Thomas Dolby - The Best of Thomas Dolby: Retrospectacle
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CD Details
Artist: Thomas DolbyBrand: Thomas
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1995-04-04
Music Label: Capitol
Soundtracks:
- Europa and the Pirate Twins
- Urges
- Leipzig
- Windpower
- Airwaves [7" Version]
- She Blinded Me With Science
- One of Our Submarines
- Screen Kiss
- Hyperactive!
- I Scare Myself
- Flat Earth
- Pulp Culture
- Budapest by Blimp
- Cruel
- Close But No Cigar
- I Love You Goodbye
Music reviews of The Best of Thomas Dolby: Retrospectacle
Music Review: Heard it in Dolby-vision
Rating: 4 Stars
Thomas Dolby rarely gets the credit he deserves. As a session man for everyone from Lene Lovich to Foreigner, to production chops with Joni Mitchell and Prefab Sprout, even scoring movies like "Howard The Duck" and "Gothic," he is the literal Tom-of-all-Trades. But most important to his legacy is the incredible music he recorded as a solo pop-singer. "Retrospectacle" (a sly poke at his wire-rim glasses) covers the ground admirably.
While it is obvious that Dolby became best known for his quirky songs and videos ("Hyperactive" and "She Blinded Me With Science"), he had an intelligence and wit that only came through on his full length albums. The atmospheric "Airwaves" is pure synth heaven, while "Screen Kiss" (from the brilliant "The Flat Earth" album) is wide screen nirvana. If you played "Screen Kiss" or "I Love You, Goodbye" (the best song from "Astronauts and Heretics") next to "Science," you'd be hard pressed to say it was the same gentleman on the song. Dolby was really that diverse.
This does fall short of perfect for a few reasons. I would have preferred to not have single edits ("Science" and "Airwaves") and I have no real love for "Astronauts and Heretics," from which three songs are lifted. "Close But No Cigar" could have easily been bumped for "Airhead" or "Keys To Your Ferrari." On the positive side, "Urges" and "Leipzig" from the original "Golden Age Of Wireless" vinyl release show up here.
To that end, I will continue to wait for a deluxe version of "Wireless" and pray that his other three pop albums finally get a remaster. Until then, if you're in need of a quick fix of "Science," then "Retrospectacle" will give you that moment of shining brilliance plus the songs that will help you recognize that Thomas Dolby is a pioneer.
Description of The Best of Thomas Dolby: Retrospectacle
Though he first arrived in the early '80s amid a wave of MTV-ready British electro-pop acts, Dolby had deep ties to the singer-songwriter tradition which gives his work a resonance that's kept his records sounding fresh. Despite his colorfully eccentric science-nerd image, Dolby quickly established himself as an artist of substance, with a bittersweet, introspective lyrical sensibility that set him apart from most of his video-friendly contemporaries. That didn't stop him from scoring his breakthrough hit with the wacky "She Blinded Me with Science," whose frenetic charm remains intact a decade and a half later. The 16-song Retrospectacle is a fine sampler of Dolby's '80s work, compiling such evocative numbers as "Europa and the Pirate Twins," "Airwaves," "One of Our Submarines," and the charmingly unhinged "Hyperactive!" --Scott SchinderNew Wave CDs
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