix of club/radio hits and bass-pumping techno tracks. Waxman and Latino do a good job of mixing it up....making the music light and fun. This CD set is a great addition to your collection if you are planning a party in the next few days! They pack in the most current club hits....just time for those late nite grill-ins! All we need now is a few strobe lights and a little bit o' the bubbly!

I'm not gonna bother filling in the details of the disc since everyone else already has.

Disc 1: Not bad, but rather disjointed. None of the songs seem to have any thing in common with each other, which makes the transitions between songs kind of awkward. At that, Vic Latino sure likes to do crossfades as opposed to beat matching, which is rather lazy. Otherwise, the song selection is alright. Too many dumb covers, and I could do without ever having to know that there's a dance version of "Seven Nation Army"(Really, was there even a point in making this song? It's no different from the original in any way except that it's done by someone else! Should have gotten the Adam Freeland remix of the original song instead)

Disc 2: Someone else mentioned it, Ultra tends to blow it on the second disc. I know it's for a different crowd, but god it's boring. The first two tracks(Seal and Martin Solvieg) are alright, but the tracks generally are just so dull that I stop even listening and the next thing I know the CD's over. What really gets me is that iio's "Smooth" is on this, a song that I really like, but even it could not awake me from the dull slumber this disc was putting me in. Now I know this is the type of disc they play in the house sections of clubs to keep everyone dancing, and I can definitely see myself just dancing to this disc without paying attention, but as something to listen to in the car... no. I pretty much stopped listening around track 5, forgot there was music even playing, and then the last track came on, which was pretty good.

All in all, could have been a lot better. I wouldn't use Latino or Waxman again on a compilation.

Those looking for quality dance tunes with replay value will likely find themselves in a bind if they turn to "Ultra Dance 5." A joint effort by Vic Latino and David Waxman (they mixed discs 1 and 2 respectively), this compilation runs alarmingly high on the cheese factor, while offering little in the way of inspiration or creativity. In other words, "Ultra Dance 5" is mind-blowingly dull. Disc 1 gets off to an okay start with the opener, "Love Me Right" by Angel City, but it takes an immediate nosedive featuring cringe inducing covers of Stevie Nicks (Linus Loves' "Stand Back"), U2 ("Take Me to The Clouds Above" by LMC), and Jefferson Starship (Boogie Pimps' "Somebody to Love"). There isn't much else of interest, although E-Smoove's mix of Kelis' "Trick Me" sparked my interest a bit. Disc 2 isn't much better. Waxman picked the wrong remix of Seal's "Waiting for You," in my opinion. Instead of picking Thick D's version, he should have chosen BHQ's or Passengerz' remix which are way better. The rest of the disc didn't do anything for me, as many of the grooves sound anomynous, repetitive, and generic. (Although the remix of Pretty Poison's forgotten "Catch Me I'm Falling" is interesting) All in all, this is pretty much a dance compilation you can skip. It's got a couple of decent tunes, but it makes one wrong turn too many for me to even consider recommending.

I have all 5 volumes and this is the only one I don't like. The selection of music is just plain bad. There are a few songs that are OK but most are just dull, dull, dull. I recommend going with one of the first 4 volumes instead.

I'm sure that making these compilations must be hard, but Ultra Dance 5 does a rather great job. Many of the songs are really catchy, and playing the whole disc through sounds like listening to Sirius 66 for an hour and a half.

PROS include the Tube & Berger track, which is incredible and cinematic in nature, as well as the Sarah McLachlan (her voice is incredible on this song), Kelis, and Tiesto feat. BT songs. The CONS are that the Lucas Prata song is in a remix form (the radio edit is about ten to twenty times better) and that, as is usually the case with the Ultra series, the second disc just sucks.

All in all, this is not a CD you'll regret buying.

I saw an ad for this CD compilation on television and was impressed by the songs played. Not normally an impulse buyer, I nevertheless purchased this CD online, thinking that the rest of the CD would be as least close to as good as the songs played during the ad.

I was wrong. The CD is a dog. Don't bother. The first CD isn't terrible, but the second one is almost unlistenable. It's just non-stop thumping. If that's where club-beats have gone these days, I'll pass.

I purchased Ultra Dance 04 which was truly the best Ultra Dance album that so far came out. But when 05 came out, I was disapointed. It's not that horrible, with my favorite songs being Love Me Right (Oh Shelia), Stand Back, Straight Ahead, Somebody to Love, Love Comes Again, Waiting for You, Nobody Likes The Records That I Play, and Rocking Music. The song selection is great, but the mixing wasn't. Now for the bad songs... Trick Me (annoying vocal track), Seven Nation Army (they had to ruin my fave White Stripes song), I Like It (very annoying and repetitive), and Catch Me I'm Falling. If you like the tracks, buy this for the songs. My suggestion: buy it used.

Ultra Dance gives things a little twist here. Disc 1 is called "radio hits", and disc 2 is "club anthems." There's some major cheese on disc 1, but that's not to say it isn't fun-the cover of Stevie Nicks' Stand back for instance, with its filter disco feel and annoying vocals. Overall, disc 1 is cover tunes and funky house. It ends strong with some darker stuff and some trance. Disc 2 starts with some hardhouse seal, and then is followed by a funky house tune that is a TOTAL Justin Timberlake ripoff! It sounds like him, and even works in the lyrics "rock your body"! But from there, it truly is a load of progressive, darker tracks that even allows some vocals. Hardcore club goers will probably find some gems here, and thankfully, most of them run longer than 5 minutes. There's even an interesting remix of Catch Me I'm Falling from the 80s group Pretty Poison, with artist listed as Chris and Kai. Track times:



CD1

1. love me right (5:50)
2. Take me to the clouds above (6:20)
3. Trick me (4:29)
4. Stand back (5:11)
5. Straight ahead (5:59)
6. Seven nation army (5:54)
7. California dreamin (4:29)
8. somebody to love (4:46)
9. Never be alone (5:26)
10. Love comes again (5:01)
11. Fallen (7:12)
13. Satellite (7:00)

CD2
1. Waiting for you (4:57)
2. Rocking Music (5:58)
3. Dreams (6:41)
4. Resonate (4:13)
5. nobody (6:49)
6. I like it (4:26)
7. smooth (5:22)
8. Time (6:06)
9. waterfalls (6:21)
10. catch me (6:54)
11. truly (5:41)
12. sun is shining (6:33)