Mud Glorious Mud (The Very Best Of Flanders & Swann) - Flanders & Swann

Advantages: Witty, funny, entertaining, charm of a lost era
Disadvantages: A few of the references seem a little dated

..., Lord Denning, Profumo and De Gaulle). What to my mind marks Flanders and Swann out most however is their animal songs. "The Hippo Song" (Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud) is the best known, but Flanders has a genius in getting inside what he imagines to be the mind of various animals. These range from the lovelorn "Warthog" to the whale with flu (Mopy Dick) to the hypochondriac amnesiac elephant to the sloth, convinced of his own genius who just lacks the time, or the Gnu "the g-nicest work of g-nature in the zoo". The Bestiary contains many of these songs, although being recorded in the studio it lacks some of the intimacy with the audience of the two live recordings on the other two discs. All three discs give well over an hour of innocent, whimsical and funny entertainment, a welcome reminder of an England that has long since disappeared... Read review

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Advantages: Smokie at their best
Disadvantages: Absolutely none

...and much reflection Smokie recruited singer Mike Craft and Smokie were back on the road.Craft,without doubt the one with the best vocal ability of of the 3 lead vocalists was an instant hit with the fans ,his ability to make any song his own brought Smokie back to the top of the charts and returned Smokie to the peak of popularity in Europe and Scandinavia They have never stopped touring since. After 30 years they decided to cover songs that a lot of people mistakingly thought were done by them originally.It was bound to be an interesting project to work on and the finished product did not leave me dissappionted. My first thought on this album was the fact that their greatest hits had been re-recorded and re-mixed and came with this presentation but the covers disc was very interesting indeed. When a band covers another artists song... Read review

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Advantages: fun music
Disadvantages: too many covers

...Moon - A Classic timeless Rock n Roll meets the blues, played at the same tempo as the original, it shows that Mud were not just a one paced band, and listening to this, you can see that the band enjoyed themselves. “Blue moon, you saw me standing alone without a dream in my heart without a love of my own” Hippy, Hippy Shake - Back to a fast paced cover version of a Rock n Roll classic “For goodness sake. I’ve got the hippy, hippy shake. Yeah I got the shakes, I’ve got the hippy, hippy shake” Tallahassee Lassie - A moderate to fast paced Rock n Roll track, this track I have never liked, no particular reason, just not one of the best songs in the world for me, maybe it’s the lyrics that do nothing for me “Well she’s romping to the drag cha, cha like her mom drove me to the shag drops the bunny hop” Living Doll - Yep even... Read review

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