The Animals - Retrospective

The 22 tracks on Retrospective deftly chronicle the best years of the Animals, who were far and away the grittiest band in the British Invasion of the mid-1960s. Eric Burdon's magnificently raw vocals and the stabbing chords of Alan Price's Vox Continental organ gave their covers of American blues and R&B classic such as Sam Cooke's "Bring it on Home" and John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom" an authenticity that no other British groups could match. Their rough sound also gave songs like "Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and "We've Got to Get of This Place" a real sense of rage and menace. By 1967 Burdon was the only remaining original member and he formed a new band that eschewed the blues and R&B of his early years in Newcastle in favor of a psychedelic, San Francisco-influenced sound. Songs like "When I Was Young" showed he had a real gift for the type of personal songwriting that was becoming popular in the late 1960s while the lyrically obscure "San Franciscan Nights" and "Sky Pilot" suggested he spent too much time hanging out with hippies. Even when they stumbled, the Animals were interesting, and when they hit the mark, they were as good as any band from the British Invasion. --Michael John Simmons Amazon.com

Be careful... SACD layer is gone!

The album "Restrospective" is NOT an SACD anymore! However the mfr Abkco has tried to "hide" that fact by not changing the cover and/or even the Part Number from when it WAS an SACD. As many know, record companies have spent large $$$ to remaster records for SACD high-def format, which was introduced around 2002. Unfortunately, due to slow sales they are no longer promoting this format, and Abkco took the dis-ingenuous step of deleting the SACD-layer from this formally Hybrid disc after just one year. Since about 2005, when you buy this (as well as Abkco's Stones discs) all you'll get is CD layer, as they've downgraded these products without telling buyers. A bad business practice for sure! Last, this record IS remastered so its CD sound is probably better than other Animals discs, but don't expect SACD (for that you need to find one produced from 2004-2005 on Ebay perhaps). July 4, 2008

excellent

I have always been aware of the Animals, but did not know too much about them except for the great singles. This CD showcases that they were a great band that did not get a chance to really shine. The hybrid SACD sound is smooth and delicious. June 29, 2008

the ANIMALS Retrospective

If you are or ever were a big fan of the Animals, this is your album. If you just remember them from some of their more memorable hits and want to hear more, this is the album to have. It contains just about every single thing they did of note. I won't comment on the quality of the performances because everyone should have heard them countless times before.

What makes this rendition of their greatest hits very special is the recording format. Each selection has been remastered into DSD. That's Direct-Stream Digital and the basis for Sony's SACD, Super Audio Compact Disc, which is one of the best high resolution recording formats in current use. So even if your CD player doesn't have the ability to recognize this format, this album is going to sound noticeably better than the standard PCM, Pulse-Code Modulation, in most cases. PCM at its' best can certainly rival SACD but this album was thoughtfully remastered to the level that you may never hear the Animals sounding this good unless you're a strick vinylphile which is another argument entirely. So based on the content and quality of sound reproduction, this retrospective comes highly reccomended. June 27, 2008

The Animals Retrospective

If you really liked the Animals then you'll love this cd. There's plenty of great songs and some you forgot they did. They really take you back in time. April 21, 2008

Love the CD

CD is great. Exactly what we were looking for. My 7yr old is learning "house of the rising sun" on guitar so we bought this to share the entire song with her. She loves the whole CD! April 14, 2008

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