Customer Reviews

Unity: Official Athens 2004 Olympic Games

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

 

 

As another reviewer noted, this is NOT the music used at the games! Why couldn't they put together a CD with the music used at the opening and closing ceremonies? Why not a DVD of those ceremonies (this time WITHOUT NBC's annoying commentary and constant commercial interruption!)? Those ceremonies, as are all Olympic Ceremonies, are carefully choreographed and usually magnificent occasions worthy of preservation on DVD. Somehow, it all just gets trashed and forgotten. After the tremendous expense involved, that seems incredibly wasteful. The drum beats at the beginning of the opening ceremony sent chills down my spine! Oh, to see and hear them again!

We can hear these dumb pop stars anytime. This CD is a pathetic peice of self-promotion. Avoid it.

seeing the songs I truly only wanted "pass the flame" however I have absolutely no interest in anything else

this is why songs get stolen, why pay 10 bucks for 1 song and toss the other 9? My $1.29 is better being spent on a burger from Mcdonlads

I bought this and was greatly impressed with the result. I love the cd, many of the songs are terrific, a few you can get annoyed with after a while but still...awesome. For me my two favorite songs would be Issues and Pass the Flame. Issues just makes you want to sing along while at the same time makes you think about the world around you while listen. Pass the Flame is just totally...wow, it makes you really reflective and is almost trance like. Definitely my favorite track on the cd.

This album was a pleasant surprise. It enlists a variety of musicians to provide an upbeat assortment of tracks to accompany the theme of unity promoted by the Olympics events. The album starts with Avril Lavigne's cover of Knocking on Heaven's Door, a mellow, pleasant track. Then a few R&B tracks by current popular artists get things revved up, following by a revitalized Sting tune. Dancehall reggae, hip-hop, rock, and world music rhythms all get thrown into the proceeding mix with artists such as Beres Hammond, Mr. G, Lenny Kravitz, Moby, Alice Cooper, Public Enemy, Macy Gray, Brian Eno, Cheb Mami, and others adding their talents. The Moby/P.E. track picks up where Fight The Power left off, saying Power To The People... the People Want Peace. Alice Cooper & Xzibit make a solid collaboration, reminding the listener to Stand up for something or you'll fall for anything. All in all this is a very groove-oriented album that plays on anti-war sentiments. It has some new material from the contributing artists and seems rather club-oriented instead of relying on pop ballads for radio hits like prior Olympics compilations have.

The Police it may not be as a previous reviewer mentioned, but as far a collection of voice s and tunes coming together for a cause, this one sounds better than most collections out there. It tends to be of the funky, beat-driven side, and does have recognizeable voices doing off the beaten path tracks (yes includind Sting). It is closer to world-pop-music (lots of european, african, and middle eastern sounding pop derivations) so folks who are not willing to listen to anything other than American-generated pop may not like this set of performances. I do not think this album is the least anti-American, unless one thinks that peace and the ultimate goal of the Olympics (which is peace and recognition through peaceful competition) is anti American. If you are a war-monger, then obviously this album is anti-war. Last I checked at least 50% of out country are not war-mongers...

Well I wouldn't actually give a 5 star, but this cd is a collection of diferent types of sounds and surelly open to the world. Who said that it's anti-American? And who said that the whole world IS America? Is it that bad to sit down and listen something else, than the barkings in the hip-hop/rap/RnB music who's poor in mellody to say the least and rich in cursing (at least 4 times of the *f* word in every hip-hop song). European, African and Asian sounds to help people extend their music knowlege, I dont think this makes it anti-American. After all, music is food for our minds. Am I right or am I right? :))

This seemed like such a good idea - get a bunch of music stars from different countries to collaborate on tracks. This album is certainly eclectic, but it doesn't work at all. All I can figure is that one of two things happened. 1) They couldn't get enough big names to do it, so they had to settle for former stars (a less kind person might say "has beens") such as Alice Cooper and Earth Wind And Fire. 2) Some 50-something year old recording executive got wind of the project and made some changes. I can just imagine some clueless guy who thinks "the kids still dig Bruce Springsteen" saying "Add some Urban music because kids buy that stuff. Add Earth Wind And Fire. Boy they sure were good, weren't they?"

I was stunned at how much Urban music (R&B, hip hop, etc.) is on this album. I don't like that kind of music at all and never listen to it. I have no frame of reference. Is the Destiny Child's song as good as their other stuff, better, or worse? I truly have no idea. Listening to this album didn't convince me that I was missing anything by not listening to that kind of music.

A few of these tracks work. Avril Lavigne's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" was inspired. Sting and Mariza work well together. In fact, I bought this because of that song. Alice Cooper and Xzibit were pretty good. Moby and Public Enemy were surprisingly good and the Brian Eno and Skin collaboration was nice. The rest is not so good. Lenny Kravitz tries, bless his heart, but his song with Kadim Al Sahir does not work at all. The styles just don't match. Maybe Lenny should have listed to Sting's song "Desert Rose" to figure out how to blend his music with Arabic music. Herbert Groenemeyer and Cheb Mami is really bad. Well, Herbert is really bad and Cheb can do nothing to save the track. Herbert is apparently some big deal in Germany, but hey, David Hasselhoff is a recording star there too. Why oh why couldn't they have gotten Nena to do the album instead of Herbert? The rest of the album is truly forgettable, although not necessarily bad.

My recommendation would be to try to buy individual songs if there's an artist you like, but I can't recommend this album.

After visiting Athens during the Olympics and attending many of the events I eagerly looked forward to a CD being released of all the music played at the venues to keep the crowd going. Unfortunately "Unity" is the CD they released. Of all the songs on this CD I recognise about 3 that were actually played in stadiums during the Olympic Games - so why is this the official Athens 2004 CD?

The puerility of the official review is the exact tone this sanctimonious assemblage of meaningless left-wing pablum achieves.

The only true star power could have been provided by Sting--but he long ago lost the creative fire that created the wonders of the Police years and the beautiful, true eclecticism of "The Dream of the Blue Turtles." He's been living off that capital for nearly twenty years now, contributing almost nothing of note since.

Earth, Wind and Fire are essentially a Vegas act now; nothing wrong with that, they still put on a good show, but their days of high "wattage" become father away the further into middle age they go.

Lenny Kravitz has never been anything more than a derivative, two -bit hack; and is justly more famous for his corruption of Lisa Bonet with Harry the Horse, than he is for his music. The implied anti-Americanism here isn't as open as Chuck D.'s usual foolishness, but it's still there none-the-less.

And speaking of the D man, Chuck D too has settled into a luxurious middle age, giving away the self-derivative dribble he now lazily mixes in a home studio. The incendiary beats are no longer there--just the hatred of the white man.

Excepting the Pop Machine's latest little darling and the has beens, most of the rest are totally unfamiliar to anyone over thirty or with a triple digit IQ. Their contributions are equal to their anonymity--their mediocrity equal to their anonymity-- among the non-treehugging, post-pubescent.

Drippy idealism and implicit anti-Americanism isn't enough when the stars are dimbulbs and the music devoid of any imagination or relevance.

Save your money and buy the Best of Police CD--your money'll be far better spent and you'll have both brilliance and star power; this disk has neither.