Once again, the geniuses at Universal have failed to give fans a decent collection! Although the single disc Very Best Of released in 2005 provided a fine and simplistic overview of Robert Palmer's career, it omitted a few "must have" songs in favour of live material (making for a 90% OK collection). Earlier anthologies also suffered invariably from "redo" syndrome: the artist redoing a vocal track here, a drum mix there, re-recording entire songs elsewhere. This collection's no different. In fact, there are many "remixed" and "redone" and "alternate vocal" mixes present (something the Very Best Of album avoided altogether, much to its credit). Here, insult is further added to injury with poor song sequencing. Indeed, the classic and sequenced "Sailing Shoes/Hey Julia/Sneaking Sally Through The Alley" trilogy that marked the beginning of Palmer's breakthrough album is present, but the songs have been scattered apart from one another. Thereby pondering the question: What were they thinking? Why was this done in this manner? What do fans really want? A 2 disc set that features the original material (remastered, yes, but not remixed in any way, shape or form) and a proper chronological sequence. Done in this manner, such a set would properly honour one of popdom's most memorable and talented individuals. What Gold has done showed that compilers went through a rock encyclopedia, took the right batch of songs, but mish-mashed them in a half-cobbled manner. This collection does no one any favours. Stick to Very Best Of until another bright light at Universal tries their hand at compiling a decent collection. That said, the way the music biz is these days, don't count on it.

Due to Amazon's unfortunate programming error of cross-pollinating reviews across different versions of the same CD title, my original review appeared on two different Universal "Gold" 2CD editions, one released in the

, the other in

. This caused another reviewer to mistakenly disagree with me, so I have re-written the review for both versions.

Both releases have been remastered, but the Canadian release is definitely louder than the EU edition. There are 25 tracks on the EU, and 33 on the Canadian, and, of course, both have different artwork/booklets. There was quite a bit of available space on the EU edition that Universal unfortunately decided not to fill.

The EU set has all 15 remixed/re-recorded tracks from Addictions 1 & 2, but the Canadian only has 7. However, the Canadian has far more original album tracks than the EU.

Long story short: It's advisable to pick both of these releases up, as they provide a large section of RP remastered content. Both are now OOP, and there aren't many copies left, so if you want this material, buy it now.

Here are the tracklists for both releases. They tracks have been re-compiled in order of chronology, rather than the order they appear on each set (* = appears on both sets):

:

Every Kinda People (3.24)*

What's It Take? (3.29)*

Style Kills (4.17)*

I Dream Of Wires (4.34)*

Johnny & Mary (4.00)*

Some Guys Have All The Luck (3.08)*

The Silver Gun (5.02)*

I Didn't Mean To Turn You On (3.37)*

Addicted To Love SINGLE VERSION (4.25)

Sweet Lies (3.09)*

Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor) REMIX (3.11) Addictions 1

Looking For Clues REMIX (5.01) Addictions 1

Pride REMIX (4.06) Addictions 1

Woke Up Laughing REMIX (4.10) Addictions 1*

Best Of Both Worlds RE-RECORDING (4.11) Addictions 2

Can We Still Be Friends? RE-RECORDING (3.40) Addictions 2

Every Kinda People REMIX (3.48) Addictions 2*

Give Me An Inch REMIX (3.02) Addictions 2

Man Smart, Woman Smarter RE-RECORDING (3.02) Addictions 2

Maybe It's You REMIX (4.05) Addictions 2*

Remember To Remember RE-RECORDING (4.14) Addictions 2*

Sneakin' Sally Thru The Alley RE-RECORDING (4.45) Addictions 2

Too Good To Be True REMIX (2.57) Addictions 2*

You're Gonna Get What's Coming REMIX (3.58) Addictions 2*

You Are In My System RE-RECORDING (5.00) Addictions 2*

Note on the EU: The tracks on both discs appear in the same exact running order as Addictions 1 & 2, except there are two tracks curiously missing from each: "Some Like It Hot" on Disc 1, and "She Makes My Day" on Disc 2.

:

Sneakin' Sally Thru The Alley (4.25)

Sailing Shoes (2.45)

Which Of Us Is The Fool? (3.20)

Hey Julia (2.25)

Man Smart, Woman Smarter (2.34)

Give Me An Inch (3.19)

Every Kinda People (3.24)*

Best Of Both Worlds (3.58)

What's It Take? (3.29)*

Jealous (3.16)

Can We Still Be Friends? (3.40)

Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor 3.14)

Johnny & Mary (4.00)*

Some Guys Have All The Luck (3.09)*

Style Kills (4.17)*

I Dream Of Wires (4.34)*

Pride (3.29)

The Silver Gun (5.03)*

Hyperactive (3.58)

Discipline Of Love (3.26)

I Didn't Mean To Turn You On (3.37)*

Addicted To Love (6.06)

Not A Second Time (2.51)

Looking For Clues (4.56)

Sweet Lies (3.09)*

Simply Irresistible (4.17)

Woke Up Laughing REMIX (4.12) Addictions 1*

Maybe It's You REMIX (4.09) Addictions 2*

Remember To Remember RE-RECORDING (4.16) Addictions 2*

Every Kinda People REMIX (3.50) Addictions 2*

Too Good To Be True REMIX (2.58) Addictions 2*

You're Gonna Get What's Coming REMIX (4.00) Addictions 2*

You Are In My System RE-RECORDING (4.27) Addictions 2*

This collection has fine sound & good packaging. It would benefit greatly if it included some of the singles from his stint as lead singer of The Power Station. Overall a good buy.

There is no "eye-catching black slipcase" nor "embossing." I have ordered this twice on amazon, one from the UK and these look no different than any other in the Gold series.

Despite another reviewer's assertion that this is 'Addictions' volumes one and two remastered (with some added tracks), it is not.

I'm not a committed Robert Palmer fan and so cannot say for sure what is an original version of a particular song or is not. All I can do is give examples of what's the same as, or differs from the 'Addictions' releases.

What's the same:

Bad Case Of Loving You

Sweet Lies

Woke Up Laughing

Looking For Clues

Some Guys Have All The Luck

What's It Take

Johnny And Mary

Simply Irresistible

I Didn't Mean To Turn You On

You Are In My System

I Dream Of Wires

What's different:

Pride

Addicted To Love

Every Kinda People

Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley

What's missing (from 'Addictions')

Some Like It Hot

She Makes My Day

As I said, these lists are not complete, there may be other mixes / track lengths that differ from the 'Addictions' CD's but these are the songs I like, so the difference was obvious.

After checking other music clips on Amazon, it appears that the missing tracks and the versions found on 'Addictions' can be found on the 'Anthology, 1974-2001' release. I agree with others, that Robert Palmer's back catalog needs organizing and that it's high time that the original albums were all remastered.

I always found 'Addictions - Volume 2' to be a little dull, so three stars for the music and three stars for the lack of thought that went into this collection.