Orbital Album: “Work 1989-2002”

Unfortunately this CD does not do Orbital justice.

Understandably, being a 'best of', they had to include a few recent offerings which take up space better reserved for some older tracks that were not included. What classic tracks they have put on it have (as the Amazon review stated) been butchered and remixed to a much lesser end result. For example, the melodic buildup to 'Halcyon' has been cut, 'Impact' has been sacreligiously tinkered with and the included version of 'Satan' sounds bloody aweful. I'd liked to have seen a few more offerings from their 'Snivilisation' and even the rare version of 'Belfast' (with Therapy).

As is stated in other reviews... Orbital is brilliant, but unless you are a completist (as I am) there really isn't much of a reason to pick this up. I wanted this for the single version of "Halcyon," which I did not already own. Unfortunately the mix on here can't even compare to the epic full-length "Halcyon + On + On," which appears on the Orbital 2 album. The one new track, "Frenetic," appears on their "Rest" and "Play" EPs, issued about the same time as this retrospective. The Kirk Hammett collaboration of "Satan" is dreadful. Most of the other tracks here are edited versions of songs taken from their catalogue. I won't even bother to get nitpicky about which omitted songs should have been included on this CD, and vice versa. In general I would give Orbital 5 stars, but I would recommend picking up their other albums instead.

this is a good start for new listeners but misses alot of good songs like omen, midnight, beached, the saint and doctor who? they should have a longer version of chime and have halcyon on and on. hopefully they will come out with a new collection better than the halcyon best of compilation. if they do i hope they also include what i mentioned and include one perfect sunrise and you lot.

A great blend of Orbital songs from 1989 through 2002. Play at high volume and enjoy!

This album gets a bad rap, and I can understand why. To arrive at a banquet only to be promptly sent back out the door with a snack tray would be considered by most to be an unpleasant experience. To top it off, when artists are as dynamic as the Hartnoll brothers are, you run into subgroups of fans of their music that have widely different tastes concerning what the "best of" should entail. Most of the tracks included on Work are great. I do, however, question the judgment to include the David Gray collaboration, Illuminate. I like the track, but for many (in the U.S., anyway) Gray's distinctive vocals were too much of a departure from Orbital's bread and butter tracks. The exclusion of the Green Album version of Satan is also a puzzler. Without a doubt, many quality tracks were overlooked when compiling this disc, but then again, the tracks that are included are by no means bad. Personally, I think if they had taken a page from Bjork's book and simultaneously released a "best of" album and a Family Tree style album, people who wanted a little something more out of Work would've been happy, and those just discovering Orbital would've had a better starter kit.