GREATEST HITS... AND MORE

This double CD is a very suitable introduction to the world of 10CC. As the title says, the hits are there, but also a nice selection of album tracks and other music by the 10CC band members under various names (Godley & Creme, Wax, Graham Gouldman, etc). 10CC has a style of their own, sometimes reminiscent of early QUEEN at their most progressive, sometimes ZAPPA, sometimes hi-tech sleek pop ballads, and almost anything in between. A newcomer likely won't enjoy everything here, but as long as (s)he's not allergic to certain gimmickry and montypythonesque humorous aspect, with open ears (s)he might find a band worth investigating further.

The band's active years cover the majority of the seventies, but this compilation stretches back into the sixties and forward into the year 2006 with non-10CC material. Highlights include e.g. 'I'm Mandy, Fly me' and 'Don't Hang Up' (both from How Dare You!), 'Old Wild Men', 'I'm Not in Love' and longer, epic-like tracks 'Feel the Benefit' and 'Une Nuit a Paris'. An interesting deja vu -moment comes at the end of the second disc. I'm not referring to the sixties ballad 'A Groovy Kind of Love' which is perhaps best known as a syrupy Phil Collins rendition (and its writing credits were given to non-10CC guys if I remember right), but to the tracks 'No Milk Today' and 'Bus Stop'. After a while I remembered the sixties group HERMAN'S HERMITS as the original artist. Mr. Gouldman, the writer of the songs, has made new versions of them, not radically different except perhaps for higher production values. I was just wondering why this information was not given in the CD leaflet.

Well, the goodness of compilations always depend also on the way the contents are served to the listener, and sadly this one is quite bare. A short introductory essay and the information of source albums would have been useful. But musically a succesful package.