Survivor: Ultimate Survivor CD Track Listing

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Survivor Ultimate Survivor (2004)
Originally Released July 13, 2004\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Appearing three years after Mercury's comprehensive collection Fire in Your Eyes: Greatest Hits, BMG Heritage's 2004 release Ultimate Survivor edges out that previous collection for the title of the best Survivor compilation yet assembled. Why? Because the song selection and sequencing are sharper, developing a real momentum over its 18 songs, and it's also better presented, with strong liner notes and muscular remastering. Where the Mercury collection sometimes felt padded toward its end, as it emphasized some latter-day material, this focuses on the group's '80s heyday so much that it includes the original version of "Rockin' into the Night," a song Survivor leader Frankie Sullivan and his songwriting partner, Jim Peterik, gave to .38 Special, and their version is every bit as good as that group of wild-eyed Southern boys. Little touches like these make Ultimate Survivor live up to its title. -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nClose, but not quite definitive collection, March 14, 2005\nReviewer: Ryan A. Rigg\nI have been looking for years for a definitive Survivor Greatest Hits package. This is the closest yet. However, this CD still is missing the following Billboard Hot 100 chart entries: "The One That Really Matters", "The Moment of Truth", and "How Much Love". This collection does however include ALL of the band's Top 40 hits. So, if you are just looking for the Top 40 hits, this is for you. If you are looking for all of their songs to make the Hot 100, then I would suggest buying this and trying to download the other 3 songs. The CD also includes great liner notes. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nAll the big Survivor hits - and more!, February 2, 2005\nReviewer: jeffrey343 "jeffrey343" (Plano, TX United States) \nThere are multiple Survivor GH collections available, some easier to find than others. Here's some info to compare / contrast what is on them: \n\n1990 - Survivor Greatest Hits 1 - 10 songs, all previously released material, all hits \n1993 - Survivor Greatest Hits 2 - 13 songs, including two new songs (I didn't really like them) \n2001 - Fire In Your Eyes (Import) - 18 songs, really good collection of hits \n2001 - Prime Cuts (Import) - 18 songs, not all the hits, but many excellent album cuts \n2004 - Ultimate Survivor - 18 songs, all major and most minor hits, two previously unreleased tunes \n\nI've reviewed all but the 1990 GH CDs, and the first four have varying availability on amazon.com. \n\nFor the casual fan who just wants the big radio hits, this CD has them. I personally like all the songs, but if you're mainly interested in the hits, this might be more than you really want. But who knows, you may love the ones you haven't heard yet. Their sound evolved, but remained consistent - there's not as much contrast here as there is with many bands' GH collections. \n\nIf you like just about everything you've heard from Survivor but you're not ready to get all their CDs, this is definitely a good place to start. It has songs from all seven studio albums, plus their huge hit "Burning Heart" from the "Rocky IV" soundtrack. \n\nFor those of you who are like me and own all the other Survivor CDs, getting this one comes down to three songs: \n- Rebel Girl - the elusive tune which was left off the debut album (but can apparently be found on some Japanese versions of that CD). It's been hyped quite a bit. It's a catchy guitar-driven tune. \n- Summer Nights - from "Premonition" - the vinyl album has a shorter version of this, but the "Premonition" CD I got from amazon.com three years ago has this longer version. So if you have "Premonition" on CD, you have this version (just over four minutes long). \n- Rockin' Into The Night - also could have made it to the debut CD, but was given to 38 Special and became their breakout hit. Survivor's version is definitely good, but my ears have been trained to consider the 38 Special version to be the "real" version. \n\nSome other notes: \n- The only four songs on all five GH CDs are "Eye Of The Tiger", "High On You", "I Can't Hold Back", and "The Search Is Over" (their four biggest hits). \n- This CD has extensive liner notes, with lots of good info. \n- Some reviewers have mentioned poor sound quality. I think this CD has the best quality of these particular songs available (I've done the comparisons myself). \n- The main omission from this CD is "The Moment Of Truth" from the "Karate Kid" soundtrack. It is available on the GH2 and FIYE collections. It's a decent song, but not essential. \n\nEven though I already have the 1993 GH2 CD, I got this one, mainly for "Rebel Girl". \n\nAll in all, this is a very good collection of Survivor tunes. For the majority of people, I recommend this over any of the other greatest hits collections. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nKind of a Gay Band Anyway, July 19, 2004\nReviewer: T. B Magofna "pablo_escargot" (Hungbowlio, CT) \nI mean its "Survivor" for cripes sake. They were actually nominted for a Grammy for one of thier schlock tunes back in when?...I believe it was 1983. I work in a mastering lab as an engineer. What you are hearing - as per the descrepentcies between bacthes of songs is merely the process in which that album was recorded. The "peaks" are all the same, but the "density" of the recording may not be thick enough, giving the illusion that is wasn't remastered, when in fact is was. The only was to make those songs that are being complained about would be to add compression to those less densely recorded songs, and to an audiophile that is kind of a "no no" unless you are planing to add this light compression to the whole prgram material (program material: is audio-wording for: the whole CD). In a mastering lab: If the songs aren't as dense as some of the others it has less to do with a simple twist of volume knob and the decision of compression vs not to compress and if compression is chosen, how much compression is appropriate without comprimising the original sound. \nCompression is what us Mastering Engineers refer to as audio prozac. If you can get a bunch of songs on the same CD that would have been harder to get otherwise, go for it. Who cares if this song isn't quite as "dense" as the next. At least you know you are getting close to the original songs with the least amount of possible negative treatment. Quit whining and enjoy the music.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nA perfect Survivor compilation!, July 15, 2004\nReviewer: A music fan\nI've been waiting for this one for a long time. There has never been a truly comprehensive Survivor compilation released in the U.S. until now. This CD is "Ultimate" in every way that counts. The track selection is spot-on, the packaging looks great, the liner notes are long and informative with lots of quotes from Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik, and Jimi Jamison, and it all sounds great. Another reviewer commented that the sound levels are not consistent from track to track, but are consistent among, say, all the "Vital Signs" songs or all the "Too Hot to Sleep" songs. I am not hearing this problem with the mastering. I think what the other reviewer is hearing is the different production and mixing styles that were used across the different albums, not a difference in levels. The possible difference in intensity is a function of the different producers and studios that Survivor originally recorded the music in.\nOverall, "Ultimate Survivor" is a masterpiece and is highly recommended to all Survivor fans, and also all fans of melodic rock in general. These guys are one of the best -- and most underrated -- AOR bands of all time. Hopefully this excellent CD will help them get their due with casual fans that only know "Eye of the Tiger" and "High on You."\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nBeware of the Mastering!, July 15, 2004\nReviewer: Markus Allen (Pensacola, Florida) \nGood song selection. Good liner notes. But it sounds as if this cd was burned directly from the first generation cd copies of all the releases. \nThe first song "Eye of the Tiger" is mastered at the correct level. By the time you get to "I Can't Hold Back", you need to really turn up the volume to get the same loudness. Then when you get to "High On You", it is suddenly apparent that all the songs from "Vital Signs" are the same (LOW) Volume and all of the songs from "Too Hot To Sleep are at a different volume and the same for "Caught in the Game" and "When Seconds Count". If you have audio equipment that shows the playback levels this is a very obvious blunder. It has nothing to do with the album to album sound. This is really a pain if you burn compilation cd's and are used to remastered recordings being mastered at a certain loudness. The sound is fine, but was it really 'remastered'? There is no excuse for this up then down volume problem. This is worse than some budget compilations.\n\nOne other thing. There are a few essential songs missing. Where is "She's A Star" and "The One That Really Matters". Survivor had some great 'Rock' songs too.\n\nSurvivor fan's deserved a little better quality from this retrospective.\n\nHalf.com Album Notes\nProducers: Ron Nevison; Frankie Sullivan; Jim Peterik; Frank Filipetti; Robie Porter\nCompilation Producer: Jeremy Holiday.\nRecording information: 1979 - 1988.
This rock cd contains 18 tracks and runs 76min 39sec.
Freedb: 0c11f512
Buy: from Amazon.com

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