Ethan is his son. I don’t recall Stevie saying she hates Glyn Johns, but I do believe she said he hates her. As for Glyn Johns being considered one of the best in the business, I present Exhibit A- the album Street Angel. The CD I have includes two songs written by Ethan Johns that were left off the American CD, and for good reason. Stevie deserves the brunt of blame, because many of her songs are horrible, but judging from the fact that Glyn gave her two horrible songs by his son that were so bad they were left off the American version, and by how much better the songs that were remixed for her Enchanted boxset sounded, and it’s obvious the producer is just as much to blame.

If you are judging him based on Stevie's Street Angel klonopin phase in her career is not quite fair. Stevie blamed everyone except herself. Maybe if she gave a hoot about her career instead of constantly seeking out tranquilizers a better product could have been developed. Other artists may not appreciate Glyn's style but no doubt he is respected for his craft since he has worked with countless artists. I think his stuff is hit or miss. I will never understand the orchestra on Songbird but I like what he did on the other songs.

I'm almost startled by how much I am enjoying these remixes.

I have always loved In the Meantime, but often felt that Dan Perfect got a bit excited with the layering of tracks on an elementary Pro-Tools. Christine's playing, as it should be, is centred in these remixes.

Ask Anybody has Mick and Ray Cooper playing, no wonder they turned up the percussion.

The real dirge on the album is that sloppy muzak version of Songbird, and Northern Star.

But I like how these tracks hang together and the sequencing has shown that Chris has shown a modicum of interest in this project, which was more than I was expecting when I saw the tracklist and heard the first two tracks released.

This will get a high spin on my turntable.

They. really knocked Ask Anybody out of the park. It's a lot more intense, as it should be.

Surprisingly I love the sequencing and Songbird actually grabbed me yesterday. I focused on how beautiful the vocal is. And the rest is window dressing. The duet with Hawkins keeps getting better and better.

And most importantly, I love hearing Christine sing, play organ and keyboards. She's so talented in a way that moves me as a human being. My expectations were low and so now I'm really enjoying the flow of this CD.

By the way, Sweet Revenge is dynamite. Never took to it before, but it has a certain genius to it.

Thats the beauty of this. Re-discovering some songs you skipped over. But it also is a double edged sword because if some of the songs you skip over sound good what if some of your favorites were remixed with added guitars and percussion.

But you cant get everything :eek:

P.S. I'll let you know if this new Songbird ever appeals to me. Right now its probably my least favorite on the CD only because I still dont believe the orchestra music goes with the song. But after a few more plays maybe I will be hypnotized.
Oh look.....something just flew by the window!

You should listen because the party will over when the music ends.

My thoughts on this collection:

Hate the changes to “Friend.”

Like the changes to “Sweet Revenge” and “Easy Come”

LOVE the new amped up version of “The Challenge,” which doesn’t take anything away from the original.

LOVE the two “new” songs and, well, they are my most frequent listens.

HATE this Songbird, HATE this Northern Star, and dislike this “Giving It Back”

No strong feelings about this version of “Ask”—which is quite close to the original—though I question why Mick’s drums were swapped out. Was that necessary?

Bottom line: the only three essentials in here for me are “Slow Down,” “All You Gotta Do” and “The Challenge.” I won’t be forgetting the original albums from which most of these songs came.

I agree with all of that.

Friend was perfect in its original form. It almost seemed like a desperate idea how they start the song as if he knew it was perfect so what can we do?

The Challenge is definitely the winner of the remix on the album.
The new songs are really good.

I am sad that Love Will Show Us How did not make the album because I have said since 1984 the song was just a remix away from a big hit. Add some bouncy keyboards and drumming and turn up the guitars a bit.

Oddly enough Songbird is the miss of the album called Songbird. I got "so excited" when I heard Songbird was going to be used with an orchestra. But this is a miss for so many reasons. The music does not seem to go with the song. It's clear the music was just layered in with the singing. It would have been nice to actually hire an orchestra and have them develop the music and then play it live with the singing and record it. But I guess that would cost too much money.

Yeah—there was nothing wrong with the original friend (except maybe one too many repetitions, though the acoustic version is flawless).

I was a little bummed to see it wasn’t Christine’s organ work on either “The Challenge” or “All You Gotta Do,” but her piano in the latter is still up front.

I seem to be in the minority (alone?) in liking the new version of “Northern Star.” I wouldn’t say I prefer it to the original, but I like it as an alternate. Stripping away the lead guitar and adding acoustic gives Christine’s vocal more room to shine, which is always a good thing in my book.

Question: I listen on Spotify so I don’t have the liner notes. Did someone say Mick’s drums were replaced in “Ask Anybody”?? Craziness! Though I am loving that track - much more than I ever did on the CM album.

I'm with ya. I think Northern Star and Givin are sacred to a few of this lot. (Me included). But I do like the vocal space and appreciate the alt version. I haven't received my copy yet. I'll let you know on the liner notes. Unless Macfan or BWBoy want to chime in.

Yes, according to the instrument credits, all the original players on “Ask” were kept except Mick, and Ethan Johns plays the new drum track.

There aren’t liner “Notes” per se, just a brief interview followed by a track list and player credits for each song.

Look what they've done to her songs, ma!
 

Sorry but... yikes.

This album is the musical equivalent of Jurassic World Dominion--a cobbling together of new and old to meet some contractual requirement and destroying the original good material while they're at it.

The songs sound like someone with an iPad made some vocal isolation tracks one afternoon and incohesively mixed in some old and new instrumentation in the background as an afterthought.
What was going through their mind when they added those twinkly bells on Sweet Revenge?
Where are the background vocals on every song? Oh, my mistake--they've just been reduced to a frequency only perceptible by raccoons.
Why would they remove that awesome echo on Chris's voice near the end of The Challenge?

Perhaps worst of all, Ask Anybody, once a brooding and finely-tuned masterwork, has had the soul stripped out of it and been given a botched Copacabana facelift.

I would love this album--if I had never had the pleasure of hearing all of the tracks in the original, far superior form.

So sad that they just didn't remaster her solo stuff like Lindsey's amazing Anthology.

Ha!
Every time I listen the Challenge on this CD, I also miss the echo. I kept telling myself why get frustrated at something so tiny but glad to see I am not the only one. Perhaps he should have enhanced the echo. Chris's 1984 album was so plain jane for 1984 without the 80s tech drum machines and programmed instruments, etc. Let that echo alone!

I was reading reviews on Amazon and someone said something that hit home. Songbird is such a classic song. Would you remix Stairway To Heaven? How dare anyone change anything about it ;)