For reasons unknown to myself, record company executives and
\npublicists, Christopher Cross still remains a trivia question in
\nthe world of popular music. In 1998, Cross put out the spectacular
\nalbum
\nWalking In Avalon<\/i>, which included a disc of new material as
\nwell as a live concert featuring his greatest hits. While this
\nshould have been the album that re-awakened people to Cross’s
\nmusic, it failed to pull the trigger.<\/p>\n
Somewhere in some boardroom, someone decided that if people
\nwouldn’t listen to some of the music the first time around, hit
\nthem over the head with it again, only in a more economical
\npackage. Thus was born
\nGreatest Hits Live<\/i>, the latest disc from Cross. While it’s
\nstill a very pleasant listen, if you were one of the few who did
\nbuy
\nWalking In Avalon<\/i>, this will be ground you’ve already
\ncovered. More on that in a minute.<\/p>\n
First, let’s focus on the selections at hand. Seven of the first
\n10 songs featured on this disc are the best-known tracks from
\nCross’s brief but powerful flirtation with popular acclaim. While
\nthe songs are now up to two decades old, there’s still a magical
\nquality about hearing Cross’s gentle vocals weave a pattern on
\ntracks like “Sailing” and “Think Of Laura.” Likewise, there’s
\nsomething to be said for re-discovering songs of Cross’s you’d
\nforgotten about over the years like “Never Be The Same” and “All
\nRight,” both of which are featured.<\/p>\n
The three songs in this first group that are the virtual
\nunknowns – “Every Turn Of The World,” “Open Up My Window” and “Is
\nThere Something” – are more than enough to pique one’s interest in
\nthe portion of Cross’s career that escaped public view for the most
\npart – though in the cases of discs like
\nWindow<\/i>, your best bet to get your hands on them would be
\nthrough an eBay auction. (One of these days, I will lay my hands on<\/p>\n
Rendezvous<\/i> and
\nBack Of My Mind<\/i> to round out my collection.)<\/p>\n
As a form of a “look what you missed” teaser, two tracks from
\nCross’s last studio effort are included in this package. “Walking
\nIn Avalon” and “Hunger” are both excellent selections that, if
\nthere is a God, awaken people’s attention to this album – though I
\nwould have bit the bullet and included my personal favorite, “When
\nShe Smiles”. (Mark my words: that song is going to be the focal
\npoint for a movie one day… even if
\nI<\/i> have to write the damned screenplay.)<\/p>\n
As an added bonus, an unlisted track finishes off the disc – a
\nlive version of “Alibi,” another track that the diehard Cross fans
\nwill instantly recognize. The rest of us will just have to be
\nmesmerized by it for the time being.<\/p>\n
Now for the bad news, if you can call it that: If you already
\nown
\nWalking In Avalon<\/i>, you’ve got these songs already. They all
\ncome from the same show that was featured both on the live disc as
\nwell as the video\/DVD release
\nAn Evening With Christopher Cross<\/i>. (As soon as I get the DVD
\ndrive fixed in my computer, I’ll be watching this title, as well as
\na few other new releases from CMC.) What might have been a neat
\nmarketing plan would have been to feature a different show of
\nCross’s, giving fans another reason to run out and snag this
\ndisc.<\/p>\n
\nGreatest Hits Live<\/i> is still as enjoyable a package, even in
\na condensed form from the
\nWalking In Avalon<\/i> version, and is just as deserving of your
\nattention. If anything, this disc captures the “top of the pops”
\nera of Cross’s music in a smaller package – and even if this is the
\nthousandth time you’ve heard “Ride Like The Wind,” it is guaranteed
\nto still put a smile on your face. Cross is supposed to have a new
\nstudio album coming out this year (though I’m reading that
\nRed Room<\/i> will be a repackaging of the studio side of
\nWalking In Avalon<\/i>). Let’s hope that
\nGreatest Hits Live<\/i> is finally the spark that relights the
\nfuse on the popularity aspect of his career. Lord knows he’s more
\nthan earned a second chance.<\/p>\n
2000 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault”. All rights
\nreserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
\nwritten permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of the
\nrecord label, and is used for information purposes only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6254],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36481","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-christopher-cross","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36481"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36481"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}