The Rembrandts, new masters - their 2 1/2 compilation CDs

(18^th in a series - for an index with links, click on dermahrk, upper left)

After the release of their 4th album, Lost Together, The Rembrandts entered the current phase of their career. Most of their time is spent on solo projects, but they still play the occasional date together (this year they are doing some tour dates with Gin Blossoms). Many of these concert appearances are stripped-down acoustic gigs. You can hear samples of a couple of those performances, and see a video, on their new website therembrandts.net. By far the best website the group has ever had, it's chock-full of content, some of which I've hijacked for this series of posts. Whether they will ever release another album of new material is unknown at this point, but I'm not holding my breath.

Groups (and their record companies especially) like to release best-of collections in the twilight of their careers to capture the casual fan. Phil and Danny tried to get this to happen but were unsuccessful at first. I think, but cannot confirm, that they went back to their old record company Atlantic and tried to buy back the rights to their releases but were unsuccessful. They then took the route that many artists do, re-creating their strongest material through new recordings. Thus, in 2004, emerged "Choice Picks" on the aakee label.

They did a damn fine job of reproducing the sounds and songs of their original recordings, with enough minor variations to keep a long-time fan like me happy. At least half a dozen of these remain on my iPod for those reasons. But the real drawing card here was a new song Chasing Down A Rainbow , which is the red button song attached to this post. I think this song, and the other to follow (see below) are stronger than anything on Lost Together, their 4th all-new CD, and show that they have lost none of their abilities to turn out first-class pop-rock gems.

But, what about the 1/2 release? This CD, Choice Picks, was released again on the Fuel 2000 label in November of 2005. This time, however, the tracks varied in that there was a different new original tune appending the album called Don't Give Me Up, which you can hear in Comments. Luckily, both new tracks as well as all of Choice Picks are available on iTunes, so I didn't have to spring for another copy to get this song. Furthermore, Chasing Down A Rainbow is available as a free download on their new website.

Seven months later, The Rembrants' Greatest Hits appeared.

Atlantic apparently sold or leased the rights to the Rhino label, well-known as a re-packager of old material. While I'm not inspired to buy it for the packaging, since I own all of the 20 tracks already, I have to say it's not a bad little one-disc compilation (though I would love to see a box set, of course - dream on - full of rarities). The selections pulled off of their 4 albums together are pretty stellar, including some great tracks that are non-hits off the albums as well as the expected. Furthermore, they include two tracks from the Great Buildings' 1981 LP where Phil and Danny first joined up, and 3 cuts from Danny Wilde's solo LP Spin This (which was credited, at the label's insistence, as Danny Wilde & The Rembrandts.

Thus ends the currently released recordings of The Rembrandts and their side and solo projects.

Next: The end of the series (for now) - Phil Solem's upcoming solo release, unimaginatively titled "Solo".