In 2007, Northern Stars - A Canadian Singers & Songwriters Collection, an eighteen-track album (above) packed with AAA songs and artists of a (then) recent vintage. An expanded thirty-two track double disc with the same title (below) also appeared in retail bins that year. The expanded edition pushed beyond my limited knowledge of Adult Alternative artists, though I must say I've always thought Gino Vannelli's "People Gotta Move" as a solid R&B tune if not early disco jam. (Don't own either one of these albums, but they both would get an automatic three-star headstart just for including k.d. lang's "Constant Craving".)
One of the only bad things that I can say about Time-Life Music was that they repackaged several older albums as newer albums without much communication as to what they did. In 2010, they repackaged the first four volumes of The Singers & Songwriters Collection, giving each of them a very subtle title alteration, a more noticeable artwork change, and a new catalog number.
Depending on your perspective, they either altered the disc title or the series title. Can you see it? The different artwork is easy to spot as it's instrument-based and lacks the creative spark of nostalgia the originals have. The rear artwork on the tray insert, listing the songs and artists, has also been refreshed and reconfigured. And if you look closely, you can spot the message: "Previously released as..."
Even the background on the rear of the tray insert is different. The earlier issues featured a black denim pattern and coloration; the newer repackaged discs feature a different denim pattern altogether with a definite indigo tint. Another difference on the newer discs is the inclusion of UPC codes on the rear tray insert to allow retail sales.
The tracklists and mastering on the 2010 repackaged discs are identical to the 2000 discs. All the tracks sound amazing whether you're listening through headphones, your mobile music system, or whatever audio setup you have at home or work. As I may have mentioned in a previous post, nearly every track is the full-length album version rather than the edited single.
Troubadours is a new entry in The Singers & Songwriters Collection. With seventeen songs on each of the two discs, it stands above the other double-disc albums that have a measly dozen songs per disc. Technically, all the songs on Troubadours have already appeared on earlier volumes of Singers & Songwriters, which isn't an issue unless you already acquired all those other discs. Four and a half stars.
The single-disc Classics was originally released in 2001 with its twenty tracks. The disc was then included in two different Singers & Songwriters box sets in 2002. Classics was repackaged in 2010. As we had done with 1970-1971, 1972-1973, 1974-1975 and 1976-1977, we rated Classics as part of Phase One.
The six albums above (1970-1971, 1972-1973, 1974-1975, 1976-1977, Troubadours and Classics) were boxed up and sold as Singers & Songwriters. The eleven-disc set was offered at retail, through half-hour infomercials and through regular-length commercials. We scored our Singers & Songwriters box in sealed mint condition from a second-hand seller for just under $20 including tax and shipping several years ago. And that's how our Singers & Songwriters collection began. The box is three and a half stars some days and four stars on other days.
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While the official count of The Singers & Songwriters Collection stands at 19 volumes (R182-01 through R182-19), Time Life also issued unique Singers & Songwriters discs in Europe and Australia from 2001-2004. Each of the twenty-nine volumes is a double-disc featuring fifteen tracks per disc with the catalog # SSW/XX. The collections used and extended the same artwork and creative direction of the U.S. set. I've included the cover art from that offshore series to whet your whistle. Click HERE for more details.
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