Music for the Morning After
The Groove | Boston, MA | 07/19/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"It's Sunday morning following a long night at the club. Physically and emotionally, you're a mess. You're probably suffering from a major hangover, or your ears are still ringing from hours of the relentless beats of house music. You have no intention of getting out of that bed anytime soon, and you're looking for a CD that'll get you ready to take on a brand new day. The brains behind Ministry of Sound have created a solution, and it's called the Chillout Session. This two disc set has one CD of mid-tempo numbers ranging from alternative pop to electronica, while the other CD has a collection of slightly housed-up jams, and a few ambient numbers. The selection is well put together and sets the tone with the beautiful "The Shining" from Badly Drawn Boy. This track has appeared in quite a few chillout compilations, and it's easy to see why: the acoustic guitars and the mellow vocals are good enough to soothe and put you at ease. We're also treated to other jams by Macy Gray, Moby, Thievery Corporation, an ambient remix of "Sexual" by Amber, and a discocentric remake of the theme to "American Beauty." In the world of chillout compilations, there are the pretenders, and there's the Real Thing. This overall impressive set by Ministry of Sound definitely falls into the latter category."
The original chill
bordersj2 | 06/21/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Picked this up on a whim a few years back, and it remains among the best CDs I've ever bought. The flow of the album, and a number of surprisingly luscious tracks (chicane, lemon jelly, badly drawn boy, etc.) make it perfect for an evening, a sunday morning, or a train ride any day."
Solid Mix of Tunes from Ministry circa 2001
bordersj2 | Boston | 09/19/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Ministry of Sound is a massive label that specializes in all types of party music, whether it be soul, Ayia Napa, disco, house, trance, discotheque and of course chillout, which was what they pushed and pushed and pushed so much that they saturated the market with redundant products in 2001. When I got this, I remember the exact day and place and what was on the "features" wall. This one, Chillout Session 2, Dreamstates and several others were screaming for attention and loaded with "2 for 22 pounds" stickers. Sadly, most of them were extremely similar and maybe not worth the 13 pounds (about 19 dollars at the time) individually. But I was suckered and figured I'd give them a shot so picked up two I thought would be different - this one and the sequel, released that summer.
This is a good mix of some easy going pop/chill tunes on cd 1, and a bit more upbeat with some of the more popular club tracks at the time. But never are the songs over-bearing, there's a consistent vibe. The feel of this cd is not to make you lethargic but to keep you content, in my opinion. But you do have some very popular songs here - lemon jelly, kinobe, rob d, sneaker pimps, Thievery Corp, bonobo, moby, nightmares on wax... if you like chillout chances are you've already heard and seen these exact songs and artists ten fold on other compilations. The second cd features the likes of jakatta, york, sasha, underworld, alex gopher, bent, energy 52. Again, all well known and perhaps overplayed artists but not necessarily of the 'chillout' nature. CD 2 is very interesting in that it goes from a light club feel to more ambient sounding tunes and heavier beats.
The verdict? This is a solid compilation of tunes that in the winter/spring of 2001 represented what was sort of new at the time. I felt that CD 1 was a bit better and more original - I dug the remake to the old Stone Roses track and have always been a huge Kinobe fan. But today this compilation might be out-dated and the cuts over-played. And be forewarned that Ministry of Sound loves to mix everything, therefor none of the tracks are really stand-alone. If you want to check out a few other chillout comps from the time (2001) then take a look at Serve Chilled III, Renaissance Ibiza, Dreamstates, Brazilectro III and heck, maybe some other Ministry Stuff. Just be VERY careful of overlap as it will be virtually impossible to find two cd's without at least 2 of the same tracks on them.
"
Track Listings (18) - Disc #1
