Radiohead Limited Edition 7 CD Album Box Set

See Larger Image	List Price: £43.99 Our Price: £34.27 Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Manufacturer: Parlophone Average Customer Rating:


Binding: Audio CD EAN: 5099951722920 Format: Box set Label: Parlophone Manufacturer: Parlophone Number Of Discs: 7 Publisher: Parlophone Release Date: 2007-12-10 Studio: Parlophone
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Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: good value for money Comment: ignore the negatives surrounding this box set as even though they are not remastered and look as though its a cash cow by EMI since Radiohead have released new material for downloading for whatever price a fans pays but this box set is good value for money as most shops would sell each album for under redicoulous prices and getting all seven albums for thirty pund is a real bargain. Customer Rating: Summary: A cash cow may moo for money but you still choose whether or not to share your cud with it Comment: This absolutely brilliant complete rip-off is not going to be of any interest to long time fans who already own everything here anyway. To newcomers it offers a wealth of great music and is the pefect place to start an exploration of the band. If you love this you may well find yourself tracking down 15 year old B-Sides and wearing T-shirts with evil bears on before you know where you are. 1st album Pablo Honey is fairly average, but the others are all seminal. The Bends was britpop with an underbelly, OK Computer had to nerve to shake its fist at the entire universe. Kid A took manufacture and called it 'nasty', Amnesiac was so fantastically brutal I had to take a shower afterwards. Hail to the Thief was, surprisingly, really good fun, and the live mini-album is a great little peephole on the Radiohead live phenomenon (which is very different to the studio sound). So, this disgustingly insulting, completely devoid of artisitic merit, shameless, corporate pocketfiller of absolutely stunning music half of the world has already got is well worth buying. I'd recommend it to anyone, even if it is rubbish. It also has Bears on the box. Customer Rating: Summary: Radiohead without the Radiohead. Comment: In all likelihood, this is a release Radiohead don't want you to buy, so if you're that kind of fan, don't bother. Furthermore, if you already own all the albums, then don't bother. There is nothing extra or new here aside from some snazzy new artwork and a fancy box, so if that's what you're looking for, wander off now. Assuming Radiohead have another decade in them, this box set documents what may well eventually be known as their EMI Phase, six studio albums and one live mini-album (calling it the 'seven album box set' may be a bit misleading to those expecting In Rainbows to be included). The only way to sensibly review this is to go over it album by album - is actually worth buying this box set rather than getting the albums individually if you're a new fan? (spoiler alert: yes, yes it is). In the context of a world-eating superband like Radiohead, the less said about 1993's lukewarm Pablo Honey the better. The views of most fans have been blurred in context of Radiohead's hatred of their own mega-hit Creep and the towering success of their follow-up albums. It's not all bad; in fact, most bands would be proud of a debut including songs as good as 'Stop Whispering.' The Bends is where everything changed. The first of the band's holy triad, whilst 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)' never really made sense in context, The Bends is much more an album of stunning songs than it is a great album like OK Computer. But many of the songs beat out anything on Computer, even the lesser known '(nice dream)' or 'Black Star,' whilst straightforward compared to 'Paranoid Android' have an esoteric charm or in the latter's case, even a hook. OK Computer is, in this writer's opinion, the band's high-water mark. A conceptual album that was years ahead of its time then and still sounds like it, from the opening bells strings and guitar you know that something otherworldly is happening, a feeling that remains in Radiohead's music up to the present day. As with The Bends, coming back to this album ten years on you start to realise the beauty of the lesser known songs like the creepy 'Climbing Up The Walls' or almost Tarantino-esque 'Electioneering'. The three-years-in-the-making Kid A changed everything for Radiohead yet again, and for all its hype, lack of videos and number one status, it's an album that was never quite as good as the hype made you believe; especially compared to its two predecessors it doesn't quite measure up. This is not to say it isn't brilliant, as some of the band's finest songs are here - the squalling 'National Anthem,' the warm place that is 'Everything In Its Right Place' and the skittery agoraphobia of 'Idioteque'. Amnesiac is Kid A's slightly more rubbish brother to the extent of even having 'Morning Bell' rehashed. Unlike The Bends or OK Computer, it's an album where the best songs really are the ones you remember, the lush 'Pyramid Song,' the swirling 'Dollars And Cents.' I Might Be Wrong is a quasi-best-of in a live situation, taking some of the better songs from the prior two studio albums and making them into frosty epics. Many of the versions are interesting, if not better than their originals; a horn-less 'National Anthem,' a spasmodic 'Idioteque,' but it's 'Like Spinning Plates' - recorded backwards in the studio - all but solo Thom Yorke that really stands out. There's even a new song, 'True Love Waits,' which has yet to appear on any of the albums; a plucked acoustic number, it could so easily have appeared on the My Iron Lung EP thirteen years ago. Last but almost least is Hail To The Thief. Probably the most underrated albums in Radiohead's catalogue, it's far too long and finds the band mostly treading water in search of yet another 'new direction' to follow. Cut down, it could possibly equal Kid A with the lovely 'Sail To The Moon' or the divine 'There, There', an equal to anything on OK Computer. Taken as a whole, if you're new to Radiohead, this box set is an ideal purchase, covering the band's entire astonishing career up to this point. If you didn't know better, these could well be albums by five or six different bands, and it is that which makes this box set so essential to your collection (assuming you don't have them all already). Customer Rating: Summary: Very good Comment: Why can't people just review the product when they submit reviews to Amazon. Yes, the record company are cashing in, timing this with the release of In Rainbows, but as with all reviews, we should be telling people who don't own these items but are considering buying them whether or not it's worth their money. So amazon reviewers, please help people instead of using this review resource as a forum to show how much you know, or pretend you hate record companies when the only thing you choose to understand about them is that they exist to make cash. In my opinion, this is a very worthwhile purchase for those who are maybe beginning a CD collection - the strange/appealing thing about a Radiohead boxset is the sheer variety of styles encountered from album #1 (Pablo Honey) through to Hail to the Thief. Pablo honey and The Bends are certainly the most accessible and radio friendly records and tracks such as Creep and Just will jump out at you straight away. OK Computer follows on nicely from the Bends but shows arguably more ideas and substance and is a satisfyingly darker album. Their best tracks in my opinion (Lucky, Paranoid Android, Exit Music) are all on here. The 3 remaining albums (Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail to the Thief) are slightly less accessible and are definitely more experimental. Although I think the quality of these albums is average (though 70% of HTTT is absolutely superb - 2+2=5, sail to the moon, punch-up at a wedding, etc...), it is average in the best possible way - that is, at worst they will present an idea that doesn't quite come off (such as National Anthem - great live song and you can jump around to it, but hardly tuneful or melodic). Even at their least appealing, everything here is at least interesting, and if you keep the faith and allow the songs to grow on you, you'll admire them all the more. You and Whos Army is a classic slow-burner in my view - I went from despising it to being mesmerised by it! The live album, I Might Be Wrong, is excellent, with a completely different take of 'Like Spinning Plates'. If you don't own any of these but are mulling over buying this, it's definitely worth the price, and although few people would love everything on here (because of the fact that the styles vary so much), there is something for pretty much everyone. Customer Rating: Summary: The best music in the world in a shoddy, illconceived unapproved box set Comment: OK Computer. Let's have some facts! EMI haven't go the rights to the new Radiohead record "In rainbows", XL recordings have. EMI have always seen Radiohead as a Cash Cow, and are probably a bit annoyed that that particular gravy train has left the station. EMI are now owned by Terra Firma, who seem determined to turn rebellion into money. Bands now have to submit Business Plans, set budgets, and EMI are basically being run as a business. Therefore, when EMI refused to pay however it much it was for Radiohead's new album... Radiohead sold the rights to someone else. As any free agent has the right to. In some respects, "In Rainbows" is already a done deal. The hardcore will have the record ordered in super deluxe discbox format from their website. The casual will have downloaded it for 2p. It is only then, the internetless few who will go and buy the physical copy of the record from a traditional retailer. Though that is entirely irrelevant really : it merely explains why EMI have released the Radiohead Album Box Set : to spite the band that would not do its bidding even though it was under no obligation to do so. And... Contractual Obligation - what words are dirtier in the world of art than those? Therefore, EMI have repackaged the existing 25,000,000 selling catalogue in a fancy white box, added a sticker, given you a bargain price of approx £35 (somewhat cheaper than the similar Pink Floyd set), and offered a limited-edition web stream of a live concert for you to watch only if you buy the boxset! Yippee! To be honest, if you like Radiohead, you've got all the albums already. If you haven't got the albums this is a cheap and easy way to get the lot for a bargain price - though if you don't own them already you've probably been living under a rock or something. Musically let us not forget that these albums are some of the best music ever crafted : overall, an epic set of human emotions and intelligence set to driving, varied, and experimental music that never stops still, never fails to search for something new, never fails to touch the soul in some way. It's great music, and worthy of your attention. Where the box set falls short is in what it lacks : anything approaching care, detail, or completism are missing. You get the albums : and that's it. None of the hundred or so b-sides, no bonus tracks, none of the numerous EP's (such as "Itch", "My Iron Lung", "How Am I Driving?", "Com Lag"), no remixes or live material, basically - nothing but the albums. It's a shoddy way to deal a box set, but it's an easy way to generate cash for the EMI Shareholders, and if you don't have the Radiohead albums this is easily the best way to get hold of it. So 5/5 for the music, and 0/5 for the concept. Record companies have no qualms about exploiting the consumer - maybe it's time for us to exploit them. More Reviews