Ultimate Hits, The (+DVD) - Garth Brooks

'''-About Garth Brooks-'''

Garth is the man, the myth and legend when it comes to country music. He was born Troyal Garth Brooks on February 7, 1962 in Tulsa Oklahoma. If you were ever happy to get a diamond award for your review here at Ciao, this fellow has six diamond albums. A diamond is awarded to albums with sales of ten million plus. Garth has six of them for Double Live, Sevens, Garth Brooks, The Hits, Ropin’ the Wind and No ...
...Michael Jackson, Shania Twain and The Beatles as one of the few solo performers / music groups to ever get a diamond.

Garths parents were Troyal Brooks who worked as a draftsman for an oil company and Colleen Carroll a singer for Capitol Records. Growing up, he was the youngest of six siblings. The young Garth had a fervent interest in sports such as football, track and field and baseball. He finished schooling with an advertising degree ... more

-About Garth Brooks-

Garth is the man, the myth and legend when it comes to country music. He was born Troyal Garth Brooks on February 7, 1962 in Tulsa Oklahoma. If you were ever happy to get a diamond award for your review here at Ciao, this fellow has six diamond albums. A diamond is awarded to albums with sales of ten million plus. Garth has six of them for Double Live, Sevens, Garth Brooks, The Hits, Ropin’ the Wind and No Fences. He joins an elite group of artists such as Michael Jackson, Shania Twain and The Beatles as one of the few solo performers / music groups to ever get a diamond.

Garths parents were Troyal Brooks who worked as a draftsman for an oil company and Colleen Carroll a singer for Capitol Records. Growing up, he was the youngest of six siblings. The young Garth had a fervent interest in sports such as football, track and field and baseball. He finished schooling with an advertising degree yet found himself singing in front of bars and clubs. From these humble beginnings, he rose into one of the most successful solo artists of all time.

Garth is currently married to Trisha Yearwood together live in a ranch in Owasso, Oklahoma. Garth is currently into semi-retirement and performs for select events, functions and charities. He last performed at the event called We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial which was a concert featuring several artists to commemorate President Obama’s triumph.

-The Album-

Disc 1

1 - Ain't Going Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up) – This is a nice upbeat song. Garth sings a country song at a rapper’s speed. This isn’t street though. Based on the lyrics, it is about a daughter who is into a relationship. This is typical teenage romance where life becomes centered around the relationship to a fault much to the chagrin of the family especially the parents.

Rating: 10/10 – I am a fan of upbeat and energizing songs.

2 – Friends in Low Places – This is a very funny song sung at moderate speed. It tells about the incompatibility of two lovers. The guy is someone from the old country while the girl sounds like a socialite from the big city. In the end they break up over their differences but the guy is bent on drowning his sorrows in a bar. Nice song for downing a few rounds at your local pub.

Rating: 10/10 – The song is just plain hilarious.

3 – Shameless – This song is a bit more serious and emotional. It tells about a guy who is so in love with a girl that he does not care what other people think and is willing to give up a lot including his pride for the woman he loves.

Rating: 7/10 – This song is very romantic in terms of lyrics but this sounds like a desperado singing. Not for me.

4 – Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House – This tells about marital bliss in the old country. The tune is upbeat and is good for some easy listening.

Rating: 8/10 – The tune is good and so are the lyrics. The lyrics are too idealistic and rarely do we see that kind of marital bliss nowadays.

5 – The Beaches of Cheyenne – This tells of a guy and girl who live and died because of love. This is a tragic story of everlasting love. The tune is tragic sad yet the lyrics are.

Rating: 10/10 – This is a very good song for couples who live for each other. This is deeply touching and very romantic.

6 – If Tomorrow Never Comes – This proves the adage that people only realize the importance of a loved one once their gone. We often take people for granted and regret that we never got to tell them and show them how much we love them. The tune is very slow and serious.

Rating: 10/10 – I absolutely agree with the message of the song. I have never been a fan of serious and slow songs but the lyrics blew me away emotionally.

7 – Papa Loved Mama – This is a very good and upbeat song about how the lack of quality time destroyed a once good relationship. In my interpretation the mom had an affair with someone else. This led to the destruction of the relationship.

Rating: 10/10 – This is good and upbeat. The message is true for all relationships. All relationships require time. If you put no time in a relationship, it ceases to exist.

8 – More Than a Memory – This is a song about the pain of breakups. During this time we usually ask for the consolation of other people. It is usually painful to invest time, resources and emotion in a relationship only to see it go up in smoke. The tune is sad and tragic.

Rating: 8/10 – I have not never been a big fan of break up songs. It only reminds me of the relationship I had once that didn’t work out. It also has a very sad tune to it which I do not like.

9 – Good Ride Cowboy – This is an upbeat song about the life of a cowboy.

Rating: 10/10 – I love this song. It is very upbeat and I like the topic of the song as well. I have grown up being fascinated by cowboys. When I grew up I saw cowboys on television such as the Lone Ranger, Bravestarr and The Smoking Gunns (WWF).

10 – In Another's Eyes – This is a very good theme song for lovers and is very good for duets. The tune has a lot of romantic energy in it and has a lot of emotion to it.

Rating: 10/10 – This song is absolutely beautiful.

11 – The Fever – This is an energetic and upbeat song about someone madly in love.

Rating: 10/10 – This song has an excellent tune. I am a big fan of upbeat songs.

12 – Midnight Sun – This is another song about a cowboy’s life. It starts slow but picks up pace after.

Rating: 8/10 – This is a good song but I do not like the slow start to the song.

13 – Learning to Live Again – This is a powerful and emotional song about recovery. It sounds like a guy who is on a rebound from a relationship that ended. It is hard to start anew sometimes.

Rating: 9/10 – The song reflects that life moves on and that we must not let past hang-ups get the best of us. The tune is just so sad and tragic though. I’m not a big fan of that.

14 – Longneck Bottle – This is an energetic and upbeat song about drinking. This is a perfect song for a bar or saloon.

Rating: 8/10 – The song does not have powerful lyrics but is very nice and upbeat.

15 – To Make You Feel My Love – This is a very heartwarming song about love.

Rating: 8/10 – I am not a fan of slow and low tunes. This is too sincere and serious even for me.

16 – We Shall Be Free – This song upholds one thing I hold high above everything else which is freedom. The idea of freedom here revolves around financial freedom, freedom of choice and freedom from discrimination.

Rating: 10/10 – This would be a nice song for church or worship service and holds a very powerful message. I look forward to the day that mankind would be united and start respecting each other’s differences instead of holding everyone to their standards. I have long regarded discrimination of any kind as pure ignorance.

17 – The Dance – This is a nice song of remembering the good times of a past relationship. How the mighty have fallen!

Rating: 8/10 – I am a person who likes to move on after failures and setbacks. It is no use reminiscing the past only to remember it and get hurt feelings.

Disc 2

1 – Callin' Baton Rouge – This is a nice and upbeat song about being away from a loved one. It is very fortunate that the telephone was invented so we could keep in touch with them.

Rating: 8/10 – The tune is nice and upbeat yet the lyrics are too simple are not as deep as some of the other songs.

2 – Two Pina Coladas – This is a song about heartbreak and forgetting about it.

Rating: 7/10 – Nice song but I do not like the message of drinking to forget problems. Homer Simpson did that but drinking never solved any of his problems.

3 – The Thunder Rolls – This is a song of a man trapped in stormy weather while his beloved waits and worries. The ending is a happy one though.

Rating: 7/10 – I do not like the tune of this song. The lyrics are also not something I appreciate. It reminds me too much of the folks back home who are worrywarts.

4 – That Summer – Whoa! This is one long song. It is about a guy who went to work for a widow who had not felt a mans touch for a while and wanted to get back into the game. Yup the fellow sure learned a lot that summer.

Rating: 8/10 – This is a good song but I do not like the message of the song though.

5 – The River – This is perhaps the best song in terms of message in my opinion. This song has the message of reaching for your dreams despite challenges and obstacles.

Rating: 10/10 – This song may not have upbeat tunes or funny lyrics but is downright inspirational. Listen to this song and reach for your dreams!

6 – Beer Run – This is for all ye beer drinkers out there! Simple yet upbeat song about BEER! Need I say more?

Rating: 8/10 – This could have been a 10/10 had I been a beer drinker. The song has a nice upbeat tune though. I do not drink though. My grandfather died of liver problems due to excessive drinking.

7 – Unanswered Prayers – This is a song about a man and his wife running into one of the guy’s ex girlfriends. She was his dream girl yet he never got her. This song restates the saying that if God doesn’t give you something, there is something better in store for you.

Rating: 9/10 – I do not like the slow tempo of this song but the message is excellent. Sometimes God gives us not what we want but what we deserve.

8 – Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old) – This song is simply hilarious. It tells about a guy feeling old and has a hard time competing with people younger and faster than he is. I have two friends who are single and are turning thirty three this year. I should give them a copy of this song for their birthday as they frequently tell me that they have fallen off the calendar.

Rating: 8/10 – The song doesn’t have an inspiring message yet it is very amusing.

9 – Workin' For a Livin' – This song highlights the pitfalls of employment such as a ceiling to ones income, always worrying about bills and having limited choices.

Rating: 9/10 – This is very relevant today. Gone are the days when employment was glamorous. Everyone is a free agent now. Also the prestigious jobs are lessening and what are increasing are more low profile jobs such as being a plumber or a carpenter.

10 – She's Doing Now – This is a song about the attempts of a lover to connect to his beloved but encounters problems doing so. This causes him grief and uncertainty.

Rating: 8/10 – This is a very short song that is tragic in a sense. The guy has no peace of mind.

11 – When You Come Back to Me Again – This is a song of hope to see a loved one again. This song is perfect for lovers who are separated by circumstances such as work and fortuitous events.

Rating: 8/10 – The song is full of hope and emotion.

12 – Standing Outside the Fire – This is a song about love, about the challenges people face in life and the kinds of people that face them. This song has a very good message and is about being strong.

Rating: 9/10 – This song has a very good message and reminds me of my mentor Theobald who is the “strong” as described by this song.

13 – American Honky-Tonk Bar Association – This song is about the employees of America who pay the most taxes and are burdened the most by the government. This song is also about America’s entitlement mentality where people rely on government welfare to survive. The rest of the song is about what ill America.

Rating: 10/10 – This is a good wake-up call for America, who was once the world’s richest nation and now the biggest debtor-nation in the world. Things need to change. People should cut out this “entitlement mentality” crap and start working hard again just as the American founding fathers did.

14 – The Change – This is about someone not changing despite situations and pressure from the outside world.

Rating: 8/10 – This song has a nice message yet I did not like the tune. A bit too serious if you ask me.

15 – Rodeo – This is about a man’s obsession with the rodeo. His beloved doesn’t want him to go but the fellow is as stubborn as a mule.

Rating: 8/10 – This reminds me of the country and the wild west where the rodeo was one of the primary forms of entertainment. Before movies and television, there was the rodeo.

16 – Wrapped Up In You – This is about someone who loves their partner very dearly and is madly in love.

Rating: 7/10 - This song isn’t special. The message is simply about someone madly and love and I didn’t like the tune either.

17 – Leave a Light On –This is about leaving the light on for a relationship. It is keeping the relationship doors open.

Rating: 8/10 - This is a pretty good song especially for those whose loved ones are far away or are missing. This shows hope and emotion.

-Extras-

-Bonus Track 1 (Disc 2)
-Bonus Track 2 (Disc 2)
-Bonus CD containing all the music videos of the songs in this album

-The Verdict-

There is something in this album for everybody. There is something for young people, lovers, couples, married people, divorcees, beer drinkers, dreamers, employees and cowboys. The album also covers the whole gamut of human emotions from joy to sadness to grief to jubilation. I have also noticed that the album is mostly about relationships and about life in the country.

This two disc (actually three disc) set contains plenty of songs which range form the joyous to the downright tragic. I like the variety that thirty four songs bring. The songs also cover a nice variety of topics. It is like a nice smorgasbord of tracks.

The two tracks appealed to me most namely The River and Friends in Low Places. The River was about the fulfillment of one’s dream and one’s destiny. I firmly believe that everyone is mean to be much more than what they are professing. Sadly, most people give up on their dreams due to a variety of reasons which include marriage, family, work and perceived lack of time. This track is very inspiring. Friends in Low Places is simply prices and simply hilarious. It is a nice song to play on the karaoke bar especially when you are drinking. It tells about going back to your buddies for a round or two of drinks after a failed relationship due to differences in social stature.

It is too bad that Garth Brooks is now in semi-retirement and just performs every now and then. This is not good news for his fans but we must understand that he after all needs to spend more time with his family. He after all has already made a fortune but what use is this if he loses his loved ones in the process. Money isn’t everything after all.

Overall, this is a very nice album. After all, this IS Garth Brooks. He sells records like hotcakes and I do not see why this release would be any different. While this album does not contain all of his classics, it contains a fair number of them.
I would recommend this album to anyone. Garth Brooks has an appeal to people of all ages. He isn’t too brand spanking modern or too old fashioned. He is a tweener (somewhere in between). This is something that the folks at home would agree upon.

 

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