The A&M Years

Ah, The Tubes. Unique, special, crazy, beautiful, and sublime.Of course, they made it big after the discs in this set had been released, hence this is their total output with A&M. For me though, the more successful version were never the match of appears here. At this point The Tubes were joyful, a little mad, and just plain having a good time.This set is an opportunity to improve on the original The Tubes CD, which wasn't very good. It also has Now, which can be hard to find at a price you want to pay. With a small smattering of extra tracks, surely nothing can go wrong?Well, first and foremost, what do you really get? The box itself is well made, with a hinged top, and thick cardboard used. Hey, it's glossed too for good measure. The albums inside are not up to this standard though. Each album comes in a now familiar card envelope, common in those cheap 5-disc sets (that generally cost half of what this goes for). The covers in my set look washed out, and frankly are little more than adequate. The good news is, there's a 24 page booklet, with an informative article and lots of pictures.Sound wise, it's a mixed bag. The debut (DR7) is a little better than the earlier version, but nothing major. Young and Rich (DR 10) is good, but the bonus track is nothing to write home about, and adds nothing. Now (DR 11) is as good as any of the CD releases I've heard, and it's good to see it back in print. What Do You Want from Live (DR10) is of course, amazing. Remote Control (DR9) I've not yet played (it's not a favorite of mine).This set is credited as a Captain Oi presentation, although it comes under the Caroline badge. Mastering is credited to James Bragg.Okay, so with that out of the way, is it good value? Well, if you already have them on CD, in truth, no. None of the mastering here is going to change your mind, or even enhance your enjoyment any. These are middling CD masterings - they're not great, but they're not terrible either. I'm not sure we're ever going to get these albums in audiophile quality.On the other hand, how cool is it to have all the early Tubes albums in one box? They were just magic at this time, and deserve to be in everyone's rock collection. Recommended? Yes.

You know how certain things evoke Christmas? For me The Tubes, like Moonraker, just evoke 1979 totally - like you're there. That part of you that was there in that year, you connect with him or her totally and you're there. Remote Control just does that to me me, God alone knows why...This collection is a no-brainer of a purchase. You're not going to be let down, musically The Tubes were faultless, nothing like the punk label they got stuck with and satirized - imagine the Rocky Horror Show live on stage and pretty much that's the Tubes in a nutshell. Musically they were incredibly sophisticated, lyrically often hilarious (genuinely) because they were intelligent and funny and, still to this day, most people haven't a clue who they are. They're live shows were legendary, their album sales abysmal and yet, here I am some 40 odd years latter still wanting to play the baseline to TV is King because it's amazing.The Tubes A&M years were their least successful but most defining and when you way up the cost of just one of their CD's , like I say, this collection is a no brainer - you get 5 actually really good albums and a nice little book - plenty of bang for your buck.If you're old, like me, you'll know what I'm banging on about because you were their and, if you're not - take a punt - you aren't going to loose out. The Tubes are just as relevant today in their scathing dissatisfaction with consumerist culture as they were, the world really didn't change, just rolled on.If you never listen to another record listen to "What Do You Want From Life?" from their first album - definitely drink in the live album which captures what they were all about more than this review ever could - and just enjoy.A seriously, seriously good collection, very well priced. Definitely saving my Prime Time for this...

I had to return these because the re-mastering was so bad on Remote Control and Young and Rich. These were the main event for me and were ruined by bad eq in the remaster. I didn’t even play the rest. Such a shame. I buy cds for the higher band width compared to mp3 but there’s no point if the eq has been messed up.

On time, well packaged, good condition

All the A&M albums in one box.

Dreadful remastering from some bloke in the UK, stick with the Vic Anesini versions would be my advice.

Good value box collecting the Tubes first five albums. Young and Rich and Now have been difficult to get hold of. The mastering is decent and the booklet is ok giving a potted history and a selection of photos, although personally I feel that they could be a little more in depth which would add more enjoyment to the whole experience, but this is the standard approach to these Caroline box sets of which there are now many.The Tubes basically take a satirical side swipe at the absurdities of modern life and culture which makes them timeless [ the more things change ] and its all dressed up in a diverse musical backdrop. The first two albums are full of energy but the third although treading similar lyrical themes, musically feels like the morning after the night before. After the great live album we finally get to Remote Control a loosely based concept on the thing that originally inspired their name, television which was produced by Todd Rundgren and it has the feel of a Todd Rundgren album and charts their change into a more mainstream musical direction which would follow with The Completion Backward Principle.

The four stars are for the music alone. The remastering on these discs is of the ear piercing full treble variety. The bass has been obliterated in favour of loud treble. The original cd of ‘Live’ is so much better than this version. Try and get the original vinyls (which won’t cost much) to realise what an amazing band they were. They deserve so much better than this