IN VOGUE

The first turn off from this Japan compilation is the cover, any Prog. rock collector would hate beeing cought with anything like this. More serious the problem with this album is the combination of tracks from the first japan albums, of which the third Quiet Life is very diffrent from the 2 first. The first two are New Wave/Rock albums of the period (late 70's) with no real connection to the deeper and darker Asian inspired Electronic music, that many fans like about Japan. Quiet Life is a transsition between the periods in Japan's music. In total that makes you sometimes feel you are listning to an album, from 2 diffrent groups. The good thing to say about this is that if you like the later japan, and have allready got Gentlemen Take Polaroids, Tin Drum, and the brilliant live album Oil on Canvas. This pretty much sums of the 3 early ones, which im sure especialy the Prog. listner wont love that much in 9 out of 10 cases. Another thing is that the CD got a track. European Son not released on the Studio albums.

Compilation is hard to rate in stars, but as nothing lower than 1 star, that where this goes. Not because i dont like Japan, but because this is not the way to discover them at their best.