Search - Doe Maar :: Echt Alles

The ultimate Doe Maar collection, yes it's "Really Everythin

Paul Allaer | Cincinnati | 06/04/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Doe Maar is the biggest band the Netherlands ever produced, yes bigger than Golden Earring (which had major success in the US) and every other imagniable Dutch band. The band released 4 groundbreaking studio albums in 1980 to 1983, before imploding under the huge pressure. (The band reunited in 2000 for a one-off--and hugely successfull--studio album, "Klaar".) There have been a number of "best of" and "greatest hits" albums over the years.



"Echt Alles", which translates as "Really Everything", a take-off on one of the band's big hits "Is Dit Alles? ("Is This Everything?", (3 CDs, 55 tracks, 206 min.) is the first time that ALL of the studio tracks of the 1980s Doe Maar have been collected: the 46 tracks of the 4 studio albums, and 9 other tracks that are singles, B-sides and left-over tracks. For the Doe Maar fans, this is pretty much the motherlode. No point in naming individual tracks or hits as they are all here, so let me offer a couple of observations on this release:



1. Regretfully, the tracks are not sequenced chronologically. So you you from the opener (and signature song) "Sinds 1 dag of 2 (32 jaar)" to "Anita" (fron the first album), etc.

2. The audio quality is the best it's ever been. On some of the earlier CD releases, the sound was at times "thin", but now the sond jumps out at you.

3. No selections are included from the excellent live 1984 album "Lijf aan Lijf", which is essential for any Doe Maar fan to have.

4. The liner notes leave something to be desired. There is an excellent essay by Bert Salden, providing an historical perspective on the band's rise and demise in the 1980s. But the song accreditation woefully omits the year and album from which it is culled, so you'll have to rely on your own recollection for that.



Despite these 'shortcomings', I rate this collection 5 stars as it is to only place to find all the studio output from the 1980s in one place, and of course the music remains timeless. It's been roughly 25 years for most of these tracks, yet they remain as fresh today as they were then. Doe Maar fans, rejoice!"