Duncan Dhu Album: “Greatest Hits”

Sophisticated guitar pop, halfway between the Boo Radleys and the Smiths (with scattered bits of Rock-a-billy, Funk and Flamenco). In barely half a dozen releases, Mikel Erentxun and Diego Vasallo (a.k.a. Duncan Dhu, from the Basque Country) have written and recorded some of the most beautiful pop songs of the last two decades. This Greatest Hits collection barely scratches the surface of their opus and I recommend you not only to play every song on this CD, but to also look for their previous albums. True jewels. All in Spanish.

There's plenty of things that are amiss here.

First, they give us a live version of "En Algun Lugar." Yes, that's right: LIVE. This is their biggest hit, a pop-rock masterpiece of epic proportions that's been engrained in the mind of Spanish-speaking music fans for almost two decades. And, yet, the compilers decided to give us an unfamiliar live version rather than the studio version that we all know and love. Why on Earth would they do something as idiotic as that? This is one of the cardinal sins of compilations: Live versions of the big hits. We're paying good money to get the songs we want, not alternate versions. Geez. If you're going to give us a live version of the song we all love, stick in the back of the collection and ONLY if you've already given us the studio version. Ugh! This compilation loses two and a half stars just for this sin alone.

But there's another major issue here: There are only a scant 12 tracks here. This is a compilation. Earth to compilers: THERE ARE MORE THAN 80 MINUTES OF SPACE ON A CD. I think they're forgetting the fact that people are paying for the hits. We want them all, and in large quantities, in a single spot. Giving us an inkling of the band's work for 10-20 bucks just won't do. Again, I deduct points because of this.

As for the music, it's all great. It's good 50s-influenced Spanish pop-rock. It knows where it came from, but its fully aware of where it is. Great stuff.

My review isn't bashing the music; rather, I'm bashing the compilation. It was horribly executed. The absence of "En Algun Lugar" (Studio Version) is inexcusable; there was room on the disc... why couldn't we get it?

The compilers should be fired for the way they wrecked this set.

Duncan Dhu sigue siendo uno de los mejores grupos de rock en español. En esta compilación faltan muestras de sus grabaciones acústicas, de cuando comenzaron; pero lo incluído es representativo del sonido de este grupo. Te recomiendo que continúes obteniendo el resto de los CD's de Duncan Dhu. Su sonido evolucionó mucho y encontrarás muchas canciones de tu agrado en varios estilos de rock. Si obtuviste algún CD o todos los CD's de Duncan Dhu en los E.E.U.U. vale el gasto obtener este. "La herida" es una nueva canción y "Jardín de rosas" finalmente aparece en la versión estudio. Esta última debería haber aparecido en el CD "Canciones" pero no sucedió así para el mercado norteamericano. Notarás que es más rápida y cadenciosa que la versión en vivo del CD "Teatro Victoria Eugenia." Espero que lo disfrutes.

Deceo escuchar la cancion de Dunkan Dhu "En algun Lugar"