Sunday, October 19, 2003
Stephen Stills New Best of?
Addendum to the posting below. Today (21 October 03) as I was in my local indie music shop picking up Rod Stewarts "Great American Songbook Volume 2" (review to follow), the music meister there said indeed the new Stills Best of, will be out and in his shop on
November 4 in the USA. Moreover, if you want you can also go to
www.bn.com and click on music, and search "Crosby Stills and Nash" (don't even try Stills, it's too slow and cumbersome) and THEN click on an old album (Like "4 Way Street"), and THEN click on the underlined Stills, and THEN see the new CD listed (w/o track listing) on bn.com too. They also add "bonus tracks" in the description. NOTE: read the posting below for an easier way to check out this CD, and maybe your local shop can get it for you. Don't pre-order!
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"Turn Back the Pages" is a great but old Stills song, and has been chatted about now for better than a year as a title of a new Best of Stephen Stills CD on such sites as
www.4waysite.com.
Well, strumming around the internet today, I found it listed as about to be released Nov 4, 2003 and pre-orderable, right now. Just go to www.amazon.com and search "Stephen Stills" under popular music, and scroll until you see it (note: they have no cover art yet, and no track listing so far). 4waysite had the track listing, if you want to seach back on their excellent message board.
WARNING: this CD is supposed to have a few new Stills cuts, including a couple of live versions of classics, and his CBS "hits." BUT it has been promised, literally internationally for so long (over 1 year), I would not pre-order it, and just wait until it actually exists! It might be a nice collection for any CSNY fan, but I will believe it when I see it, ideally in my local (indie) music shop.
Zeph, out.
Addendum to the posting below. Today (21 October 03) as I was in my local indie music shop picking up Rod Stewarts "Great American Songbook Volume 2" (review to follow), the music meister there said indeed the new Stills Best of, will be out and in his shop on
November 4 in the USA. Moreover, if you want you can also go to
www.bn.com and click on music, and search "Crosby Stills and Nash" (don't even try Stills, it's too slow and cumbersome) and THEN click on an old album (Like "4 Way Street"), and THEN click on the underlined Stills, and THEN see the new CD listed (w/o track listing) on bn.com too. They also add "bonus tracks" in the description. NOTE: read the posting below for an easier way to check out this CD, and maybe your local shop can get it for you. Don't pre-order!
---------------------------------------------
"Turn Back the Pages" is a great but old Stills song, and has been chatted about now for better than a year as a title of a new Best of Stephen Stills CD on such sites as
www.4waysite.com.
Well, strumming around the internet today, I found it listed as about to be released Nov 4, 2003 and pre-orderable, right now. Just go to www.amazon.com and search "Stephen Stills" under popular music, and scroll until you see it (note: they have no cover art yet, and no track listing so far). 4waysite had the track listing, if you want to seach back on their excellent message board.
WARNING: this CD is supposed to have a few new Stills cuts, including a couple of live versions of classics, and his CBS "hits." BUT it has been promised, literally internationally for so long (over 1 year), I would not pre-order it, and just wait until it actually exists! It might be a nice collection for any CSNY fan, but I will believe it when I see it, ideally in my local (indie) music shop.
Zeph, out.
Friday, October 03, 2003
STING
SACRED LOVE on CD!
After 3 listens, it's close to a masterpiece with a few misgivings. The single "Send Your Love" (or at least what he did on Letterman the other night) "album version" (the 2nd cut on the disc) is good to great, with some famous Spanish guitar playing on acoustic. Sting himself played that part (blandly) on Letterman. Misgiving #1, he repeats a "re-mix" of the same song as the last cut on the album. It already had a BUSY rhythm track; the remix is unbearable, and the vocals are muddy compared to the first go-round of this tune, and (UGH) why??? And the remix is alot shorter than the REAL version. Why bother???
The first 10 songs (mostly about all kinds of love!) are georgeous largely, and flow (with nanosecond breaks between cuts) beautifully. Sting's own vocals are among the best of his career. The background vocals (a mediocre part of some Sting CDs in the past) are TOP SHELF; really really good, Crosby Stills & Nash in their day couldn't do better. The whole thing is somewhat over-produced, with loads of drums and other (very busy largely) rhythms (sing of the times), and many flowing strings, and wonderful bass lines. Just all those busy busy drum lines with even added percussion and extra-strength sonic effects (whooshy panning and other computerized zoom-zooms), are a little much for an otherwise cherishable collection.
BOTTOM LINE: Sting's SACRED LOVE is a buy and gets 4/5 on the star meter! If you are a Sting-0-phile, you can give it another half star yourself.
Zeph, out!
SACRED LOVE on CD!
After 3 listens, it's close to a masterpiece with a few misgivings. The single "Send Your Love" (or at least what he did on Letterman the other night) "album version" (the 2nd cut on the disc) is good to great, with some famous Spanish guitar playing on acoustic. Sting himself played that part (blandly) on Letterman. Misgiving #1, he repeats a "re-mix" of the same song as the last cut on the album. It already had a BUSY rhythm track; the remix is unbearable, and the vocals are muddy compared to the first go-round of this tune, and (UGH) why??? And the remix is alot shorter than the REAL version. Why bother???
The first 10 songs (mostly about all kinds of love!) are georgeous largely, and flow (with nanosecond breaks between cuts) beautifully. Sting's own vocals are among the best of his career. The background vocals (a mediocre part of some Sting CDs in the past) are TOP SHELF; really really good, Crosby Stills & Nash in their day couldn't do better. The whole thing is somewhat over-produced, with loads of drums and other (very busy largely) rhythms (sing of the times), and many flowing strings, and wonderful bass lines. Just all those busy busy drum lines with even added percussion and extra-strength sonic effects (whooshy panning and other computerized zoom-zooms), are a little much for an otherwise cherishable collection.
BOTTOM LINE: Sting's SACRED LOVE is a buy and gets 4/5 on the star meter! If you are a Sting-0-phile, you can give it another half star yourself.
Zeph, out!
