Product Description

Named in reference to the number of years spent in the music business, 'Twenty Five' chronicles the career of one of Britain's most popular, yet controversial artists. From early Wham tracks such as 'Wake Me Up Before You Go Go' and 'Last Christmas' to more recent favourites, including 'Jesus To A Child' and 'Outside', 'Twenty Five' also includes previouslyunreleased duets with Paul McCartney and ex-Sugababe Mutya.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Everything She Wants
2. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
3. Freedom
4. Faith
5. Too Funky
6. Fastlove
7. Freedom ‘90
8. Spinning the Wheel
9. Outside
10. As (with Mary J. Blige)
11. Freeek!
12. Shoot The Dog
13. Amazing
14. Flawless (Radio Edition)
15. An Easier Affair

Disc 2:

1. Careless Whisper
2. Last Christmas
3. A Different Corner
4. Father Figure
5. One More Try
6. Praying For Time
7. Heal The Pain (with Sir Paul McCartney)
8. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (with Sir Elton John)
9. Jesus To A Child
10. Older
11. Round Here
12. You Have Been Loved
13. John and Elvis Are Dead
14. This Is Not Real Love (with Mutya)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7911 in Music
• Released on: 2006-11-13
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.co.uk Review
The last quarter-century has been nothing if not colourful for George Michael. But through all the controversy -- the high-profile arrests and audacious videos, the fall-outs and band splits - he has emerged intact as a vital figure on the global pop scene - a fact compounded by his current 25 Live tour and this accompanying Greatest Hits package. Twenty Five is the fourth such collection in Michael's career, though it carries the obvious advantage of being more up to date than 1998's lauded Ladies & Gentlemen and features not only solo material but music from the early Wham! days. As such, it's the most comprehensive anthology yet, featuring upbeat Wham! classics like "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" and "Freedom" amidst sombre solo material like "Praying For Time" and "Jesus To A Child". Spread across two discs (29 songs in total), the collection not only includes a host of evergreen classics but also recent singles "An Easier Affair" and "This Is Not Real Love" (with former Sugababe Mutya Buena) and two unreleased tracks. There are some notable absences from the collection - "I Want Your Sex" and "Kissing A Fool" are two glaring omissions - but it still remains the most comprehensive survey of the artist's legacy to date. --Danny McKenna

Customer Reviews

NOT MY USUAL SCENE
It is well over twenty years since I first heard Careless Whisper. My children were playing a tape of it during a long car journey, and it caught my attention and has haunted my recollection ever since. My own musical home ground is classical, and I have never followed the charts to any great extent. However music to me is just music, its effect is unpredictable and irrational, and there is never any mistaking the unaccountable thrill that some music can give me, whatever category of music it supposedly belongs in.

This set has just been given to me as a birthday present by one of the children, who are now of course adults. The idea is apparently to take me out of my classical comfort zone, but if one thing has consistently struck me in half a century of hearing pop music it is just how conservative it is in certain ways. The harmonisation would in general have seemed unenterprising to composers in the year 1700, yet this is the kind of music that millions really listen to and are really affected by. From this I have to draw the conclusion that a simple harmony that lasts unaltered through untold numbers of changes of musical fashion, style and idiom can hardly be thought of as outmoded, whatever the earnest intellectual theories of the 20th century.

George Michael has apparently composed most of the music here himself, and I certainly seem to detect a resemblance in the style of many of the numbers. Unsurprisingly, I like some of them better than some others, and still none matches up to Careless Whisper for me. Bottom of the charts for me is the joint number with Elton John `Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me', I have to say. However something that does a lot for even the items that interest me less from a musical viewpoint is George Michael's voice. This is really most striking and distinctive in its higher register, a fine tenor sound that will continue to keep me listening to songs that would not hold my attention otherwise.

Whether I was in that much of a musical comfort zone I rather doubt, but the matter is not for me to judge. I am not at all comfortable with some 20th century `classical' music and I am rarely uncomfortable with the pops, even if only intermittently interested. This set is going to be chiefly background music for me, I'm sure, but it's mainly new music to me at the moment. I'm not shaken in the least although I genuinely am stirred up to a point. Why should that be otherwise? It's music innit?

Excellent
Although I own all George material including his ladies & gentleman, I still rate this as a must for any REAL George fan. It's great to mix a little WHAM! along side George's solo music. Wake me up isn't a great great song, but it serves it's purpose as a "happy, get your feet moving" kind of song. You can guarantee this will get all people dancing at any party/disco. Everything she wants is always a bonus for me as it's my fav WHAM! song, and it never fails to hit the right spot. I love what he's done with this compilation. A great version of Heal the pain with Sir Paul MCartney & of course he's lovely new single with Mutya. If you're a REAL George Michael fan, buy it. If you're not, then I think Ladies & Gentleman would be a good buy as it does have all his greatest music. Overall, I think anyone thats interested in his music, would benefit from this compilation.

Poor Effort from an Amazing Artist
I have to say I am a huge George Michael fan, and this collection is a major disapointment. All the hackneyed, obvious choices are here but there is no deeper dive into lesser heard/tired or more interesting material. I'm not sure how I Want Your Sex/Part 1 could have been omitted, nor I Knew You Were Waiting nor better Wham! songs like Club Tropicana or the cover of the BeeJees Jive Talkin' (rather than the exhausted Wake Me Up or Last Christmas). The Paul MacCartney duet/redo of Heal The Pain is beyond SHAMBOLIC, and someone got nervous about the expletive F*%! in the chorus to Flawless/Go to the City and dubbed it out rather than re-editing properly in the studio. Appaling. His lack of connection to the project is further evidenced by the total lack of liner notes. The only saving graces are An Easier Affair, and on the 3CD version, the track Understand which is a keeper. Otherwise, skip-it, and listen instead to Patience, or Older, or anything but this. Or make your own GM Truly the Best Of mix as I will once I post this rambling review!