Encore

I have had this box set for a week and I keep listening to it all the time. In fact I have listened to every CD over and over, all 33 of them, well I lie as I have not yet listened to the Xmas album yet. I will keep that one for that adequate time of the year lol. As I am working from home during lock down it's easy and convenient to keep them playing all the time. I have been a fan of Donna Summer all my life. I even went to a live concert of hers at the Royal Albert Hall in London back in the late 90's. I am so glad I managed to see her live before this amazing lady left us and yes far too soon. It was an amazing two hours I'll never forget. Hearing her live made me realize that even the best recordings and most sophisticated Hi Fi systems don't do justice to her extraordinary and staggering powerful voice. Yes powerful is the word! The Royal Albert Hall walls were rocking that night.The set is very impressive, the quite sturdy hard cardboard box (with great artwork) is the size of a vinyl record (much thicker of course) which houses all the CD's and a hardcover book. Yes the book could have been better in terms of content. Best to go on YouTube where some people have made 'unboxing' videos of the set so you'll get a better idea as far as what it looks like. There have been criticisms from die hard fans about the set being incomplete with a substantial amount of material not being included. That may be so but I believe that the true purpose of this release is to provide for the first time all of Donna's official albums in one box especially her early albums which (at least some of them) had never been remastered before e.g. 'Love to love you' baby, Four seasons of love', 'A love trilogy', 'On the radio', 'Once upon a time' (except in Japan) etc...all presented here for the first time as close as possible as originally intended in terms of content and artwork especially for the double albums. Wow, looking at 'One upon a time' and 'Bad girls' (shot by the great Harry Langdon) artworks, it's still stunning and reflects very well the concept of each album. The only downside is the smaller size compared to vinyl covers where one can appreciate far more details. Of course depending on the country where her albums were released some minor differences occurred. For instance the French release of 'Love to love you baby' included the song 'The Hostage', the South African release of 'One upon a time' was a single LP. Act 2 and 3 were not included jumping from side 1 to side 4 omitting the amazing second and third acts which includes the stunning "triptych" 'Now I need you' / 'Midnight Shift' / 'Queen for a day' which sounded so ahead of its time just like 'I feel love' released before. 'Once upon a time', a quite intriguing fairy tale like concept album, is my favorite (although a moderate success when originally released) in my opinion...epic, groundbreaking and (still) unique. No one had ever heard anything like that before it's a true work of technical brilliance and (for those who love decent lyrics) of far more depth and complexity than you would expect in a disco album. Overall the album has aged beautifully, listening to the 'Rumour has it' and the stunningly gorgeous 'I love you' tracks, it feels like it was recorded yesterday.  Of course her masterpiece 'Bad Girls' is a stroke of genius that is possibly the best disco album ever released. Period! Ultimately this release is called "encore" (from French word which means again). It is not called "complete" or "ultimate'' or "definite" let's be clear on that. So I assume that this leaves room for more releases as I am sure (and as some have pointed out on here) there is loads more rare and unreleased material out there to discover and enjoy. That suits me fine, being a massive fan I always look forward to new releases of Donna's Work to keep the excitement going since we will never get newly recorded material from this remarkable larger than life artist now that she has left us. It reminds me of those years when she was at the peak of her success and the fans couldn't wait for a new Donna Summer album to be released, they didn't come fast enough and her 17 years hiatus before the release of her 2008 'Crayons' album was a frustrating experience for fans all around the world.So after the 'Donna, the CD collection', 'The singles...driven by the music', 'Encore' box sets and other various good quality compilations and deluxe editions, what's next? I can't wait for what's coming!

This is a beautifully put together career retrospective box set. You can tell a lot Of time, care and love have been put into making this the only retrospective of Donna Summer career you will ever need. The attention to detail with each disc in a replica sleeve of the original LP release down to the original inner sleeve and in turn these 33 CDs fit into 12” x 12” box. Every studio album is there as well as a greatest Hits and 2 live album along with 4 double CDs of 7” & 12” remixes, non studio album singles and a Remix collection. There is little in the way of new archive material never before released because this box is celebrating the amazing career of the Queen of Disco and the catolgue of releases throughout that long and successful career. The Only criticism I have and it’s one small omission that most will not remember but Donna released the single The Power Of One ( from the Pokemon movie ), it wasn’t a hit but it was a great little single and would have rounded off this amazing collection well. I have to applaud her widower Bruce Sudano for his tireless efforts along with her own label Driven by the Music, in making the very most out of every release , the amount of product they have released and the amazing way it’s all been presented. They have given the fans new product nearly every year more than Jacko , Prince , George Michael. Yes they have come into criticism from some fans but you will never please everybody because we all have different tastes. So keep going back to the catalog and coming up with new projects that the fans love and that celebrate a unique talent that was taken from us far too early. At £169.99 it’s not going to be affordable to all fans, hence it’s limited to 5000 but with 33 discs and a 12”x12” hardback book it is value for money as it works out roughy £5 per disc. A must have for the diehard fans and that’s clearly where it was aimed and there has not been a better for its arrival as the majority of the world In lockdown due to the Coronavirus we have all the time in the world to revisit every album and remember why we loved Donna Summer in the first place. In these troubled times it will cheer her fans up as we get a Final Encore from the Queen of Disco.

A must have for Donna Summer fans

This was a treat to myself for being awesome. I love Donna Summer and this set is AMAZING!!!!!

Reçu ce fabuleux coffret anthologie de 33cd et vraiment je suis très très heureux.Je l’ai réceptionné en parfait état et merci à Amazon d’apporter autant de soin aux emballages des produits pour ne pas qu’ils s’abîment. J’avais lu dans les commentaires que certains cd ne passaient pas sur les lecteurs cd et c’est le cas en ce qui me concerne. Pas la totalité mais certains cd ne peuvent être lus par mon lecteur cd très récent et d’excellente qualité ( DENON ). Mais comme je peux les lire sur mon lecteur Blu-ray avec un son optimal et bien j’ai gardé ce coffret car vraiment c’est SUBLIME. Toutes les personnes qui aiment Donna Summer devraient posséder ce coffret exceptionnel.

Väldigt bra samling!

Finalmente la discografia completa, più vari bonus, di Donna Summer regina della disco music. L'opera comprende, in formato CD, tutti i suoi album in studio e live, oltre ai suoi brani più famosi realizzati in varie versioni. Un must per tutti i fans della regina della disco music.