Search - Scorpions :: Box of Scorpions (Dig)

Yet another Scorpions compilation

Chad W. Armstrong | 01/29/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"If you are a casual Scorpions fan, but want a more comprehensive compilation than the 20th Century Masters - Best of Scorpions album, then Box of Scorpions is one of the best deals available. This album touches on pretty much every Scorpions album, from 1972's Lonesome Crow through 2002's Bad For Good: The Very Best of Scorpions. This shows how Scorpions have evolved over the course of three decades, from the progressive-jazz-rock in the their early days, to the raw German metal of the 70s, the pop rock of the 80s, and their experimentation of the 90s.



Pros:

- Pretty much every album is covered, which no commercially available compilation has done yet. Most compilations have concentrated only on their RCA or Mercury years albums.

- In addition to the well known songs, there are some other not as well known songs like "20th Century Man", or "I'm Goin' Mad".

- The inside packaging features a description/comment about each song, which gives some interesting tidbits about some of the songs (such as "Cause I Love You" was another song written around the Lovedrive era).



Cons:

- For being called "Box of Scorpions", it isn't even in a box! It is more elaborate packaging, which is nice looking, but it's not a true boxed set.

- Pretty much every real boxed set I've seen tends to contain many rarities, such as B-sides, demos, extra live cuts, etc. Nirvana's boxed set contains mostly rare songs. Axel Rudi Pell's compilation album "Wizard's Chosen Few" also contained a decent number of rare and new songs. Box of Scorpions did not contain any new songs that many die-hard Scorpions fans didn't already have. There are a few of the more "rare" or "extra" songs like "Cause I Love You", "I Can't Explain", or "Over the Top" which were only featured on previous compilation albums, but as I mentioned, many of these songs are easily obtainable. What would have made this a better collection would have been songs like "Rock My Car", "Partners In Crime", or "She's Knocking At My Door".

- Missing songs: While this compilation does feature a wide assortment of Scorpions songs, there are a few numbers which were missed. The most notable omission is Uli Roth's classic "The Sails of Charon". Instead of having the studio version of "We'll Burn the Sky" (which is the worst version of this song), they should have included the Tokyo Tapes version (which is the best version I've heard, in addition to being my favorite song). And like many compilations, many great songs will be missed, such as "Now!", "Animal Magnetism", "China White", "Living For Tomorrow", "Ship of Fools", "Crazy World", "Wild Child", "Mind Like A Tree", and list can go on and on. Many of the songs on Box of Scorpions were released as singles, which is part of the reason that they ended up on different compilation albums.

- As another reviewer noted, the pictures inside are from the classic 80's line up. Having some pictures of EARLY Scorpions shows, or perhaps some more recent pictures with Ralph Riekermann and James Kottak would have been nice additions.



So who is Box of Scorpions for? This is a good collection for a person who is interested in learning more about Scorpions, to get a better feel for the band and its 3+ decades of music. Perhaps one new fan will enjoy the Uli Roth era of music, others might prefer the 80s pop metal, or some might like the more refined or experimental edge to the Scorpions in the 90s. But for the serious Scorpions collector, there is nothing extraordinary or amazing about this collection, except for the privilege to own it and add yet another compilation onto the already towering stack of Scorpions albums."

Nearly all the songs, but not the best Remaster

Niso Levitas | 07/21/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I don't feel the need to praise Scorpions like the other reviewers because you already know the guys. And I don't need to tell about the songs because you already know them. What I really want to talk about is the sound quality of the CD.



I bought Scorpions (Best), this one, and the Remaster series of the albums. I played the same songs on all of them.The quality was not the best. It has all the good versions of the songs. Better quality than the first releases. But not the best.



Even though it does not include the all essentials, On one album, It sounded like they traveled through time and just recorded today with the new technology on the "Scorpions: Best" - There are many of them so I will give the Full Catalog Number: 724349701328 - in Amazon it is only 4970132. I am not saying don't buy the "Box of Scorpions" There are many more songs that I liked on that one on other albums. But Scorpions : Best sounds way better

"

Probably the best of all the Scorpions compilations, thus fa

J. Navleris | Lynn, MA, USA | 06/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The "Box Of Scorpions" 3-disc set is probably the best of the many Scorpions compilations that have been released to date. Credit must be given to the folks at Universal Music for getting it done right with this set.



Here's what makes this set pretty decent compared to the other Scorpions packages:



1. A fair representation of tracks from the entire era of Scorpions music, including tracks from albums released under the RCA label. (Not to complain, but it would have been nice to see "It All Depends" here).



2. A number of tracks that have not appeared on other sets, such as "Don't Make No Promises", "20th Century Man" and "Mysterious". It's good to see different tracks other that the same ones that appear over and over again.



3. Three discs as opposed to two or one. Let's face it, any compilation of the Scorpions that does not contain at least 3 discs or maybe 4 just doesn't do justice to the band or its fans. The Scorpions have been around too long to have one-disc CDs being released with their hits. These small compilations will not contain all of their best stuff.



If you are new to the Scorpions or a long-time fan, do yourself a favor and pick up this set. It has the best of what the Scorpions are all about and you won't be disappointed."