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Not so much a review - just wondering if anyone else's set is missing the fifth disc containing additional music and interviews? Bizarrely, there doesn't appear to be room in the outer cardboard box to contain a fifth disc! Unless it's supposed to be tucked inside the fourth disc's individual packaging - in which case, where's the track listing?
VERY frustrating! I shall, of course, be returning it and hope to receive a COMPLETE replacement...!

I admit to being a great fan of Freddie and the boys, so I was a bit funny about Roger and Brian restarting something called Queen, but on the other hand I am really pleased that they decided to go back to touring.

This isn't "old" Queen in any real sense. Several of the tracks are naff to the point of being criminal (which "old" Queen album doesn't have a couple of those?). Its clear that the creative and writing talent has definitely moved on - Freddie and John wrote nearly all the big Queen hits and it shows. And you feel that Brian's hard rock influence has been watered down a little too much. Given the choice of more of this or a Brian May solo effort, I would probably pick Brian every time.

But after all that, if you take out the crud, this is a listenable and entertaining outing, and will stay on my mp3 player for some time.

I am gutted cos I have lost one of the CDs in this amazing double album. Even with one CD is is TOPS. My favorites are Lemar singing the Darkness Track, and James Blunt singing Lemar..... as I said Pure Gold!

the best Xmas cd on the market at present - but not as good as the red cover Best Christmas Album in the World Ever which came out in 1995ish. To be fair this one has virtually everything but misses several key tracks - Shakin Steven's Merry Christmas Everyone, The Pretenders 2000 Mile and the Wham version of Last Christmas. It would be in bad taste for me to complain that theres no Rock and Roll Christmas by Gary Glitter but there you go. Other than these exceptions it has everything.

Listen to anything remotely resembling pop music these days and you will always find a trace of the formulaic about it. If nothing else, the 21st century has refined pop music into something of a formulaic commodity. Mind you, there are some would argue Mickey Most was doing the same thing back in 1973...

Santogold's debut does contain some ambitions to meet some kind of blueprint. Upon first hearing I found it utterly generic - a record in search of a hit, if you like. The sound is clean and somewhat calculated.

Then after a few plays the thing reveals something of a little more substance. This may be slightly formulaic, ticking the electro-indie pop of "LES Girls" to the bouncy thrash pop of "Say Aha" or the elctro funk of "Creator" (which has a whiff of M.I.A.) about it. Suddely it starts to assert some individuality. Not something which instanly grabs you by the throat, yet turns out to be pretty satisfying.

This is a modern pop album, shifting through the genres gently morphing into some its interesting peers. After a few plays the record does reveal its better nature. Worth giving it the time to grow - not something we do in this modern age. This is one formula that is good.

I'm a longtime fan of Eva Cassidy's wonderful voice and style. I think I have all her albums and those albums provide a lot of the background music for my life. Her all-too-soon death took a marvelous talent from this world.

That said, though, I found this album a bit disappointing. I think that with every now-deceased beloved artist, there exists a file somewhere of recorded songs that were considered for earlier albums and put aside because they weren't quite good enough. Then, when the artist dies, there's a scramble to unearth these items and create an album from them. It doesn't always work: those songs were filed away for good reason.

And while I find this album enjoyable, that seems to be the case here. I don't find it nearly as good as her earlier offerings.

Got my copy two days ago and what can I say? Not one 'duff' track on the whole album! Andrews beautiful rendition of Claptons 'Tears In Heaven' is just so moving the way he sings it. An Abba track, a Lennon track and a Lloyd Webber track has just got to make this the best selling classical album of this year! I hope we get a Christmas album from this lad? Good luck Andrew!

Elbow have written and performed some of the best music this century (IMO). Beautiful ballads & catchy tunes,

Favourite Tracks: Fugitive Motel & Grace Under Pressure

Friendly Fires has to be one of the albums of the year. It's not been a great year for fresh stuff. Just roll out dreary old Oasis with the same old same old and then FF appear. It's not anything new but it is exciting for today. You can see that they love what they do. There are not any poor songs on the album so I'll have to discuss the outstanding ones. How about "Paris"? Forward thinking, future going to be great fun stuff! "On Board" fun. Right, forget all this reviewing stuff!! They are great songs that you will want to sing and dance to. End of! Go on, buy it!