Ah, the Sixties! she says through rose-coloured glasses of misty nostalgia. In the early Eighties we had a bit of a 'thing' for the Sixties, which we regarded as some sort of Golden Age, little knowing that we were in fact living the Golden Age. Perhaps we were smart enough to know that time was needed to get some perspective on the Eighties.
Listening to this double CD, what really hits me is that although very many of the tunes are very nice - some very nice indeed - and in some cases the harmonies, there is nevertheless a samey-sameness about the soundworld. Everything seems perched towards the upper part of the range, little going on in the lower reaches of harmony, uninteresting percussion, and, in most cases lyrics that are banal. Generally music that is designed to offend no-one
Almost all the tracks are about being in love, or love ending, or love unrequited, and, as such, have formed a soundtrack to generations of lovers. But, actually, what do any of these songs actually say about the human condition, or about the feelings of really being in love - as opposed to infatuation?
That having been said, this 2-CD has been played hundreds and hundreds of times in the dozen or so years since I bought it. It includes a number of tracks that I doubt I could live without: I Only Want To Be With You; The Locomotion; You've Got Your Troubles; He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother, Nights in White Satin, Catch the Wind and A Whiter Shade of Pale.
And there are certain songs that are really exempt from all but the mildest most pedantic criticisma: House of the Rising Sun, You've Lost that Loving Feeling, You'll Never Walk Alone; and Good Vibrations
