The Admiralty Lights

Outstanding box set by Al Stewart that covers his career from the mid-60’s until the present.

This set is very well done everything is very high-quality and the music all remastered. I live at the Roxy album has been fully restored to the way it was originally released with five studio tracks and then the whole live album onto CDs. The price is steep for this set but is well worth the money. You’re paying like seven dollars a disc. 50 discontent set

Highly recommend this fabulous box set! Beautifully curated. Excellent value. An absolute treasure trove!

There are a lot of things that could be discussed here. I'm just going to ramble on for a bit. This is a beautiful set. So aesthetically pleasing with the amazing artwork and the thick glossy cover on the absolutely giant box. You can't lift it with one hand. It's bigger than any other box set I've had, and I've had lots of them. It's too big to fit on my bookshelf. It makes me happy to own such a thing of beauty that has so much happening.In addition to some posters and prints there are 2 books. One is a large hardcover coffee table book discussing Al's career and all of his albums (except 1 or 2!). There are lots of photos and the text is thorough and interesting. The 2nd book is a softcover book detailing everything about the cds that are in the set. Lots of great info in both books and nothing to complain about.The CDs are packed in attractive glossy cardboard picture sleeves that are stacked inside a foam base. I suppose that, with the large amount of cds included, that there is not a better way to do this. The good thing is that the discs are snug inside the box and won't bounce around in transit.The official CDs. What can I say? After Al hit his stride with Past, Present And Future he has had a consistently high level of quality throughout his career. Nothing disappointing. And every album seems to have at least 3 great tracks. Are you missing some of these? Some of the later ones have often been out of print so, unless you were very diligent, there could be some that are new to you. I already owned them all but I still didn't have the live promo release of the 1978 concert. I can't comment on whether these sound better than previous versions. They sound great to me. I will say that it is quite unusual to get such a bounty of Al at one time. I've been a fan since 1978. Basically after the early 80's Al would put out an album roughly every 4 years. So this is nice to have so much at one time.There are 8 cds of mostly officially unreleased rarities. I haven't listened to these yet and have been saving the best for last. If you are part of the Al internet community you will be familiar with some of these tracks. I may come back later and talk about these after I have listened.There are lots of live shows in this set. This is a mixed bag. Frankly I expected this aspect of the set to be a little better. There are quite a few early shows that have unimpressive sound and repetitive setlists. I listened to them once and, with the exception of a few tracks that I put in my itunes, I probably won't listen to them again. As they progress into the mid 70's - yes, these are soundboard recordings but they are not of the quality that you would get from a professionally done live album. As time goes on - 80's, 90's, 00's - the sound gets better. But so does the gap between recordings. 1980 - 1989! 1991 - 2006! That's a long time with nothing represented here. Why not cut back on a couple of the early shows and fill in some of the gaps from more recent tours (with Dave shows, see below)? But in the shows from 1980 onward the shows are quite excellent both in performance and sound quality. It is a treat to delve into these.Let's talk about this - WHAT ABOUT DAVE? Dave Nachmanoff is an excellent guitarist and backup vocalist. Dave showed up in the late 90's and told Al he knew all of his songs. Since the turn of the century he probably has played more shows with Al than any other musician. Dave's presence adds something to an Al show. I so much more enjoy the live recordings that he played on. IMO apart from Laurence Juber there is not a bigger contributor to Al's later day career than Dave Nachmanoff. In 2009 Al and Dave released a live album called Uncorked. Dave produced it. It is a major accomplishment from Dave that this exists. The song selection avoids all the hits - no cat passages to the border of Soho - and that is refreshing. The album is excellent (I prefer it over Rhymes In Rooms). So where's Dave in the box set? About nowhere. He's mentioned in the book very briefly a few times in passing as having played some shows with Al. He has a few tiny pictures. His story remains untold. None of his live shows are included. And, even though there are 3 other official live albums included in the box, Al and Dave's Uncorked is not there. Deleted, not even mentioned in passing in the book! The jury will disregard the very existence of both this artifact and Mr. Nachmanoff. I strenuously object!!Anyway, I still love the box set. It cost just over 400 dollars and that's really not all that much for all that you get here. I guess it just depends on how big of a fan you are. For me I find it to be a bargain.bobryan99 at hotmail dot com

Worth every penny! Al fans will be delight with the set. It is exceptional in every way. The live cds are beyond a dream. The book and program are big and beautiful with gorgeous photos. I’m thrilled and lucky to have it.

Have been a Rod Stewart fan for 60 years starting with Maggie May...oh wrong Stewart. 'Have enjoyed Al since the eanly70's. Nice to have everything all in one place. Box set is admittedly "pricey", but really worth it to a fan. Hope Al has more music in him and that he'll continue to share it with us.

This is the ultimate Al collection. Limited release, we won’t see some of this material any other way. Fantastic live cuts.

Phänomenale Zusammenstellung der kompletten Discographie über Jahrzehnte {inklusive phantastischen Beilagen…Fotos…Infos…usw}…des scharfsinnig-beobachtenden…sensiblen Künstlers | Musikers…nicht ganz günstig - doch mit 50 CD‘s in der perfekten…u doch liebevoll gestalteten Box…„unverzichtbar“…

Oui après des années de vache maigre , j ai découvert le Saint Grall .Coffret incroyable, même dans mes rêves les plus fous, je ne pouvais imaginer un objet aussi beau et un coffret avec autant de pépites.50 cd avec 18 lives et plusieurs morceaux jamais sortis. Comme un explorateur du 19ème, j ai trouvé le Grall. Chupacabra91

Al Stewart is a absolute genius this lovely box set has so much to offer all albums demos live etc it is absolutely worth every pennyExcellent

間違いなく、自宅のbox CDの中で最重量です。宅配の人に「重たいですよ〜」と言われましたが、同時発注したフォノイコライザーも入っていたので、さもありなん。映像集はありませんが、アルの音楽人生を網羅しています。まだ聴いてないのですが、内容は大体わかってます。分厚いブックレットのページが剥がれそうなのであまり広げられないのが残念です。僕の残りの人生はこのboxを咀嚼しながら生きていくことになるでしょう。全曲の歌詞が欲しかったけど、そこもかなり残念です。元々は歌詞を聴かせる人なのだと思いますが、「モダン・タイムス」から「24キャロッツ」あたりの、サウンドが厚くなった時期が人気の全盛期だったでしょう。彼ひとりの、初期からのライブCDが沢山このboxにありますが、全部聴くのは大変でした。バンド編成によるライブCDを数枚挟み、後期は昔、ウィングスに在籍していたローレンス・ジェパーと組んでアコースティックに還っていくあたりはなかなか感慨深い。1人と2人という違いはあるにせよ、初期とは異なる豊潤な音楽が楽しめますよ。デモ集は未だ未聴。ではまた。

Die Aufmachung ist erstmal sehr schön: Stabile Box, wirklich hervorragendes Buch, 50 CD's - zunächst eine beeindruckende Gesamtschau eines sympathischen Musikers.Nur - komplett ist diese Werkschau keineswegs. Es fehlen Titel, die anderswo schon zu hören waren (z.B. als Longversion auf Maxisingle). Und ob diese CD Ausgabe nun in Gänze remastered ist, möchte ich bezweifeln. Ich habe bereits sämtliche neu remasterten CD Neuausgaben mit Bonustiteln - die klingen mindestens genauso gut. Und mehr als die Hälfte der Live CDs haben vermutlich gar kein Remastering erlebt, denn sie klingen irklich richtig schlecht (was angesichts der frühen 70er Jahre durchaus verständlich ist. Bloß sind diese echt nur für totale Fans zu ertragen angesichts der Klangqualität.Bei Licht betrachtet enttäuscht die Gesamtausgabe - wenn man dann noch den aktuellen Mondpreis bedenkt, sind es zwar 50 CDS a 9 Euro (50 Euro für's Buch fmdürfte realistisch sein. Und wer braucht schon die Poster Gimmicks?Fazit: Admiralty Lights hat mehr Schatten als Licht und ist nur für eingefleischte Al Stewart Fans zu empfehlen. Alle anderen sollten sich einfach die günstigeren (gebrauchten) remasterten CDS mit den Bonustiteln holen. OK, die raren Stücke der Edition fehlen, aber die braucht der Normalo nicht wirklich. Ja, kann man kaufen- muss man aber nicht unbedingt haben. Spar dir lieber das Geld.Aus diesem Gründen habe ich meine Boxedition wieder zurückgesandt.