Rod Stewart - Original Album Series (5CD Boxset) (2010)

Some fans will tell you Stewart was never the same after upping sticks for Los Angeles and severing work ties with The Faces. In truth, there were still several flashes of greatness on Atlantic Crossing and A Night On The Town, but the decline went into overdrive with the first album in this five-disc compedium, 1980’s Foolish Behaviour.

Each of its 10 tracks are coo-written by Stewart and the five members of his then-touring band, a committee approach that results in synthetic blandness, from which the folky singalong Oh God I Wish I Was Home Tonight offers the only respite. 1981’s Tonight I’m Yours is more of the same, salvaged only by the anthemic Young Turks, but 1984’s Camouflage is almost unlistenable karoake cover hell.

Every Beat Of My Heart (1986) is overrun with soporific ballads and creaky mid-tempo rockers with little character, though there’s the sense of Stewart gamefully trying to recapture his past on the more fleshed-out Vagabond Heart (1991). The set only earns its third star by dint of being relatively inexpensive at ?14.99, and wisely ignoring Stewart’s two biggest turkeys of the period, Body Wishes and Out Of Order.

Tracklist:

Disc: 1
01. Better Off Dead
02. Passion
03. Foolish Behavior
04. So Soon We Change
05. Oh God I Wish I Was Home Tonight
06. Gi' Me Wings
07. My Girl
08. She Won't Dance With Me
09. Somebody Special
10. Say It Ain't True
11. Moment Of Glory
12. Downtown Train
13. If Only

Disc: 2
01. Tonight I'm Yours (Don't Hurt Me)
02. How Long
03. Tora Tora Tora (Out With The Boys)
04. Tear It Up
05. Only A Boy
06. Just Like A Woman
07. Jealous
08. Sonny
09. Young Turks
10. Never Give Up On A Dream

Disc: 3
01. Infatuation
02. All Right Now
03. Some Guys Have All The Luck
04. Can We Still Be Friends
05. Bad For You
06. Heart Is On The Line
07. Camouflage
08. Trouble

Disc: 4
01. Here To Eternity
02. Another Heartache
03. Night Like This, A
04. Who's Gonna Take Me Home
05. Red Hot In Black
06. Love Touch
07. In My Own Crazy Way
08. Every Beat Of My Heart
09. Ten Days Of Rain
10. In My Life

Disc: 5
01. Rhythm Of My Heart
02. Rebel Heart
03. Broken Arrow
04. It Takes Two - Stewart, Rod & Tina Turner
05. When A Man's In Love
06. You Are Everything
07. Motown Song, The
08. Go Out Dancing
09. No Holding Back
10. Have I Told You Lately
11. Moment Of Glory
12. If Only