The unreleased track, “Two Shades of Blue,” was recorded during the sessions for When We Were the New Boys, Stewart’s last album with Warner Brothers, and is a languishing ballad that samples the St. Petersburg Orchestra. It’s an interesting track, and probably should have been included on When We Were the New Boys, which only ended up with one Stewart original on it.
The DVD included with the deluxe version contains 14 music videos spanning Stewart’s career. Five of the songs are not on the CDs, but none of these make much of an impression. The music videos show their age, and just like the music, there has been no attempt to remaster the videos, ensuring poor quality for most of them. Several of the videos look like a VHS recording somebody taped from their television – you might as well look these videos up on YouTube. It’s hard to imagine anyone doing much with the DVD after taking one look at it.
The Definitive Rod Stewart is an entirely non-essential release, although there’s nothing to complain about with the song selection. For those looking to start or fill out a Rod Stewart collection, it’s a good choice, but the deluxe version with the DVD is hardly worth it. Save a couple bucks, and just buy the standard version.
Article comments
1 - Foreverirish
Good review. I think it is non-essential but it seems to be a standard process for a record company to relase some sort of compilation before an onslaught of remastered releases, which Warner Bros. plans for 2009 of many of Rod's albums from 1975 to 2001.
As for the new track "Two Shades of Blue," it clearly wasn't finished. Many of the lyrics are untelligible because he was making it up as he went. Too bad--could have been a killer track.
2 - Evan
happy valentines day Rod Stewart fans
3 - Evan
when people pick music to listen to its Rod Stewart
4 - Evan
i will talk about Rod Stewart but not all the time