Search - Various Artists :: Excellent 80's

Excellent Eighties = Excellent Remastering

Jason W. Bellenger | Byron Center, Michigan, USA | 10/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Finally, someone got it right! "Goodbye To You" by Scandal has never sounded better than it does here -- well, as far as I know! After hearing the disappointing "remastering" on the 2006 Columbia/Legacy release of Scandal's hits package We Are the '80s, we finally get some kick - that is, in sound quality! On the "We Are The 80s" release, "Goodbye To You", along with most of the other tracks, sound a bit flat and restrained. I figured that perhaps it was simply the result of the original source masters. Perhaps they really sounded that bad, and this was the best that could be tweaked from those 25 year old tapes. Well, I was wrong! This song has so much kick and punch with it's drums and soaring electric guitars! I just knew something was missing! It sounds brilliant here, especially the build up in the climax of the song. Now why couldn't that Scandal release as a whole have this kind of crispness and clarity?



That's just one song! After browsing the inside liner notes and not finding any mastering credits, I was pleasantly surprised when I popped in disc one of this 3-disc collection in my CD player. From the punch and kick of "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield" to a refreshed "What I Like About You" by The Romantics I knew I was in for a real sound quality treat! As I browsed through each song of these 3 discs I was not let down. Almost every song here sounds the best out of all the releases I've heard them featured on previously. The only exception here would be "The Final Countdown" by Europe, which sounds the best, in my opinion, on the 2004 release of Rock the Night: Very Best of Europe. It has been amplified in such a way that it has never sounded more clean and crisp on that release. Nonetheless, the mastering of this track is nothing to cringe over, still sounding much better than on most other compilations.



Even tracks like "If She Knew What She Wants" by The Bangles sound better than on recent remastered collections, such as The Essential Bangles. I thought Loverboy's "Working For The Weekend" was at it's best sonically on the recent 2006 We Are the '80s. I even gave that a favorable review, stating that each song is presented in it's best sound quality yet. I was wrong. The mastering on this budget compilation is far superior. And those are only a handful of examples!



Let's face it. Most of these songs are readily available on a huge number of '80s compilations already. Do you really want the same songs over and over again? I already have the majority of these songs on other releases and collections. I was hesistant to get this release. In fact, I only got it because I got it at a bargain price, even less than what it is listed here on Amazon.



These kind of budget releases can be tricky, many times featuring poor audio quality and alternate versions. All original artists and original hit single versions are presented here, for the most part. Note that, as another reviewer already pointed out, "When Your Heart Is Weak" by Cock Robin is simply the album version, which I bought this collection for anyway. Also note that "99 Luftballons" by Nena is in fact the English version, "99 Red Balloons". But after hearing this track in brilliant sound, it doesn't matter to me since I already have "99 Luftballoons" featured on a number of other recent releases. Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus" is the American single version, not the superior Canadian version, which features the spoken vocal covering Amadeus' life. "Amadeus" is followed in the tracklisting by a track that Falco originally recorded, "Der Kommissar", presented here in the English hit version by After The Fire. Other than those, all songs are presented in their original album versions as far as I know, even Aretha's "Freeway Of Love", which is here in it's near 6-minute original version over the common single edit.



If you don't care much about audio quality, then this release may not be for you if you already own these tracks. If you care about sound quality as much as I do, then I highly recommend this release even if you already own most of these songs. (I actually didn't own 5 songs prior to buying this release.) Now why can't Sony BMG put out more of these collections with excellent sound? Or, what about issuing newly remastered collections by acts featured in this collection using the same mastering engineer who did these? I'll be looking forward to more of these releases!"

Good but be aware

I. DIAZ | PUNGARABATO, GRO Mexico | 11/12/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Good songs, good price but be aware if you're looking for When your heart is weak Dance Mix look somewhere else because this the same version that appears in every compilation of various artists and hits collections of Cock Robin.



I don't know why they keep doing this (Sony, Bmg, I don't know who), I think is like punishment to the people that still wants to buy legally music and not to download from internet for free, I think this is what they really want because after attempts to install software in most of the CD's sold by Sony and failed protecting his content they don't know anymore what to do."