5 Classic Albums

Music! I like it, but I know not everyone like the same

One of the UK's greatest bands from the late 60's early 70's lead by the multi talented Steve Winwood.Here you get 5 albums and a real feel for the development of this band; all for £2 an album.The thing about Traffic is their music has a lot of influences and so tracks suit many moods, pop, rock, folk, blues, soul, if you only know them by their early singles Hole in my Shoe and Paper Sun there is so much more music to discover.When there are so few really good new bands about it really is worth going back and discovering bands from yesteryear (when everything wasn't about image and controlled by record companies who care little for music just money) and hear it was really the music that mattered back then.So you get Dear Mr Fantasy, Traffic, John Barleycorn Must Die, Low Spark of High Heeled Boys and Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory.I recently saw Steve Winwood in concert he played a few tracks from these albums proving this is just timeless classic music as it sounded as good as ever and certainly he was enjoying playing it as much as the audience were listening to it

An essential companion piece to the Free 5CD box set, this too captures that wonderful Island sound and feel of the late sixties and early seventies. In truth, most of the Traffic albums were patchy, hit and miss affairs; but you had to marvel at the talent and breadth of ambition. Rarely has such ability been assembled in one band and the material ranged from psychedelic rock, to folk, blues, jazz and all stops in between. Steve Winwood was of course the central pivot throughout their time together, and he never again quite captured the creative magic and musical development that he found within Traffic. The late Jim Capaldi was a wonderful drummer / percussionist and co-wrote some of their strongest material. Also much missed, Chris Wood's contributions on saxes and flute were indispensable; his soprano sax intro to No Time To Live over Winwood's piano conjures something so deep and elemental, it is my favourite Traffic 'moment'. Dave Mason was a gifted guitarist and writer too, with a distinctive voice, who never quite achieved the success that his talent seemed to suggest. The two strongest CDs here are the eponymous second album with 40,000 Headmen and No Time To Live; and John Barleycorn with perhaps the greatest organ solo in rock on Every Mother's Son. The remastering on these albums is fantastic and brings much of the subtlety and nuance to the fore. A mixed bag for sure but so many highlights that it really doesn't matter. If you want to go back to this marvellous era, Traffic will take you there.

Eyes closed, headphones, lie back, I'm in my youth again, brilliant stuff,

You either like Traffic or you don't. I do, with reservations. This is the good things about this series - you can buy five albums for, virtually, the same price as one, so it doesn't matter if they don't all float your boat. For example, I can take or leave their first couple of 'hippy' albums, but that still leaves three exceptional soulful albums in the shape of 'John Barleycorn Must Die',' Low Spark of High Heeled Boys' and 'Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory'. That's three great albums for the price of one. Better yet, this series is made for playing in the car as the album sleeves are shrunk down to fit the CD. It's a neat idea, and I look forward to getting to know more of my back pages via this series.

Traffic were never a "pop" group, thank goodness. Some of the tracks require some effort from the listener but that means you will never get tired of hearing the song again.My favourite is the John Barleycorn album. originally a Windwood solo album it became a group effort with the support of the other members of the group. It is hard to put he group into any category, which is a fine thing. Music that is good is good regardless of any arbitrary title.Loved all the albums. A good way to improve your own collection

Of these 5 albums, I am most familiar with ‘Traffic’ and ‘John Barleycorn Must Die’; I still have original vinyls! The contents have been thoroughly covered in other reviews, so I won’t duplicate them., except to say that the first 3 songs on ‘Barleycorn’ remain amongst my favourites. All appear to have been remastered and the sound quality is really crisp throughout.They also don’t have any extra tracks, demo and such, which is massively in their favour. If material wasn’t good enough for the originals, then why is it deemed to be worth releasing now? The individual labels on each CD are a bonus and make up for the rather fragile packaging. Still, for 2 quid a throw, perhaps that’s to be expected.Overall, this is a recommended way to acquire some great music from the peak period of progressive rock, although some might argue with that grouping!

I didn't think I needed this package. i have all these albums on CD. The version of Mr. Fantasy I have has the whole of the original U.S. version of that album (slightly different track listing) as well as the original album, , Both Traffic and John Barleycorn Must Die, also have bonus tracks and the sound quality is very good, however, when I read reviews praising the virtues of the remastering here I thought I would give this package a go.I am so glad I did. this is exceptional.Okay it is just the five albums, card reproduction album sleeves, no notes but what you do get is these five brilliant albums with the appropriate Island label on the CDs and the remastering bring new life to the music fit for 21st century music systems.I have fallen in love with Traffic's music all over again. If you were a fan back in the day and want to reacquaint yourself with Traffic's albums then this is certainly the way to buy them and for around a tenner! £9 if you have Amazon Prime!