A KIDS REVIEW
I remember thinking how cool it was going to be to have this item. The first time it came out, it was only a little over seventy dollars on Amazon, but then it sky rocketed to 89.99, almost twenty more dollars than it used to be! But being a huge Britney fan, I knew I was going to buy it anyway. But now that i have it, it doesn't seem worth the money I spent. This box was actually very cheaply made.
About five years ago, Britney released her first singles album, Greatest Hits: My Prerogative. What surprised most fans was that she had only released four studio albums, and now she was releasing Greatest Hits. The thing about Greatest Hits is that it was a lot less expensive, priced at around twenty dollars. And that actually had some new songs/remixes on it. Overprotected (The Darkchild Remix), Boys (The Co-ed Remix), My Prerogative, Do Somethin', and I've Just Begun (Having My Fun) had never been officially released on an album, until Greatest Hits came out. And if you bought the Limited Edition, you got a second disc with 5-7 remixes on it, depending where you bought it from. Most of the remixes on there had never been officially released either. But on The Singles Collection, you only get one new song (about having a threesome!) And if you buy the right import CD's, you probably have all of the b-sides and remixes in this collection (I did). And another thing that made me mad was that the remixes were mostly radio edits, and not in there full form.
Now onto the box itself. You get all of Britney's 29 singles, and each disc has a b-side or remix. Each single comes with its own cardboard sleeve, with its original art work. But the CD's are just plain black and say "The Singles Collection". Why didn't they keep the original CD design too? And each disc only has 2 songs on it. We barely get past 10 minutes on each disc! The box also comes with a DVD of (almost) all her videos. For some reason, they excluded the Boys video, and they didn't put the 3 video on here either. And the DVD is only a single layer disc. That means they are not in high quality. If you buy the Greatest Hits My Prerogative DVD, you will get a dual layer disc, so the videos will be in high quality. It also comes with a booklet with information about all her singles. But the photos are taken directly from the videos. No behind the scenes photos, no unreleased photos, just the video stills. And the box itself is so... small. I expected it to be a lot bigger than this. It can barely hold all 29 singles, the DVD, and the booklet. I'm scared if I push too hard the discs will break. And something is wrong with the Toxic disc. I went to go put it on my iTunes, but when it was found, it was just another copy of Overproteced! I had to spend $1.49 just to buy the Toxic Digital 45 from iTunes so I could have Toxic. But when I play the disc in my CD player it plays Toxic plus the remix. I heard this happened to someone else, but instead they got ...Baby One More Time instead of Toxic. But the one thing that really got me was, when I was syncing some of the discs to my iTunes, I noticed some of the discs were already scratched. Why was this box so cheaply made?
So as you can see, this box set has its pros and cons (more cons that pros). It really made me mad that this was so cheaply made. If I'm going to celebrate ten years of Britney, I need something a lot better than this!
Pros:
- All the songs have been beautifully remastered. I've never heard Britney more clearly that now.
- The cardboard slip cases are really nice, especially since they feature the original cover art.
- Having the videos for the Blackout and Circus era is nice.
Cons:
- Box is too small, it should have been a lot bigger.
- DVD disc is only single layer, should have been dual.
- They really should've fixed the Toxic disc, I heard this happened to someone else too.
- Should have been more than just two songs on each disc. We barely get past ten minutes on each disc.
- Because I have to push so hard to get everything in, the cardboard covers and the booklet are all dented.
- DVD should have had all the videos, plus the 3 video
Just received my singles collection box the other day.
THE GOOD: Box design and CD sleeve and artwork design good. The remastered audio in the CD singles have good soundstage. The remastered video is sharp with good colour balance and contrast on almost every clip.
THE BAD: Box is a bit tight to house all 29 CD singles and 1 DVD in their respective sleeves, removing and inserting the discs took some effort. The spine of some CD sleeves were slightly wrinkled due the squeezing inside the box.
Each CD single only have 2 tracks, almost all singles have one remix and one album track. Should include more remixes, non-album and rare version tracks on each single.
Music soundtrack on the DVD is standard stereo but sounded interior to the 2004 DVD release "Greatest Hits: My Prerogative". Soundtrack not properly remastered to take advantage of the high fidelity DVD stereo.
Video for new single "3" not included.
CONCLUSION: Box and CD sleeves good for display in your AV or Britney's collection with just a standard offering of the contents for Britney's fans.
nice box set for anyone who missed out on previous singles that were released..
the only 2 downsides i found are..i think the singles should have had exactly the same amount of tracks that were originally released on the singles instead of just having 2 racks each and on the last single "3" there seems to be either a mis-print or a missing song..casue on the cover it states it has 3 songs yet on the cd it self and when u play it it only has 2 songs.
but regardles of all that...if your a Brintey Spears fan id recommend buying it for your collection.
This is a great collection for any Britney fan. It features so many extras - lots of great unreleased tracks, remixes on the "B" sides, a book of beautiful photographs (many never before seen) and a DVD with her always wonderful music videos.
Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the music lover or ultimate Britney fan? Look no further. This is it!
I think this collection is really cool and a must have for every Britney fan!!! My only issue with it is, I would've liked for there to have been a disc of unreleased material from throughout her career...but oh well LOL!
