David Bowie – Brilliant Adventure [1992-2001]

Anyone wanna sell the BBC Radio Theatre live 2000 CD or LP to me? I have the original cd release of this with the Bowie at the beeb release years ago and I love it, but I'd love this new full version of the show!

Anyone wanna sell the BBC Radio Theatre live 2000 CD or LP to me? I have the original cd release of this with the Bowie at the beeb release years ago and I love it, but I'd love this new full version of the show!

regarding sound, i can’t complain. these records have never sounded better.

regarding artistic quality this is all over the place. as a general grade i’d give it a 7.7. it goes from the head-scratching black tie white noise, to the underrated and unfairly overlooked buddha of suburbia ost. then it reaches a high point with outside and earthling, imho his best output of the 90s. then it sinks to a low with hours, the bottom of his career, if you ask me. this box set definitely didn’t make me reconsider my opinion. but the absolute highlight is the complete version of the bbc theater. what a show that must have been, great band, bowie’s in full vocal form (this performance of absolute beginners is the best one there is). toy was a surprise. i had no expectations of it, and yet, as a whole it flows as good as any of his 70s output.

if you’re a diehard fan and you still haven’t got this, you’re missing out on some nice stuff. buy it now that it is cheaper than when it first came out.

bro thinks I am paying as much money for cd's as the vinyl release

Great sound on every record and beautiful packaging.Could do without some of the tracks on the Re:call collection though.Why have a single edit cut when you already have the album version?

I don't own any of the other Bowie box sets, so I can't compare this one to them. However, what I can say is that the presentation is perfect and the included albums all sound phenomenal. While there are a couple of albums in here I probably won't revisit for a while, the sound quality of them all is fantastic. One of my favorite box sets in my collection.

Of the BBC Radio London vinyl set, I have disc 3 twice and no disc 1 - anyone had the opposite problem and need to swap?

This review will be split up into sections, as a result of how much stuff is included.

· The Box
The box is extremely high quality and sturdy, and it has a very nice texture to it. Clearly they didn't skimp out on the box, which is good considering the price.

· Black Tie White Noise
Really, really damn good sound overall - except during Don't Let Me Down and Down, which unfortunately has some distortion towards the end of the song. Everything else is fantastic though. 9/10

· The Buddha of Suburbia
Super, super fantastic sounding. I was originally led to believe the crackles were unintentional, however knowing that they were always in those songs (Buddha of Suburbia isn't one of my most listened to Bowies) I can safely say this is a flawless pressing. Bravo! 10/10

· 1. Outside
Surprisingly, despite each side being filled with content, I noticed no distortion whatsoever! Probably helps that it had already been reissued in this arrangement in the mid-2010s, but I'm still surprised by it. Sounds fantastic! 10/10

· Earthling
This is probably my favorite album of this bunch. Interestingly, this is the only album here that didn't come with polylined sleeves, probably because they wouldn't fit inside. It might be my bias for this album, but this was definitely my favorite pressing of the whole collection. Super rich and dynamic, really lets the drum'n'bass production shine. 10/10

· 'hours...'
Probably my least favorite album of this set, it seems that the creators of this box set didn't care too much for it either, as they squeezed all 47 minutes onto one record, and neglected a typo in the liner notes in the book (more on that later). This is also the only one here to have a gatefold, which I find odd since it's just one disc.
As a result, the overall sound isn't as good as it would be if it were split into 4 sides, sounding pretty damn compressed ESPECIALLY on Side 2. Not a big fan of this one, sadly, although the songs that sound good are really good. 7/10

· BBC Radio Theatre, London, June 27, 2000
Being the first full official release of this set, adding in live recordings of The London Boys, I Dig Everything, All The Young Dudes, Starman and "Heroes" (the latter three never having any kind of release, be it on an album or on YouTube, until now), the sound of these 3 records fits the significance. It's also a LOT louder than almost everything else here, so turn down your setup by about 4 or 5 before you listen. The sound, otherwise, is amazing. Such a rich display, it literally feels as if Bowie and his band are playing inside your house. Starman and "Heroes" especially are stellar here, and it's insane how these weren't included in the original release. 10/10

· Toy
The legendary lost album, Bowie's Toy released here first with a... terrifying cover art (It's really pixellated too, especially noticable on the vinyl cover). The actual album itself, however, is pretty good! Thankfully, the pressing quality reflects this, as it sounds very clear for the most part. More noticable sibilance here since there's a lot of vocal preference here, but it's not bad at all. Unfortunately, and particularly egregiously, my copy has a skip right at the beginning of Baby Loves That Way, and it's not one I can just buff out. Thankfully, it's only during the intro, but it still sucks considering how much money I paid for this. Oh well... 8/10

· RE:CALL 5
Apparently the fifth in a series spanning all of the box sets, this is primarily a collection of B-Sides, bonus tracks, alternate versions, or foreign language versions of tracks. LOTS of content here, and thankfully the records sound great. About the same quality as the majority of the rest of the discs featured here, and is a great addendum to this collection. The cover got slightly janked up as a result of being packaged in there for so long, but it's nothing major. 9/10

· The Book
My favorite section was the track-by-track breakdown of Earthling, by co-producers Reeves Gabrels and Mark Plati. Seeing the process that goes into the drum 'n' bass production is fascinating, and was the most illuminating section for me, especially as a big fan of Earthling. The section on Toy is similarly great, and the rest of the interviews, while not as in-depth, add additional context to the albums that's very needed. The added newspaper articles are fun reads, especially considering when they were written. The included photos of memorabilia, or rare oddities from this era are really nice, my favorite probably being the press release given out for 'hours...' ahead of its Internet drop. Great bonus!

All in all, this is a wonderful set - however, I think you should wait until it's closer to $300 or $200. I managed to find it for $300 so I sprang for it, but that's the absolute most I'd pay. All in all, though, considering how expensive some of these individual albums are secondhand, I am very satisfied with this purchase. Buy if you have money to spare and are a diehard Bowie fan

So this box - I do not own it - is a quite good example for selling it for a unbelievably high price at first by a record company in 2021/2022 After that the non limited box(a limitation is not 20000 copies or so) getting cheaper and cheaper as many other so called limited editions also just falling down in prices. My thoughts about it: record companies doing the same mistake as decades ago- when there was a new format called cd. They sold it for a double price comparing to a vinyl version, even the cd version was xx times cheaper to produce as vinyl format. My opinion in early 2022.
Regarding such things as rsd: wait! Take yr time. 95% of any rerelease will getting cheaper after a short while.

The Conversation Piece album has a couple skips in it. Does anyone know how I can go about replacing this album without returning the whole box? I bought it new from Amazon.