[.ca] Best of

Chronique amazon.fr:
Parue au milieu des années 80, qui verront l'apogée du rock californien (cuivres omniprésents, harmonies vocales au cordeau, mélodies léchées), cette compilation témoigne d'une époque en or, marquée par un hédonisme omniprésent. A l'écoute des duos "Yah Mo Be There" (avec James Ingram) et "On My Own" (avec Patti LaBelle) ou du tube "Sweet Freedom", on serait tenté d'y croire, porté par le lecteur CD qui distille au fil des kilomètres la voix suave de l'ex-choriste de Steely Dan. Retour à la réalité : nos autoroutes sont bien moins belles (et bien plus stressantes) que les highways californiens. Raison de plus pour rêver sur "Our Love", ici en version remixée. --Pierre-Marie Dufour

mm is a handsome man, and so is his music:
Amazon.com allows you to pre-order MM's upcoming greatest hits album (title'The Very Best...'), though the release date is said to be 1/1/10. If you can't wait ten years I recommend you consider this import greatest hits album. It is quite expensive by comparison but please note the one track absent from the upcoming album that is on Sweet Freedom, namely 'What a Fool Believes' with the Doobies. This is a grave omission as it is one of his finest songs. Get this album, and also pick up Christopher Cross' self-title album which include background vocals on a couple of the tracks. MM helped define an awesome early 80's sound that will no doubt come back into vogue in the 2010's.

former Doobie puts out a doozie...:
A collection of songs that won't go away from a man that refuses to hang it up. Known for bringing cacophonous, high-pitched whines to the Doobie Brothers' sound, McDonald then dropped a few octaves and hit the 80s bad movie soundtrack scene. It's hard to find any kind of ascent or plateau in the quality of his work, he always seems to be sliding downhill head-first, grasping at every gimmick branch that comes his way. "Sweet Freedom" overstayed it's welcome in the 80s, and Michael McDonald is overstaying his welcome in the light rock industry. "On My Own" is right--you are all by yourself, Michael, at the very bottom of the festering heap of has-been light rockers the decades have forgotten. The lone benefit of this recording is that you can now have all of his "hits" conveniently packaged for easy burning or stomping. This is coaster material folks, nothing more...

The price is steep, but.....:
Boy, is it ever worth it! This collection is SO much better than the newly released collection by Rhino. After I finally got sick of waiting for the Rhino CD to come out, I gave up one day and bought this album. I had seen it many times before, but I held back 'cause of the price. Not any longer. This is the best compilation that this extyremely talented musician could've released. I knew many of the hits and I was pleasantly surprised by the cuts I was unfamiliar with. Every one is just terrific! Your collection definately needs this one ;)

That voice:
Mike McDonald was too big to be just a backing singer -- even on Steely Dan's classic KATY LIED -- and too much of a keyboardsman to survive for long in the guitar-centred Doobie Brothers. It was inevitable that with his strong songwriting abilities, he would end up in a solo career. The tragedy for Mike was that his solo career happened in the 1980s, which was a terrible decade for synthesized drum and keyboard sounds. So many artist retrospectives have been ruined by the Yamaha DX7 and Simmons drum tones that dominated that era and now sound very dated. Mike McDonald recorded some magnificent singles -- so good that they soar above any dubious-sounding keyboard backing. The stand-out tracks here are the sublime duet 'On My Own', co-written by Bayer Sager and the demi-god, Bacharach, 'I Keep Forgetting', and the Quincy Jones team's 'Yah Mo B There'. These three tracks on their own justify the price of this, or any other collection. It is extraordinary that the US has never issued its own compilation of McDonald recordings. His many fans have had to rely on expertly remastered imports such as this.

Shine Sweet Freedom, shine your light on me!:
Thus begins this excellent solo hits compilation for Michael McDonald, whom, for some reason, I always thought was English. As it turns out, he's from St. Louis, Missouri. Anyway, the former Doobie Brother has managed to create and maintain a really great selection of great music tracks that have been radio staples for quite a while. However, as some people might not be aware of, this collection is way back from 1986, which means Michael's late '80's and '90's material are absent. And I do certainly hope that eventually there is a second CD which chronicles those songs, as I know that I've heard them before, whatever they're called. Anyway, the songs I really like from this collection are the title track "Sweet Freedom", "(I'll Be Your) Angel", my absolute favorite "Yah Mo B There" with James Ingram, who is an excellent soulful singer in his own right, I remember another song of his, "I Don't Have The Heart". I also like "I Keep Forgettin'", "On My Own" with Patti LaBelle, a good female soul singer, "No Lookin' Back", and the late '70's Doobie Brothers hit "What A Fool Believes", which Kenny Loggins co-wrote with McDonald. All in all, a great collection. And hey there, "Mistermaxx", I see that you and I still continue to have a greatly similar taste in music, I hope you're doing all right. Keep up the good work, by the way. Like I said, I hope that there will eventually be another CD that includes the rest of McDonald's radio hits. Who knows, maybe later. Bye now!

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