(The) Very Best of Thomas Hampson

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

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Eight Good tracks.
Disadvantages: Twenty naff tracks.

...) Fascination More of a dance type tune from HL, quite a strange offering, very new romantic, not for me. 4/10. 7.The Lebanon Love this, the philospohical side of new romance, I remember Spndau Ballet, Visage and OMD doing similar social conscience type tracks. 8/10. That is 5-2 as keepers 8.Life On Your Own 5-3, yuk. 2/10. 9.Together In Electric Dreams 5-4 From a film, can't remember which, anyway, not for me. 10.Louise 6-4. Oh yes, this is better, for me the best HL track of all, along with songs like the Streets (Dry your eyes) and Elvis Costello (I Want You), one of the all time classic 'break up' songs, the music is catchy and just fits and the vocals are a lament, morose yet joyful, pure brilliance 10/10. 11.Human Too accomplished, Duran Duran on hot chocolate, yuk. 1/10. My tally now stands at 6 keepers and 5 throwers... Read review

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Advantages: Good selection
Disadvantages: Not really representative as a "best of"

...Generally speaking I think "Best of/Hits" compilations of one band are a good idea, especially on CDs, as it allows both the poorer ones among us to renew our aged vinyl collection and 'newbies' to a band to get a good feel for them before leaping into the rest of their material. However "Eternally Damned - The Very Best of The Damned" I find to be quite a misrepresentation of the bands' 25 year career and numerous albums (I have 11 but I'm sure there's more!). How all that can be summarised on one 20 track CD I can't fathom, and on this one it definitely hasn't been. True, there's a glut of 'Best of' albums for The Damned - "The Light at the End of the Tunnel" being currently the best one of the bunch. "Eternally Damned" misses out great chunks, in my opinion, with certain eras of the bands' career being missed altogether... Read review

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