Wonderful - but flawed
S. J. Walker | London | 06/27/2000
(3 out of 5 stars)
"In one respect this is a wonderful collection of the Jacksons' pre-Motown work. The studio recorded material - basically the first half of the disc - is presented in the best quality possible, and thankfully NOT overdubbed with new instrumentation as has happened on a number of other discs where this material has been collected. Sadly though the disc is flawed, as the rehearsal taped material on the second half of it DOES suffer from the overdubbing problem. It is actually quite hard to find this material in its original, pristine state - I have come across it on only two or three occasions on budget European releases - and it is sad that this collection falls down here, despite the contrary claim on the rather misleading sleeve note!"
PRE-MOTOWN MAGIC!!!!!!!!!!!
JUSTIN OSTOFOROFF | Las Vegas, NV | 04/11/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is an awesome CD presenting the Jackon 5's first 14 songs ever recorded. It's biggest hit is "Big Boy" which is so bluesy it just wouln't fit the motown sound because it is to soulful. It also features some other outstanding material including "Michael the Lover", an early version of "You've Changed", "We don't have to be over 21 to fall in love" which almost has a motown glow, "I never had a girl" which suffers from a keyed out melody. About half of this collection was never released (the other half on STEELTOWN singles) and on the label it says that the sound wasn't improved on for "historical" reasons making the last half sound somewhat strange, the music is great but the vocals have not been mixed up making it hard to hear the singing. I just wish they mixed up the song called "Under the Boardwalk" because what I could hear sounds awesome but would be a whole lot cooler if the vocals were turned up. An interesting begin for one of the most creative and musical families that became world famous musical geniuses!!!!!!!"
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1