Search - Brinsley Schwartz :: Original Golden Greats/15 Thoughts of Brinsley Sch

Fine album that needs remastering. Desperately.

Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 09/29/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It may be a new release and it may be remastered but it still sounds pretty bad. The volume throughout this disc alternates between quiet and loud all within the same song. Sounds like the tape operator who did the final transfer was asleep at the board (this usually happens when the tape moves away from the playback or record head).The quality of the songs? 4 1/2 stars. Although the bulk of the material is very very good some of the material is a bit too derivative of the Band and Nick Lowe had yet to buff his songwriting style to the shine we are used to hearing. Still, there are quite a few gems on this album. Granted BS was inspired by the Band but by the time of their third album they had clearly found a voice all their own. They deserve to be heard--correctly.BGO has done a terrific job in the past both on Brinsley and other bands (most notably Katrina & The Waves first two albums and a couple of Gentle Giant albums). How this one got past quality control is beyond me."

BRITISH COUNTRY ROCK PIONEERS

Patrick Earley | Edmond, Oklahoma USA | 03/16/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Brinsley's biggest claim to fame is probably that they were Great Britain's first country rock band. The trouble with that is country rock was just not the British music of choice in the late 60's early 70's. So this band never quite got their feet off the ground. The shame of it was that they were much more than a country rock outfit. They also could play some great R&B, as in "FUNK ANGEL, BRING DOWN, and I LIKE YOU I DON'T LOVE YOU, which features some great sax work by Bob Andrews. There's also plenty of great rock and roll on here. Chuck Berry's RUN RUDOLF RUN, and probably their most famous tune WHAT'S SO FUNNY 'BOUT PEACE, LOVE, AND UNDERSTANDING, which fellow Brit Elvis Costello later made a hit out of. Most of the songs on here, Nick Lowe wrote, or had a hand in writing. And he also sings on most of these tunes. All these guys are fabulous musicians in their own right. Nick Lowe is the most famous because of his solo career. But Ian Gomm, who helped write much of Brinsley's later material,went on to have a brief, but very good solo career, releasing 2 excellent solo albums in the early 80's. And Bob Andrews, who is a great keyboard player as well as playing sax, along with guitar player extraordiaire Brinsley Schwarz, formed the Rumour, which went on to become one of the most talented bands to come out of Britain. Later becoming Graham Parker and the Rumour. This early stuff doesn't sound anything like the rugged sound of the Rumour. But it's still a good testimony to a talented band who had a lot of potential. But their timing was just a little bit too far ahead of the British country rock curb. I recommend this cd of their 2 greatest hits albums over some of their other twofers compilations. This one covers the Brinsley's whole career from 1970-75. And it offers a better variety of the bands musical styles."

Twice The Fun!

The Orange Duke | Cupertino, Ca United States | 02/24/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What could be better than a Brinsley Schwartz comp? How about two Brinsley Schwartz comps on one CD? This is really all that the casual fan of BS needs (is there such a thing?). It is an excellent retrospective, tracing them from their beginnings as a hippy/psychedelic influenced country rock band in the California style to the nascent pub rock madmen they became. Any Nick Lowe collection is incomplete without Brinsely Schwartz and fans of the Buffalo Springfield and CS & N will also find much to admire. Another reviewer complained about the quality of the CD, but the one I got from Amazon had no problems. The tracks on this album are almost uniformly excellent (although I could do without `Run Rudolf Run') especially notable are `Country Girl', `Shining Brightly', Happy Doing What We're Doing' and `(What's So Funny About) Peace Love And Understanding'"