(Rock) Status Quo - The Essential 3CD Box Set - 2001, MP3, 320 kbps

[03:51] 01. Down Down
[03:49] 02. Night Ride
[03:34] 03. Mad About The Boy
[03:03] 04. For You
[03:32] 05. Rockin' All Over The World
[03:30] 06. Long Legged Linda
[06:39] 07. Medley: Come Rock With Me - Rockin' On
[04:33] 08. Over The Edge
[02:50] 09. Something 'Bout You Baby
[03:15] 10. I Love Rock 'N' Roll
[03:29] 11. The Wanderer
[05:16] 12. Overdose
[03:04] 13. Dreamin'
[03:48] 14. Every Time I Think Of You
[03:49] 15. Magic
[03:59] 16. Ain't Complainin'
[04:01] 17. Going Down For The First Time
[04:38] 18. Perfect Remedy

#777
[05:43] 01. Roll Over Lay Down
[03:31] 02. Is There A Better Way
[03:53] 03. Dirty Water
[03:52] 04. Whatever You Want
[04:15] 05. Broken Man
[04:33] 06. Hold You Back
[03:58] 07. Lies
[03:32] 08. I Should Have Known
[04:05] 09. Little Dreamer
[03:47] 10. Caroline
[03:35] 11. In My Chair [live]
[04:03] 12. Never Too Late
[02:32] 13. Fine Fine Fine
[04:34] 14. Backwater
[03:22] 15. A Mess Of The Blues
[03:43] 16. Oh! What A Night
[05:55] 17. Big Fat Mama
[02:58] 18. Paper Plane

#777
[03:43] 01. Again And Again
[04:22] 02. Don't Waste My Time
[03:41] 03. Break The Rules
[05:02] 04. End Of The Line
[03:52] 05. What You're Proposin'
[07:31] 06. Roadhouse Blues
[03:14] 07. Dear John
[03:03] 08. Shady Lady
[03:47] 09. Living On An Island
[03:54] 10. Burning Bridges
[06:19] 11. Forty-Five Hundred Times (Live)
[03:05] 12. Can't Be Done
[05:06] 13. Unspoken Words
[04:24] 14. Let Me Fly
[04:00] 15. Ain't Complaining
[02:56] 16. Enough Is Enough
[04:18] 17. Can't Give You More
[04:34] 18. Rain

Sound: The thing I love about this colection is it's blend of pure '70s rock with the new-age sound of the 80's. No other band, I suppose, could pull it off. Putting "Rockin' All Over The World", a rock classic, on the same CD as "Magic" (probobly the most '80s Quo song ever) may seem like a bad idea to most people, but it's on here, and it works. There's some great riffs on here, as well. Those who have heard "Backwater" and "Roll Over Lay Down" will know what I mean. Those who havn't heard them, havn't lived.

Lyrics and Singing: What impressed me, personally, about the vocals of this collection is the fact that they don't just supply the popular songs by Francis and Rick, but they show those less popular songs, sung by Alan Lancaster. I found some of the lyrics themselves a bit 'cheesy', like "I Love Rock N' Roll". Producing a song that named "I Love Rock N' Roll" after a cheesy rock classic (that is of the same name) has already been released, is asking for trouble. The rest of the lyrics on here are fine. a lot of them are written, either by Rossi and Young (which results in a good lyrical song), Lancaster and Lamb (which results in a bad lyrical song) or by Parfitt (which results in an even balance of rock and decent lyrics).

Impression: I think that the selection of songs on here is fantastic, as it uncovers Quo's hidden gems, along with their hits. Not many colections do that. I can only fins one downside to this, and that is that they havn't included enough of the tracks from In The Army Now and, maybe, Thirsty Work, as albums like them are the collectables for real Quo die-hards. There should be more from the '80s/'90s, that's my only critisism, along with the fact that I don't know why the song "Ain't Complaining" is on the collection twice. The title of the colection lives up to it's name, as it is indeed The Essential Quo, an essential buy for any Quo fan, and, yes, it is definately worth the money it's priced at.