Original Album Series

Loved every cd, such a bargain, great in card sleeves takes up less room.

If you are a fan of Simply Red who is looking to buy their first five albums, this is the one to buy. It contains the first five albums - Picture Book, Men and Women, A New Flame, Stars and Life. At £10.86, this equates to about £2.17 per album, which is excellent value for money. It is much better than the Greatest Hits collections released and is much better value for money, with 50 songs in this collection, compared to 25 on the "25: The Greatest Hits" collection released in late 2008.The sound quality on all five albums is very good, as is the music (but I'm biased!) Notable songs in this 5 album compilation include "Holding Back the Years", a rather sad song about leaving home that made Mick Hucknall and co. famous, "If You Don't Know Me By Now", one of their best and most successful songs; a cover of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, "Stars", a worldwide chart hit and "Fairground", the band's only UK number 1 and a bouncy, melodic tune - in my opinion, their best song and the one that introduced me to Simply Red.Mick Hucknall's voice is very powerful and distinctive and this is noticeable on many of their songs. It is used to great effect on Holding Back the Years and The Right Thing, among many other songs. The best album in this collection is Stars, in my opinion, as every song on the album has a great melody and meaningful lyrics, unlike a good portion of modern chart music (and I'm not one of those old fogeys either). If you've already got a greatest hits collection, I would advise buying this if you want to explore more of Simply Red's music. If you're a new fan who doesn't own any of their music, you should buy this, as it is a very good introduction to their early work, ranging from 1985 to 1995.

These are Simply Red's first 5 albums, spanning 1985-95. They made 14 albums and an incredible 45 singles - all the hits are on here, and yes, `Stars' is one of the albums - this was their most successful album and went 12 x platinum in the UK. There is so much quality here it's hard to know where to start? Even if you're not a `Red' fanatic you simply have to acknowledge the quality of their music. These albums reached 2, 2, 1, 1 & 1 in the charts. Whilst `Holding Back the Years' topped the American singles charts, oddly, they never got a top ten album over there. `Picture Book' reached 16th.Fairground' reached number one here in our singles chart. Their achievement of 50 million album sales over 25 years is just incredible and simply endorses their overall quality. This is wonderfully soulful and jazzy listening.

Had all these albums on vinyl and this was a cheap way for me to replace them all. The packaging is a plus for me as I actually prefer the vinyl replica styling (with the cardboard sleeves) to the ugly plastic cases...these box sets save shelf room. You get the first five original studio albums and so all the memorable stuff, and it's barely wider than a single CD case. Can't lose really. Better than buying a 'best of' CD.

The best of Simply Reds albums. Picture book, A new flame and Stars.

Great selection of essential albums with Men and Women as a standout. Great value and sound.

Great value

Love this series! All the original albums in one handy place, as a massive fan I was so impressed with this package!