The used CD/album store that I frequent doesn't seem to accept Hear Music (Starbucks) CDs as trade-ins. In a way, this isn't surprising as the sound quality on the early Hear releases was sub-par. On those Hear Music compilations - and there were a lot of them - the individual songs often sounded worse than they did on the original albums/CDs. In other words, remastering and improving the sound was not part of the equation.
Well, things have now changed and for the better. On January 3, 2009, Hear Music and Rhino released a new collection called This Is Us. This compilation has 17 tracks and the sound is superb. The sound is mid-range all the way through with just enough bass and a positive lack of any overly high-range sounds. The sound is quite comparable to that on the excellent The Definitive Collection series from Universal Music.
The content isn't bad, either. There are two tracks from the highly talented Aimee Mann, one from the early-electric period Bob Dylan, the best song written for the Byrds by their best-ever songwriter (Here Without You by the late Gene Clark), a Paul Simon favorite, Once from the film of the same name, and Guinnevere - a great early track by Crosby, Stills and Nash. Yes, this song sounds better here than on the recent CS&N first album re-release on Rhino.
There's also a fine track from David Gray who sounds like Van Morrison II, and Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris team up on the title song. The lyrics of This Is Us are a bit too close to Paul McCartney's That Was Me, but this track rocks in the style of Dire Straits.
Mark Geary's Ghosts sounds like Lindsey Buckingham, which is all good.
Sure, there are a few quibbles. The CD notes indicate that George Harrison's song, If Not for You, is a Bob Dylan cover. Not so, as Harrison and Dylan co-wrote the piece; thus, neither of their versions is a cover. She & Him's stripped down cover of You Really Got A Hold on Me is interesting and creatively performed but it sounds like it was recorded in a tin-can mini-van (it is definitely the track with the worst sound). The Constantines & Feist contribute an OK cover of Islands in the Stream, but the note writer doesn't realize that the songwriting attribution to Gibb-Gibb-Gibb equals a Bee Gees song.
We're also told that Shelby Lynne's I Only Want to Be With You, an exemplary cover of a Dusty Springfield song, is virtually equal to the original. Well no, as this is like saying that someone recorded an Elvis, Sinatra or Beatles track that's equal to or better than the original. Not gonna happen, as the first president Bush might have said on Saturday Night Live.
Finally, I could have done without the final track from Jennifer Warnes with Leonard Cohen. Oh, she sings fine and Cohen's lyrics are interesting but I've never "got" whatever it is we're supposed to get from the "deep" songwriter Cohen. Maybe it's because he recites rather than sings his lyrics. Or maybe it's the memory of what his album covers looked like.
All in all, this is a very good collection which provides a nice balance of old and new music (every listener will find something new here). In these recessionary times, paying $12.95 for 17 tracks is a pretty good bargain.
If you received a Starbucks coffee card for Christmas, use it to pick-up this CD and it will seem like you got it for free. Best served with a bold Starbucks brew.
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