A more complete Greatest Hits
William M. Feagin | Upstate New York, USA | 11/08/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I bought Rhino's single-CD Greatest Hits last year, mainly out of curiosity--I hadn't heard any of Al's pre-Year of the Cat material before, and as nearly half the tracks were drawn from his first six studio albums, I was naturally curious to hear what they'd sound like. I was pleasantly surprised--those early tracks, especially from Love Chronicles (1969), Zero She Flies (1970), Orange (1972) and Modern Times (1974), had a good deal more edge than the slicker YOTC and Time Passages tracks that were included, and really whetted my appetite for Al's music, which I had rediscovered after hearing A Beach Full of Shells, his 2005 release for the Philly-based Appleseed label (and one I highly recommend).
That said, The Definitive Pop Collection goes into a bit more detail than Greatest Hits, notably reaching beyond Last Days of the Century, Al's 1988 release for Enigma (which also features a young Tori Amos singing backup on some of the tracks), to Between the Wars, one of his releases for the now-defunct Mesa/Bluemoon label, one of three labels to go bankrupt on him (the others being Enigma, which filed Chapter 11 in 1990, and Janus, which went belly-up in 1977 and led to his being signed by Arista). Significantly, it includes all of the tracks on Greatest Hits, plus a few more album cuts from his early releases. For those seeking out a wider selection of Al Stewart's songbook, this should be more satisfying even than Greatest Hits (it includes the title cut from Love Chronicles, notorious for its use of the F-word)."
Beware of Different Version Available with Exact Same Title
Mr Musical Snob | Coventry, RI USA | 06/03/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"The CD as listed on Amazon.com gets a 4-5 star rating, but beware there is another edition of this compilation that is also 2 discs, but has 16 songs per disc, not 14 on the first and 16 on the second. This sounds like a bonus (2 extra cuts, right?), but missing is the lengthy, notorious "Love Chronicles", as well as ten, yes, ten other songs from earlier in his career. So, beware of the other "Definitive Pop Collection": exact same name , different contents. While, the other version is still decent, it is not nearly as good."
Reluctantly
John H. Sosbee | oakland, ca United States | 10/13/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"These packages never do justice to the artist. Ultimately you have to get his albums and listen to all the tracks. His masterpeices such as "Carol," "Roads to Moscow," "Valentina Way" (which I saw Al perform live with a full band including Peter White before the Time Passages album was released, and it was incredible), "Sand in your Shoes," "What's Going on," "The Dark and the Rolling Sea," and of course "Modern Times," and on and on - they need to be discovered if the record companies choose not to bundle them in these packages. And these are all accessable tunes, not unlistenable folk prose.
Al surrounded himself with the best musicians, notably Tim Renwick, who is/was one of the best sessionists and also toured with Pink Floyd. For you electric and acoustic guitar enthusiasts, load up MODERN TIMES and crank up the volume and enjoy the guitar virtuosity on just about every track - including incredible solos on the bookending tracks "CAROL" and the title track at the end. If the Rhino edition of Modern Times is still available, read Al's funny story about mixing the title track, AFTER you listen to it."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1