Rare Masters

by

Elton John

Edit

I understand that apparently most (all?) of the rarities on this box set are available on the newly-remastered individual albums as bonuses. But even if that's true, who cares? The fact that the soundtrack to "Friends" has been re-released in ANY form is worth the price of admission in itself, as it is quite simply the loveliest soundtrack work Elton has ever done (forget "The Lion King"!), weaving light rock/pop and orchestrations into a distinctive whole of hippie innocence. As wonderful as this all is, there is one complaint I have--one which annoys me to no end and the only thing that keeps me from awarding this set five stars. The song sequence of the "Friends" soundtrack, for some weird reason, has been slightly juggled. Why, I don't know, as I can't think of any good reason for it. But this means that those of us who adored the vinyl version of it first won't be able to listen to it in the same order that was on our old records. Some probably won't notice this, but I found it annoying because I loved the original song sequence exactly as it was. I've actually gone through the trouble of using my CD-burner to make a backup of my own "Friends" CD with the songs in their original sequence. The box is otherwise perfect and the songs magnificent throughout, but be prepared to have to do at least some track-play programming every time you insert the CD if you want to hear "Friends" the same way you did all those tender years ago.