Some musical treasures, but not well thought out overall
Charles A. Miller | Baltimore, Maryland U.S.A. | 08/29/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"There certainly is some excellent material on this 10-CD set, but overall, it was not well put together. The reasoning behind this is that despite claims to present all the B-sides and other difficult to attain or unreleased Mute recordings, it is misses the boat time and again.
The perfect example is a heavy preponderance Depeche Mode and Fad Gadget recordings (many of which were previously available), in tandem with a so-so "bonus" 2 CD set of mainly live and uninspiring material by Depeche Mode (yet again) and Yazoo.
Meanwhile, genuinely rare material, like some early NON releases that have never seen the light of day on CD are given a mere 2 or 4 track sampling of which, half were already released on compact disc. The writer of the booklet even claimed that it was impossible to transcribe The Black Album to CD, which is immediately discredited by the fact that a couple of tracks from that album are successfully included here.
Other quibbles include the size of the print in said booklet is microscopic and a difficult read and the price tag for the uninspired packaging is not going to sell a lot of copies.
Is this worth it? Definitely yes for Depeche Mode (or Fad Gadget) fans as this really seems to be a 10 CD set of mainly their works, filled out with some other artists. For completists of the other artists found here, it may or may not be good in that more of their works should have been featured. If you have none of these artists on CD already and want to hear their works, perhaps it would be a good buy. Overall however, it's a mixed blessing and a disappointment. It could have been great, but isn't. A well-thought-out collection of rarities presented in a more cohesive fashion along with a price tag reflecting the age of these tracks would have been welcomed."
Some Lost Gems
D. Murphy | Warrington, PA United States | 04/21/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is worth it for the unreleased Yazoo tracks. I got it for about $40 from a seller. Most Mute fans will have most of what's here in one form or another, but if you can pick it up fairly cheap, there are some great tracks that you probably don't have."
