Album Review: Return to Forever - "Return to Forever: The Anthology" - 2008 - Jazz Fusion

Return to Forever: The Anthology is a compilation album covering jazz-fusion band Return to Forever's most popular period. From 1973 to 1976, covering the following albums: Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, Where Have I Known You Before, No Mystery, and Romantic Warrior. It is undoubtedly RTF's "hardest" era, musically speaking. Each album is a whirlwind of instrumental fusion madness, guaranteed to knock you to the floor.

As far as compilation albums go, Anthology is very inclusive and only a few small pieces of music are missing. The four albums in their original form span a total of 2 hours, 52 minutes. The 2-disc compilation set crams as much data as possible onto each disc, resulting in 2 hours and 29 minutes of music. Doing the math, not too much is left out, but purists may find this annoying. For what it's worth, the omitted songs were carefully chosen, and most agree that they were all the weakest tracks of their respective albums. On the plus side, the first and last albums are represented in their entirety, a positive decision because each of these is lacking in filler.

Aside from the convenience of having four albums on two discs, the other reason to own this compilation is the sound quality, which is absolutely top-notch. The audio presented here is remixed and remastered from the original tapes, the former of which provides the most change in sound from the original album releases. The new mixes are not terribly different; one might compare them to the remix treatment received by the Genesis early albums box set.

The remix on this release has significantly changed some of the qualities of the music, resulting in a different atmosphere and/or mood than the original. In a direct comparison, the simplest description I can give is that the new mixes sound just that: new. The sound is of an album that was recorded and released in 2008. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but in this case much of the magic of the original recording is lost. The songs sound as if they were recorded in a studio. Yes, it's true that they were... but the original mixes did not create the vision of four guys playing in a studio; it was just great music. The original mixes (for the first three albums listed in this article) had heavy reverb effects, which were removed (or rather, did not return,) for this set of remixes. The result is that the sound is quite flat and very studio-like.

The mastering unfortunately suffers from the same problems of most remasters in the 21st century. The volume is boosted and the sound is compressed, cutting dynamics for the sake of trying to fit in with the modern crowd. Even with the band at the helm and some "award winning engineer", they still couldn't manage to defeat the loudness wars. (For those interested, the replaygain value of this album is -8.8 db) Despite this, the sound quality is crisp and crystal clear, without being too harsh. A little warmness would not have hurt, and it is slightly depressing to imagine what would have resulted in the group putting their hearts into working with the original mixes.

Overall, this compilation is great for anyone looking to discover a "new" old group with legendary status. If you are already a seasoned Return to Forever veteran, it is a great chance to rediscover your favorites, but don't throw the vinyl out just yet.

Recommended.