My Yellow Wise Rug - Luke Slater

Advantages: Fanastic lyrics & music
Disadvantages: 2 weaker tracks

...it was typical of Alanis Morissette's style but it is a good song. 8/10 11. Utopia Slower once more, Alanis' voice is beautiful on this song about utopia. The lyrics really emphasise a sense of peace and happiness. 'this is utopia this is my utopia this is my ideal my end in sight utopia this is my utopia this is my nirvana my ultimate' There's something incredibly calming about this song and it is the perfect end to this great CD. 10/10 Perhaps the coolest part of 'Under Rug Swept' is the interactive features - through playing the cd on your pc you can access a secret website which has a letter from Alanis, exclusive audio tracks (a live version of "Flinch" and "Sister Blister") as well as the making of "hands clean". The letter is brief, thanking you for your curiosity that caused you to seek out... Read review

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Advantages: Good overview of career so far
Disadvantages: Sacrifices quality for completeness

...Even in an age of such constant artistic recycling, it still seems strange to release a 3-CD box-set of rarities celebrating such a relatively obscure musician. But Luke Haines has always thrived on such aesthetic left-turns, and appears to delight in confounding expectations and confusing his audience. The hubris continues in Haines's own myth-taking sleeve notes, and the inclusion of a nonsensically pretentious 'essay' by critic Paul Morley just adds to the contrary, paradoxical image of a man who enjoys baiting his fans: the very people who keep his status as an artist alive. After spending time as the guitarist in The Servants (where he met bassist Alice Readman and got the chance to indulge a life-long fascination with the Go-Betweens), Haines first appeared as a bandleader in 1992, charismatically fronting The Auteurs. As far... Read review

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Advantages: Great music, wonderful value, excellent lyrics
Disadvantages: None whatsoever

...I’m currently in the process of collecting all my favourite vinyl albums on CD and finding some real bargains in the process. My latest acquisition at a mere £4.99 from Our Price is Elton John’s classic double album ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’. I can vividly remember buying the original version on a day trip to London, just before Christmas in 1973. I went with some of my friends on the train, no mean feat in those days from the Shropshire backwaters and bought it from what I believe to be Virgin’s first music shop in Oxford Street. Nearly thirty years ago – doesn’t time fly! And yet the music and the memories are as fresh as ever. Goodbye Yellowbrick Road was the peak of Elton's fabulous ride through the 70s. The album is as enchanting and nostalgic as ‘The Wizard of Oz’ from... Read review

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