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Bruce Hornsby & the Range - The Way It Is Audio CD

A fair review of the Bruce Hornsby & the Range "The Way It Is" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Bruce Hornsby & the Range reviews here, or go back to the Bruce Hornsby & the Range tabs.

Bruce Hornsby & the Range Band: Bruce Hornsby & the Range
Title: The Way It Is
Rating:
Release Date: 1992-11-24
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: On the Western Skyline 2: Every Little Kiss 3: Mandolin Rain 4: Long Race 5: Way It Is 6: Down the Road Tonight 7: Wild Frontier 8: River Runs Low 9: Red Plains

Hornsby's Best Album But A Disappointing MLPS Offering!


BMG Japan would do well to learn from Epic records though as Epic know what good quality mini-lp replica sleeve (mlps) design means. This album was one of my favourites from the late 80s and it helped ease me through a difficult time in my life; I turned to music to help ride out this period and this was one of the albums that I listened to providing me with bittersweet memories of the period even today. The mlps designs they executed for the recent Michael Jackson albums "Off the Wall", "Bad", etc and Men At Work's "Cargo" are fantastic and are good examples of what great mlps designs are supposed to be. They did the same great work for Billy Joel's "Innocent Man" as well as for REO Speedwagon's "Hi Infidelity. " Instead, we get a very shabby mlps treatment for one of my favourite ever albums. The design is pathetic coming in thin cardboard haphazardly assembled looking like something a kid in kindergarten would do on a typical school day. Once the glue gets old this baby will come apart and in fact gaps are already beginning to show on my copy. Included is a 16-page booklet that contains all the lyrics in both English and Japanese. Curiously a cardboard square showing the front and back of the vinyl cover that we are more familiar with i. e. the band in front and a lone truck crossing a long bridge on the back is included as the main cover is an unfamiliar one to me with a surrealistic picture of a guy playing an accordian. The sound quality is good but not great though and so any alleged remastering done has not improved the original sound quality a great deal. The great news is that every track still sounds very good and have aged very well. No fillers here at all and like any classic album has to be heard in its entirety at one sitting. The whole album has a nice flow to it with a perfect track order beginning with "On The Western Skyline" and ending with "The Red Plains" - the ideal opening and closing tunes - with the big hit "The Way It Is" right smack in the middle as it should be.

The bonus tracks are:

1. The Way It Is (Live) - excellent almost classical piano (unplugged) version of the classic track; in some ways even better than the original!
2. Mandolin Rain (Live) - great rendition

My favourite track of all and I feel the most interesting and has aged the best for me is "The Long Race. " The whole album has a nice unique sound to it and never fails to tug at the hearstrings each time I hear it. Only REM's "Automatic For the People" has a similar effect on me. Both have their own special vibe which is impossible to describe and which can only be listened to to be experienced and understood.

Overall, if you already have this cd in the jewel case version, given the poor mlps design I cannot recommend an "upgrade" to this expensive version and you are better off staying with the cd you already have.
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You can see a complete list of all Bruce Hornsby & the Range discography, or go back to the Bruce Hornsby & the Range tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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