Album Description: 12 titles selected and commented in a 8-page booklet by David Bowie himself. ISelect is a David Bowie compilation CD with a collection of personal favourites compiled by Bowie himself . The compilation is notable for two reasons. First, Bowie avoided the usual greatest hits route and instead compiled a selection of favourite album tracks. The album contains only three singles (Life On Mars, Loving the Alien, and Time Will Crawl), of which only Life On Mars dates from his classic 1970's period. Secondly, it is the only release to contain the track "Some Are" which has been unavailable since the mid-1990's deletion of the 1991 edition of Bowie's 1977 album Low on which it was included as a bonus track.
Disc 1:
Life on Mars?
Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise)
Bewlay Brothers
Lady Grinning Soul
Win
Some Are
Teenage Wildlife
Repetition
Fantastic Voyage
Loving the Alien
Time Will Crawl [MM Remix]
Introduction by B. Mitchel Reed from KMET/Hang on to Yourself [Live]
iSELECTBOWIE iSelect by David Bowie I find myself playing this cd all the time. The selection of songs is fantastic.
Great for hardcore Bowie fans I already have every one of the songs from iSelect on other CDs. But this is an interesting glimpse into what Bowie thinks about his career and catalogue. His own liner notes are also interesting. For the hardcore Bowie fan, this is a must. For someone just wanting the "hits" get ChangesBowie or ChangesOneBowie and ChangesTwoBowie. This is not that collection. This is a diverse and eclectic collection of music spanning the career of one of the best artist/musicians in the history of rock.
New Take on Time Will Crawl For the most part, this collection is pretty useless. It's cool to have Bowie's take on what from his career stands out in his mind. But, if you're like me, you already own all these songs, including "Some Are," which has been available as a bonus track on the cd reissue of Low for years.
So, my rating of three stars is a mix of 5 stars (for the great songs) and 1 star (for the fact that this collections is rather unnecessary). There is one thing that really is noteworthy here, and that is the remake of "Time Will Crawl." I've always liked that song, and this new take is worth checking out. (It's available as an Amazon mp3 download.) It has live musicians instead of the synthesized stuff from the original version on Never Let Me Down. I don't know if it should be considered an improvement, but it does have a different feel, and I think it works well.
If you're looking at this collection as a possible introduction to Bowie's catalogue, I'd say you're better off elsewhere. The Best of Bowie or ChangesOneBowie are better options for an intro to this brilliant artist. Another good route to take would be to pick representative albums from his extremely varied career: Ziggy Stardust, Station to Station, Low, and Scary Monsters are all great places to start (as would be Heroes, Let's Dance, Hunky Dory, Young Americans ...) In other words, there's no shortage of amazing, classic albums by David Bowie. iSelect is more of a footnote.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
