Search - Matt Bianco :: Collection-B.O.

Greatest Hits. With a Twist.

Dirk Pilat | New Zealand | 10/26/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In 1998 Matt Bianco were looking back on 15 years of recording history and thought it was about time to release a compilation of their best loved tracks. The only problem when your occupying such a small niche in the music business with such a small body of fans (some would call them elitist), is that everybody already has all your albums and there is really not an incentive to buy an album with tracks you already own.



Just being back from another tour, they had an idea: Why not record our best loved songs with our tour band lineup, so the fans who have never seen us live can get an idea on how we sound live? Recording live is an expensive business, and as Matt Bianco produce their records themselves, a cheaper alternative had to be found: They dug out the arrangements for the live shows, got the musicians together, recorded the tracks in Mark Fisher's studio "the Fishbowl" and voila: one (almost) live album.



The result is quite delicious, as the rerecorded tracks are beautifully arranged and the musicians sparkle. Tracks like Dancing in the Street and More than I can bear benefit from the transition to mainly acoustic instruments and Mark Reilly's voice sounds quite mature and croony."