Souvenir

Good value product

Please note- this is a review for the box set version of Souvenir.A fantastic box set celebrating 40 years of OMD. I've only really been interested in OMD since I bought their 'new' album History of Modern. I've since work my way backwards picking up the 3 albums from the 1990s and the 2 new albums that followed 'HOM'. Having owned a previous 16 track compilation 'the singles' I have been eagerly looking forward to a complete collection of all OMD singles. I was quick to preorder Souvenir and I am please to say that it meets my expectations.All 40 singles are included on the first 2 discs. All appear to be the correct single edits too which is great. It's actually really nice having all the singles together for the first time, especially for newer fans like me who may be unfamiliar with earlier releases and even old fans not familiar with OMD's output in the 2010s. I'm loving 'Genetic Engineering', a song I'm shamefully unfamiliar with and their new track 'Don't Go' which is brilliant.The 3rd CD is a big selling point for hardcore fans of the band as it contains unreleased demos and mixes of tracks that never quite made it to an album. Some tracks are only instrumental ideas, Rhythms and sounds, but there are also several complete songs on here including 'Liberator' which is really catchy.The other audio CDs are two live recordings. One from the Dazzle Ships era I believe and a Radio 2 recording the band did to promote The History of Modern album. Not the biggest fan of live CDs personally and I don't think there's anything special about either performance. At least they are from completely different eras. I would have preferred maybe 2 discs made up of B-sides or even a playlist of Andy and Paul's favourite non-single OMD tracks.Aside from the Rarities cd, the two DVDs are a must have. The first includes 2 live concerts and also the Crush movie which I'd never seen before. The Crush movie is basically a film documenting the band making the Crush album and even a behind the scenes look at some of the promo videos. Really interesting, especially for me having never listened to Crush. Watching this documentary has encouraged me to purchase Crush and also The Pacific Age too.The final DVD includes a selection of BBC performances. It's great seeing the back at various stages of their career performing of Top of The Pops. It's great that they have included alternative TOTP performances of songs too. Only criticism is that I wish they'd included their Jools Holland performance of Dresden too.The packaging is great. The outer box is great quality. Within the box there are three separate elements. A hardback book containing an brief overview of OMD, and details from Andy regarding the unreleased material featured in the boxset. My favourite aspect is the remaining pages that feature the artwork of all 40 singles. I've often appreciated the majority of OMD single covers and it's great seeing each of them getting their own glossy page here. Speaking of Artwork, the sleeve design of this boxset is another fine example. The design is sleek, precise and elegant.The 5 CDs are housed in a seperate cardboard gatefold, where they slide neatly into their own slots. It's here as well that you find several special edition art cards and a reproduction of a promotional poster for the Souvenir single. The DVDs have their own gatefold.All in all this is a fantastic boxset, a decent celebration of an often underrated band. I hope other bands are taking note of how to produce decent boxsets!

The CD versions of "Souvenir" are a 2-CD "best of" version (£10 or so - essential if you have a passing interest in the band or synth pop and don't own previous "best ofs") and as this lavish, and expensive, box set for the truly committed long term OMD fan. The box set includes:The 2-CD "best of" - 40 A-sides from 1979 -2019. There have been several previous "best of" compilations. Most focus on the 80s hey day. This covers all the singles in the band's career to date. I would only regard about 5 tracks from the Andy McCluskey solo OMD period as inessential. All the other 35 tracks are fantastic.Unreleased archives Vol 1: Exclusive to this box set. A bit disappointing. Track listings like "Organ Ditty" and "Flutey" suggest some are really very early works in progress albeit mixed by Paul Humphreys for this box set. An interesting insight into the creative process (as were the early versions of songs in the previous "Punishment of Luxury" box set") but it's not chock full of killer, but hitherto previously unreleased, songs.Live at the Mermaid Theatre 3/2/11 - a solid live set, if unremarkable given there are other live sets for this era availableLive at Hammersmith Odeon 10/5/83 - I really like this! From the original Dazzle Ships tour I think. It brings home what an inventive band they were despite the pop hits in the early 80s.Then, across 2 CDs you get a compilation of BBC TV appearances a gig from Sheffield City Hall in 1985 and one from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1981. Plus "Crush - the Movie" (the video of that LP). These are all great!There's a 10'x10" hardback book which includes a couple of essays (Paul Morley on the band and Andy McC on the unreleased stuff) and pics of the band though most is taken up with a review of the art work of every single. Personally I felt more could have been done with this tho as the band have recently released a long book of the band's oral history (based on numerous interviews with the band and fans) they presumably did not want much of a cross over with this product.Lastly there are 5 "art prints" - silver embossed on black 10x10 card - of images related to singles etc (not for me I am afraid) and a retro promotional poster for "Souvenir" the single (yay!)As a long time fan this is all pretty good. Nice to have a new detailed singles compy, but particularly nice to have the DVDs and the '83 concert. If you have enough love for OMD it's worth the money, but casual fans should stick with the 2 CD (or 3 LP) version of the singles set. I have dropped one star reflecting the bits of the package that didn't work for me or did not live up to expectation despite my fandom.

Fantastic songs of OMD hits,Omd is one of my greatest bands.Buy thus people

Great cd if u like omd

After seeing OMD in Let's Rock Wales and being really blown away by how amazing they were I bought this cd. It's amazing, I've had it on repeat for about a month now it's that good

Yes, this big box set comes with another greatest hits compilation and a new song which is good, but sounding a bit too much like the newer material - recycled. Hope OMD start to venture into some of their other sounds like the Junk Culture/Crush/Pacific Age era. The true highlight of this box set is the disk of unreleased material. I didn't have great expectations because I figured anything worth hearing would have already been released. That is very much not the case! It's interesting how these songs comes from a stretched period of time yet it all flows like it was just written for today. The song Liberator is the standout, however many of the unreleased tracks are catchy good tunes. Dumbbomb, Cut Me Down, and Dynamo Children are all exquisite! I'm sure I'll watch the DVD's at some point. Definitely nice to have the Crush Film on DVD. Very thrilled that my favorite band from high school are still with us today and active. Cheers to OMD!