The Journey 1978 - 2009

CD plays like new. Quick delivery

I’ve had his Auberge album for several years but I got this because it covers quite a lot of his best and well known songs.so it’s very good value.

Good music to listen

First of all, I was very happy with the seller. My order came within 2-3 days. No problems.Now, I’ll explain what I mean by my header. Earlier this year, I bought the compilation CD ‘New Light Through Old Windows’, along with ‘Dancing With Strangers’. By listening to the disks, I discovered that the two songs on both works (‘Windy Town’, and ‘Let’s Dance’ were different versions. Buying more original albums of Chris Rea made it clear that, aside from the two new songs on it, ‘‘New Light Through Old Windows’ is essentially a remix album! Also, for some odd reason, Chris has at made at least three examples of having two tracks of the same name! ‘All Summer Long’ isn’t on this set – but here we have ‘Texas’ (the 1983 song from the album ‘Water Sign’; not the 1989 single from ‘The Road To Hell’; and the seven minute (approx.) instrumental ‘Blue Street’ from ‘Five Guitars’ – not the track of the same name from ‘The Blue Jukebox’!As for the songs that have a second version on ‘New Light Through Old Windows’…, some of the date credits on the sleeve track listings inside ‘The Journey’ look wrong to me. On this compilation set we appear to have the original versions of ‘Let’s Dance’, ‘Josephine’, ‘Windy Town’, ‘Stainsby Girls’, and ‘Candles’ – and we seem to have the ‘New Light Through Old Windows’ versions of ‘I Can Hear Your Heartbeat’, ‘Shamrock Diaries’, and the over six minutes version of ‘On The Beach’ (here as CD1, Track 2) (the ‘On The Beach (Summer ’88)’ on Disc 2 is the UK single cut). As for ‘Fool…’ and ‘Ace Of Hearts’, I don’t know – as I’ve don’t have the original albums they’re from.So what’s ‘The Journey’ like? First of all, I chose this CD set, as it had a better mix of tracks than ‘Still So Far To Go’ Secondly, the sound production on this set is very good! However, my review is 4 stars rather than 5 because there are a few songs present that I would have preferred to have been replaced by some non-singles of my own choice (e.g. I would have dropped ‘You Can Go Your Own Way’ and the long version of ‘On The Beach – and added ‘Three Little Green Candles’ and ‘Deep Water’). I would have preferred the ‘New Light Through Old Windows’ versions of ‘Windy Town’ and ‘Let’s Dance’ too. Shame there’s nothing from the ‘Tennis’ album, either. But no official compilation is perfect…In short, this is one of the best, wide-ranging Chris Rea compilations out there. If you know and like his work, you will certainly enjoy this!

One can only wonder how big a star could Chris Rea have been had he wanted to be that person. Had a group written so many great songs and shared the onus of publicity they could have been as big as the Rolling Stones, if not as old. Chris though, respect him for this, was always the reluctant star and as such didn't court the press. Irrespective of that he is a hugely talented composer and performer. This all gets me round to saying: if you're a fan you should have this album of the hits but the versions before they were honed for final release. Wonderfully refreshing and unique to hear well known songs in slightly different guise. Ace of Hearts slightly slower but digitally remastered. Great great stuff and well worth the price. Chris Rea: superstar material from a well balanced man with his priorities firmly as he wants them: family first - hats off to a great man. Look forward to seeing him racing as soon as the lockdown is over.

Chris rea music brings back many memories - thank you

Absolutely brilliant cd

Every time I turned on the radio I kept hearing Chris Rea tracks and I felt I needed to hear more.OMG. I picked the best album ever. I can't remember when I last left a cd in the player for so long and kept pressing repeat.Saying that, OMG, both cds are as good as each other and let's face it, that rarely happens.I am so happy with my purchase and I looked at a lot of reviews for advice. So thank you all.