Search - Atahualpa Yupanqui :: 40 Exitos

Three Strikes

Stuart L. Weiss | 05/06/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The death of a great artist like Atahualpa Yupanqui brings an inevitable parade of compilation albums, a few loving tributes among a flood of cynical exploitation. Soon after A.Y.'s 1992 passing, Le Chant du Monde released a widely praised 5 CD box set, while Toshiba/EMI issued an 8 CD set in Japan. The man wrote 1,200 great songs appearing on 460 analog discs and 107 CDs. Picking 30 or 40 to represent his work is simply arbitrary. In 2005, apparently EMI Capitol de Mexico decided to milk a few more bucks from the tapes and issued the 2 CD 40 exitos (with the round picture; the set reviewed here is the square picture alternate edition, but both offer identical music and identical flaws). 40 exitos adds no new material, so file it under cynical exploitation. Strike one!



My evaluation began inauspiciously upon finding the jewel case spider broken and the discs floating around. Maybe spend five cents more on the plastic next time? The illustrated booklet one would expect with a $20 package is absent. Then there is the sound quality. Put simply, it stinks. At first I suspected recording overload, but after finding no evidence of clipping, I believe the tapes were "enhanced" by passing the sound through equipment better reserved for rock albums. Strike two!



OK, EMI, you're down to your last strike. What kind of swing will you take? Why snarky copy protection to destabilize the material so that a tiny speck of dirt might make it unplayable even in a stand alone CD player. Forget about loading your iPod or gracefully adding it to your computer's music collection. Take a seat on the bench, EMI. With 40 exitos, you just struck out!"