Customer Reviews

iSelect

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

 

 

For the most part, this collection is pretty useless. It's cool to have Bowie's take on what from his career stands out in his mind. But, if you're like me, you already own all these songs, including "Some Are," which has been available as a bonus track on the cd reissue of Low for years.

So, my rating of three stars is a mix of 5 stars (for the great songs) and 1 star (for the fact that this collections is rather unnecessary). There is one thing that really is noteworthy here, and that is the remake of "Time Will Crawl." I've always liked that song, and this new take is worth checking out. (It's available as an Amazon mp3 download.) It has live musicians instead of the synthesized stuff from the original version on Never Let Me Down. I don't know if it should be considered an improvement, but it does have a different feel, and I think it works well.

If you're looking at this collection as a possible introduction to Bowie's catalogue, I'd say you're better off elsewhere. The Best of Bowie or ChangesOneBowie are better options for an intro to this brilliant artist. Another good route to take would be to pick representative albums from his extremely varied career: Ziggy Stardust, Station to Station, Low, and Scary Monsters are all great places to start (as would be Heroes, Let's Dance, Hunky Dory, Young Americans ...) In other words, there's no shortage of amazing, classic albums by David Bowie. iSelect is more of a footnote.

I already have every one of the songs from iSelect on other CDs. But this is an interesting glimpse into what Bowie thinks about his career and catalogue. His own liner notes are also interesting. For the hardcore Bowie fan, this is a must. For someone just wanting the "hits" get ChangesBowie or ChangesOneBowie and ChangesTwoBowie. This is not that collection. This is a diverse and eclectic collection of music spanning the career of one of the best artist/musicians in the history of rock.

As an ardent Bowie fan it's good to see a compilation that includes tracks I only have in my collection three or four times over instead of five to seven times over. As a set of mp3 downloads though it's hard to say why this would sell. The committed fans already own the tracks apart from the one remix, and the curious non-fan wouldn't really have a reason to get this when so many other compilations exist.

As for the music, who could complain about so many enjoyable Bowie tracks in one place? The "Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (reprise)" sequence was my favorite Bowie recording for many years. "Lady Grinning Soul" closes out the excellent "Aladdin Sane" album on a high note, trumping most of the other songs from that release. "Win" is a winner from "Young Americans" that really deserved recognition on one of the Bowie box sets. The live version of "Hang Onto Yourself" sounds like it was taken from the "Santa Monica '72" performance. "Fantastic Voyage", the lead track from "Lodger", is one of Bowie's most moving songs; either this studio version or the live recording from the 2003 "A Reality Tour" DVD would have worked well.

The one "new" track, the remix of "Time Will Crawl" is worth downloading as an individual track for fans who already own everything else. It's not a groundbreaking reinterpretation of the song but with material as strong as this number that's not necessary.

Really, though, this set as a batch mp3 download begs the question, when are liner notes and booklets going to be available as part of the download? Such is precisely the value of this compilation. I can't imagine shelling out for the physical media but if the booklet was listed as an additional item for the usual price of a download, that might be worth the while.

Here's hoping that the release of this collection and the VH1 Storytellers CDs are Bowie's way of priming the channel for his first album of new material in six years.

iSelect by David Bowie
I find myself playing this cd all the time. The selection of songs is fantastic.