Search - Judy Collins :: Wildflowers / Who Knows Where the Time Goes

Judy's two best albums

Kilgore Trout | WA | 02/23/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I own each of these albums separately and have just discovered that they are now combined into one. If you don't already know these albums, I highly recommend them.

Judy is well known as the champion of Leonard Cohen's songs, and she does them beautifully. My favorites ones by Leonard Cohen - on these albums - are "Priests" and "Bird on the Wire".

Judy can write songs, too. Note especially "My Father".

Sandy Denny's song "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" is my all-around favorite - one of the greatest songs and performances of all time, IMO."

Another hammered mastering job

Robert2413 | California | 08/18/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"These albums have been favorites of mine ever since I owned the original vinyl. But the CD is a disappointment -- yet another product mastered for loudness for no reason whatsoever. Moreover, the sound is inconsistent from track to track; the mastering smacks of crank-'em-out-while-watching-the-clock laziness.



I can always tell when a CD has had the life squeezed out it by over-limiting because as I listen to it, I start turning the volume down more and more until it is either at a background level or until I turn it off. In broadcasting, radio program directors have understood for decades that over-processing fatigues listeners and eventually causes them to tune out. Evidently, despite the precipitous decline in CD sales, record companies haven't learned this yet.



The labels are not going to stop this nonsense until people start complaining and tell the labels why they've stopped buying."

Moments Frozen In Memory

Kurt Harding | Boerne TX | 10/14/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Since I never bought the two albums in this compilation on vinyl when they were current, I can't comment on the first reviewer's remarks about the quality of the remastering. I have had pretty good luck with Rhino Record remasters in the past. The music sounds fine on both of my sound systems, but his criticisms do give the prospective buyer food for thought.

Anyway, I came to appreciate Judy Collins much later in life than when these albums were current. Actually, it was my interest in the music of Leonard Cohen which gave me cause to revisit her. I now find that Collins' pure, angelic contralto makes her hard to fault no matter what she sings.

I like all the songs here to some degree except for Hello, Hooray but my favorites are the hauntingly beautiful Since You Asked; Leonard Cohen's Priests; Jacques Brel's La Chanson Des Vieux Amants; the impressionistic Albatross; Leonard Cohen's deeply spiritual Story of Isaac, Collins' own poignant My Father; the evocative shoulda-been-a big-country-hit Someday Soon; the folksy take on Bob Dylan's Poor Immigrant; her take on Leonard Cohen's famous Bird On A Wire; and Pretty Polly, a murder ballad worthy of Nick Cave.

Though most of my Judy Collins CDs are of later recordings, listening to this has me wanting to go back and explore more of her early material. Hearing this was kind of like revisiting moments long frozen in memory. Wildflowers/Who Knows Where The Time Goes comes as a single CD and is accompanied by an attractive booklet containing pertinent album information and insightful commentary on the songs selected."