From Queenpedia.com
Queen Productions never really seemed to get the whole "box set" thing right. There were brief flashes of brilliance: The Complete Works was an excellent start, and the Freddie Mercury Solo Collection has now set an unbelievably high standard of quality, packaging, and design for subsequent band releases. However, other attempts at box sets were either well-meaning attempts (Box of Trix) or just plain horrible (Ultimate Queen, The Singles Collection - Volume 1). The Crown Jewels falls somewhere in between those two categories: aimed at collectors (of course) who wanted the albums in remastered sound (while maintaining the integrity of the tracklist -- so, in other words, no bonus tracks), with deluxe packaging, informative liner notes, rare images, and faithful reproductions of the sleeves. Sounds attractive, right? Unfortunately, as with many of QPL's best-laid plans, what happened between conception and birth changed drastically. The "informative liner notes" turned into an overly congratulatory essay by, of all people, MTV VJ Matt Pinfield, and the "rare images" were common pictures to be found within the original albums. The deluxe packaging was a nice start, though there have been reports that the faux velvet-wrapped case would fall apart over time, and the hinge on the box was also iffy. The "faithful reproductions of the sleeves" was at least part true: the albums were presented in a mini-LP format (so, no jewel cases) and did indeed reproduce, albeit at a size 1/4 the original, the front, rear, and inner sleeves of the original LP releases. So break out those magnifying glasses if you want to even try to read the block of text on the rear sleeve of the debut album! (Happily, the text has been reproduced in the booklet.) Unfortunately, the front sleeves leave much to be desired, and, in the case of The Game, is downright grainy, blocky, and murky. The sound isn't all that different either: while a note claims that the sound was remastered by Peter Mew at Abbey Road Studios in 1998, it'd be difficult to ascertain any considerable difference between the 1991 reissues (or, if the listener was UK-based, who had to import it from the US, the 1993/1994 reissues). The errors prevalent on the 1991 Hollywood reissues (clipped-off beginnings and wrong track distinctions of several songs) have been fixed, but these are small justices. Still, the lack of bonus tracks might at first seem to be a detriment, but considering the only truly rare songs to have been released on Hollywood reissues of albums in this set were a retake of Keep Yourself Alive and the rare non-album tracks Mad The Swine and See What A Fool I've Been, the lack of the dance remixes are, depending on your own stance on them, a blessing or a disaster. However, $100 for a box set of 90 songs that's already readily available is by far too much to seriously consider plonking down, though one has to wonder why only the first eight studio releases were packaged? Wouldn't it have made sense to have done a companion box (maybe title it The Royal Family) of the remaining seven studio albums, plus a bonus disc of rarities? Apparently so, which is why QPL didn't do it. Contents
Credits
Additional info
Reviews
Sleeves
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
