Search - Mc5 :: Anthology 1965 - 1971

Don't Waste Your Money !

Michael L. Schiller | Westland, Mi. United States | 05/07/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I purchased this title from a local record shop (In the suburbs or Detroit / Ann Arbor home of the MC5). Upon opening the box set I discovered the CD's were housed in clear flimsy plastic sleeves. It was similar to what a plastic bag is made from. The CD's were scratched up beyond belief. I have never seen anything quite so bad (as far as scratched up new CD's). It was so bad it looked like someone had taken sandpaper to the discs (I am not kidding). Fortunately my local record store (a great independent dealer not some national chain) treated me like a valuable customer and allowed me to exchange it for another of the same title. I chose to open this one in front of the store owner and it was a scratched up mess as well. He promptly refunded my purchase. The set itself looked quite impressive. There were two booklets, a sticker & a pin all housed in a really cool box. The graphics on all were first class. I cannot fathom why the manufactures would house such a great looking box set by such a legendary band in such a lousy manner. I own every MC5 release and I would love to have this added to my collection. But I just cannot accept paying for something that as a whole is just junky. It seems like the quality of products just get worse each year. It seems to me that recorded music (CD's) is getting so little attention by distributors. They are focusing so much on digital media (downloading of MP3's) that CD's are becoming dinosaurs (in the minds of record companies). This does not sit well with people that enjoy owning a "Hard Copy" of their music. Music is an art form that should be owned not a disposable commodity that you download and discard when you're tired of it. And honestly if you own all or most other MC5 releases, such as I do, is there anything here that you can't live without? Save your money and don't support this poorly packaged piece of junk. By the way I contacted the record label via email (from their website). It's been a few days and so far they have not answered my complaint about this item."

A worthy upgrade from "Babes in Arms"

William Honneus | Boston, MA | 08/22/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This collection renders the original MC5 compilation "Babes In Arms" obsolete as it contains all the tracks from that previous ROIR compilation in roughly the same sequence. However, the remastering on this collection greatly surpasses that done on the original ROIR CD release, which sounded like it was remastered directly from the original "Babes In Arms" 1983 cassette release. Here the tracks taken from "Back In The USA" and "High Time" are broader and have guitar bass and drums separated and balanced in the mix, whereas the mixes on "Babes In Arms" sounded flat and one-dimensional with all the instruments muddled together. The rare single tracks like "I Can Only Give You Everything" also have more definition here than on "Babes In Arms". This set also adds rare live tracks from 1965-66, unavailable elsewhere.



The packaging is a bit odd, and to be honest, they probably could have fit all 26 tracks onto one disk instead of two. But overall, this is a minor quibble. I did not face the same issue the previous reviewer commented on as the CDs I received were in fine shape. This is a set well worthy of purchase and a must have for MC5 fans who want the best tracks from "High Time" and "Back In The USA" without the filler of those albums, plus the rare live tracks."