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Twenty Five (Greatest Hits) - | 
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| Artist: George Michael
Label: Musicrama
Category: Music
List Price: CDN$ 26.99
Buy New: CDN$ 7.77
You Save: CDN$ 19.22 (71%)
New (19) Used (2) from CDN$ 7.77
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 1703
Format: Best Of
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 886970090025
UPC: 886970090025
EAN: 0886970090025
ASIN: B000H1QYXY
Release Date: November 21, 2006
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Condition: Brand New Factory Sealed. Ships the next day out of Toronto !!
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Everything She Wants - George Michael, Wham!, | | • | Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - George Michael, Wham!, | | • | Freedom - George Michael, Wham!, | | • | Faith | | • | Too Funky | | • | Fastlove | | • | Freedom! '90 | | • | Spinning the Wheel | | • | Outside | | • | As - Mary J. Blige, George Michael | | • | Freeek! | | • | Shoot the Dog | | • | Amazing | | • | Flawless (Go to the City) | | • | Easier Affair |
Disc 2
| • | Careless Whisper | | • | Last Christmas - George Michael, Wham!, | | • | Different Corner | | • | Father Figure | | • | One More Try | | • | Praying for Time | | • | Heal the Pain - Paul McCartney, George Michael | | • | Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me | | • | Jesus to a Child | | • | Older | | • | Round Here | | • | You Have Been Loved | | • | John and Elvis Are Dead | | • | This Is Not Real Love - George Michael, , Mutyo |
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| Editorial Reviews:
From Amazon.co.uk
The last quarter-century has been nothing if not colorful for George Michael. But through all the controversy--the high-profile arrests and audacious videos, the falling-outs and band splits--he has emerged intact as a vital figure on the global pop scene--a fact compounded by his current 25 Live tour and this accompanying Greatest Hits package. Twenty Five is the fourth such collection in Michael's career, though it carries the obvious advantage of being more up to date than 1998's lauded Ladies & Gentlemen and features not only solo material but music from the early Wham! days. As such, it's the most comprehensive anthology yet, featuring upbeat Wham! classics like "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" and "Freedom" amidst somber solo material like "Praying for Time" and "Jesus to a Child." Spread across two discs (29 songs in total), the collection not only includes a host of evergreen classics but also recent singles "An Easier Affair" and "This Is Not Real Love" (with former Sugababe Mutya Buena) and two unreleased tracks. There are some notable absences from the collection--"I Want Your Sex" and "Kissing a Fool" are two glaring omissions--but it still remains the most comprehensive survey of the artist's legacy to date. --Danny McKenna
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| Customer Reviews:
Somewhere Out There Is A Perfect George Michael Hits Album, But This Isn't Quite It December 8, 2006
S. Lennox (Canada)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Twenty-Five is George Michael's second greatest hits album after 1998's Ladies & Gentlemen, since which he has released one covers album in 1999 and one album of new material in 2004. While this is a very listenable album for mixing Wham songs with solo material, which L&G didn't, it also suffers for the all-too-often decision to include newer but lesser tracks on a hits album at the expense of the older, bigger hits (U2, you're on notice). In GM's case, his last album, Patience, a good album but hardly a classic, is given representation with an overly generous 5 songs (6 if you count Shoot the Dog, which was released on his UK version of Patience), while Faith, his biggest album with 6 Top Ten songs (4 going to Number One) is limited to only 3 songs. Furthermore, on the limited 3-cd set, EVERY song from Patience is included, with the third disc misleadingly subtitled "For the Loyal;" it should have been titled "For Those Who Didn't Buy My Last Album, Here It Is." As a result, major hits such as Monkey, Kissing a Fool, I Want Your Sex, I'm Your Man, I Knew You Were Waiting For Me are all missing, as are important tracks like Club Tropicana, The Edge of Heaven, Waiting For That Day, Somebody To Love, and so on. As well, including the Wham song Last Christmas, while a bona fide Christmas classic, sounds a bit out of place on a hits cd; it's better off on Christmas compilations. L&G had its flaws too; it relied too much on album tracks and had a silly version of I Want Your Sex, but still managed to put most of GM's hits in one place.
Of the new songs, An Easier Affair is a lightweight pop song where GM defends his lifestyle; it's decently done but unremarkable; This Is Not Love, a duet with Mutya, is a continuation of his low-key soul ballad sound that should be right at home on adult contemporary radio; while Heal The Pain, a pretty song originally from the Listen Without Prejudice album, is redone as a duet with none other than Paul McCartney and is easily the best new song on the album. With its perfect harmonizing, it sounds like a long lost Beatles classic.
All flaws aside, this is still a very good album, and the songs are nicely divided into groups of upbeat songs (subtitled For Living) and ballads (For Loving), with each disc in a rough chronological order. The accompanying booklet has no liner notes, only lyrics and basic song information, and plenty of pictures from GM's videos. The 3-disc Deluxe Edition includes songs from the Songs from the Last Century covers album as well.
It is great, and long overdue, to have a collection available that combines his Wham & solo hits, and it does have his most recent hits, so this is not a bad representation of GM from the 80's to the present. But if you're a more casual fan of George Michael, and aren't interested in the newer songs or already own Patience, you'd be better off with Ladies & Gentlemen and maybe The Best of Wham as a better career overview.
 This is the definitive collection from George Michael. December 1, 2006
Vader
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
George Michael is a legend and one of the best pop male peformers of all-time with #1 singles in Everything She Wants, Wake Me Up Before you go-go, Careless Whisper, Praying For Time, Faith, Father Figure, One More Try and the duet with Elton John, DON'T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON ME. He is one of the best. He's won Grammy awards. George Michae has released the definitive collection and this is a must-have collection for every George Michael fan. Thank-you for this collection.
A reminder of the gobsmacking range of his work. November 22, 2006
charmerismyname (Paris, France)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The title marks George's 25 years in the music business. But it is worth noting that, for the last 20 of those years he has, quite ingeniously, remained at the top of the tree while maintaining the workrate of an arthritic tortoise - just five new studio albums, and one of those was a covers collection.
OK, his disenchantment with the music industry is well known, but even diehard fans must be a bit miffed that the record release which coincides with his world tour is not a new collection of songs, but another retrospective.
It is only eight years since the "Ladies And Gentlemen : best of" with which Twenty Five's track listing overlaps considerably.
No amount of cunning packaging - such as dividing the collection into themed sections with the twee titles "For Living", "For Loving" and, on the triple CD version, "For The Loyal" - can disguise the fact that fans will be buying some songs for the second, maybe third time.
OK, that's the "buyer beware" message.
"Twenty Five" offers a handful of inessential new cuts (the likes of "Heal The Pain" with Paul McCartney, "This Is Not Real Love" with Mutya . . . yawn) but it is also a reminder of the gobsmacking range of Michael's work.
That means everything from the gorgeous, saccharine-tinged glory of "Careless Whisper" to the most cack-handed protest song ever in "Shoot The Dog".
It's a journey from the shuttlecock-down-the-shorts frippery of Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" to the big band crooning of "My Baby just Cares For Me", from brilliant throwaway pop like "Faith" to songs of disarming autobiographical honesty like "My Mother Had A Brother".
George is a pop everyman capable of the sublime (the cover of Stevie Wonder's "As" with Mary J Blige) and the ridiculous (the afore-mentioned "Shoot The Dog").
Pity he's not capable of upping the work rate.
Wham! Bam! Thank you George November 20, 2006
Amanda Richards (Georgetown, Guyana)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This album covers twenty five years of the starred and scarred career of one of the best known English singer/songwriters of his generation. It contains most, but not all, of his greatest hits, including his best selling "Faith", his early mega-hits as a half of Wham! as well as three brand new songs.
The lead single is one of the new songs "An Easier Affair", the other two being "This Is Not Real Love" with Mutya Buena (a former Sugababe) and "Heal the Pain" with Sir Paul McCartney. Of the new ones, my pick is the McCartney track, which seems head and shoulders over the other two.
The tracks that I enjoyed hearing again were the duets - "As" with Mary J. Blige and "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" with Sir Elton John - plus "Father Figure", "Faith" and of course "Careless Whisper".
From "Careless Whisper" to "Amazing", this is a great addition to any pop music collection, putting most of your favorite George hits in one "basket".
Amanda Richards
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