Unity: the Official Athens 2004 Olympics Album [Import]

1. Knocking On Heaven's Door

2. I Know

3. By Your Side

4. Universal Prayer

5. Thousand Years

6. Going All The Way

7. Issues

8. Love Together

9. Eyes On The Prize

10. We Want Peace

11. Oh Yeah

12. Mklfkwr

13. Stand

14. Everlasting

15. Still Standing

16. Pass The Flame

Unity: the Official Athens 2004 Olympics Album,Various Artists,EMI/Virgin,Rock

Average customer rating: Great for Everyday Listening and Fun! Why not the real McCoy? Great Idea, Bad Execution Time to here something else Why is this an Olympic authorised CD??

Unity: The Official Athens 2004 Olympic Games Album Various Artists Manufacturer: Capitol ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | International | Styles | Music Rock | International | Styles | Music General | Pop | Styles | Music Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music General | Adult Contemporary | Pop | Styles | Music Adult Alternative | Pop | Styles | Music General | R&B | Styles | Music General | Rap & Hip-Hop | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music General | Compilations | Rock | Styles | Music Similar Items: Harmony: The Official Athens 2004 Olympic Games Classical Album American Journey - Winter Olympics 2002 Summon the Heroes 1988 Summer Olympics Album: One Moment in Time Light Up The Land: 2002 Olympic Winter Games ASIN: B0002H2WSE Release Date: 2004-07-27

Tracks:

1. Knocking On Heaven's Door - Avril Lavigne
2. I Know - Destinys Child and Will I Am
3. By Your Side - Timbaland, Utada, and Kiley Dean
4. Universal Prayer - Tiziano Ferro and Jamelia
5. A Thousand Years - Sting and Mariza
6. Going All The Way - Beres Hammond and Les Nubians
7. Issues - Mr G
8. Love Together - Earth Wind & Fire and Roots Manuva
9. Eyes On the Prize - Wayne Wonder and Neneh Cherry
10. We Want Peace - Lenny Kravitz and Kadim Al Sahir
11. Oh Yeah - Macy Gray and Keziah Jones
12. MKLFKWR - Moby and Public Enemy
13. Stand - Alice Cooper and Xzibit
14. Everlasting - Greyer, Cheb Mami, and Dalaras
15. Still Standing - Brian Eno, Skin, and Rachid Taha
16. Pass The Flame - Trevor Horn, Yiannis, Tarkan, and Katia

Amazon.com

By now, most of us have come to grudgingly accept a certain woodenness in artists-coming-together-for-a-cause CDs. Normally, the higher the collective star wattage, the more somber the tone. Not so with Unity, which dives deep into the genre pool and skims the talent off the top, leaving the wet blankets out to dry. Brian Eno follows Alice Cooper, who follows Macy Gray and Neneh Cherry, who follow Sting, Destiny's Child, and Avril Lavigne, all of them sounding kick-it ready despite the seriousness of their goal (which is to promote participation, friendship, and peace at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games). Best of all, these musical cheerleaders for unity mix it up among themselves: Roots Manuva bounces off the old-school beats of Earth, Wind & Fire ("Love Together"); Timbaland waves his production wand over Utada and Kiley Dean ("By Your Side"); Lenny Kravitz lights a revolutionary fire alongside Kadim Al Sahir ("We Want Peace"); and--in what may be the best pairing of all--Moby and Public Enemy put their hands in the air, proclaiming power to the people ("MKLFKWR"). It's purposeful without the whiff of preachiness, worthy of its own kind of torch-passing ceremony. --Tammy La Gorce

Album Description

The Official Athens 2004 Olympic Games Album. An eclectic mix of top international artists appears on UNITY, hailing from 15 different countries across four continents. Artists include Lenny Kravitz, Sting, Destiny's Child, Avril Lavigne, Tarkan, and Kadim Al Sahir. With an underlying theme of harmony and peace, most of the 16 tracks on UNITY are exclusive to this album.

Customer Reviews:

Great for Everyday Listening and Fun!.......2005-10-14

I bought this and was greatly impressed with the result. I love the cd, many of the songs are terrific, a few you can get annoyed with after a while but still...awesome. For me my two favorite songs would be Issues and Pass the Flame. Issues just makes you want to sing along while at the same time makes you think about the world around you while listen. Pass the Flame is just totally...wow, it makes you really reflective and is almost trance like. Definitely my favorite track on the cd.

Why not the real McCoy?.......2004-12-11

As another reviewer noted, this is NOT the music used at the games! Why couldn't they put together a CD with the music used at the opening and closing ceremonies? Why not a DVD of those ceremonies (this time WITHOUT NBC's annoying commentary and constant commercial interruption!)? Those ceremonies, as are all Olympic Ceremonies, are carefully choreographed and usually magnificent occasions worthy of preservation on DVD. Somehow, it all just gets trashed and forgotten. After the tremendous expense involved, that seems incredibly wasteful. The drum beats at the beginning of the opening ceremony sent chills down my spine! Oh, to see and hear them again!

We can hear these dumb pop stars anytime. This CD is a pathetic peice of self-promotion. Avoid it.

Great Idea, Bad Execution.......2004-11-17

This seemed like such a good idea - get a bunch of music stars from different countries to collaborate on tracks. This album is certainly eclectic, but it doesn't work at all. All I can figure is that one of two things happened. 1) They couldn't get enough big names to do it, so they had to settle for former stars (a less kind person might say "has beens") such as Alice Cooper and Earth Wind And Fire. 2) Some 50-something year old recording executive got wind of the project and made some changes. I can just imagine some clueless guy who thinks "the kids still dig Bruce Springsteen" saying "Add some Urban music because kids buy that stuff. Add Earth Wind And Fire. Boy they sure were good, weren't they?"

I was stunned at how much Urban music (R&B, hip hop, etc.) is on this album. I don't like that kind of music at all and never listen to it. I have no frame of reference. Is the Destiny Child's song as good as their other stuff, better, or worse? I truly have no idea. Listening to this album didn't convince me that I was missing anything by not listening to that kind of music.

A few of these tracks work. Avril Lavigne's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" was inspired. Sting and Mariza work well together. In fact, I bought this because of that song. Alice Cooper and Xzibit were pretty good. Moby and Public Enemy were surprisingly good and the Brian Eno and Skin collaboration was nice. The rest is not so good. Lenny Kravitz tries, bless his heart, but his song with Kadim Al Sahir does not work at all. The styles just don't match. Maybe Lenny should have listed to Sting's song "Desert Rose" to figure out how to blend his music with Arabic music. Herbert Groenemeyer and Cheb Mami is really bad. Well, Herbert is really bad and Cheb can do nothing to save the track. Herbert is apparently some big deal in Germany, but hey, David Hasselhoff is a recording star there too. Why oh why couldn't they have gotten Nena to do the album instead of Herbert? The rest of the album is truly forgettable, although not necessarily bad.

My recommendation would be to try to buy individual songs if there's an artist you like, but I can't recommend this album.

Time to here something else.......2004-09-17

Well I wouldn't actually give a 5 star, but this cd is a collection of diferent types of sounds and surelly open to the world. Who said that it's anti-American? And who said that the whole world IS America? Is it that bad to sit down and listen something else, than the barkings in the hip-hop/rap/RnB music who's poor in mellody to say the least and rich in cursing (at least 4 times of the *f* word in every hip-hop song). European, African and Asian sounds to help people extend their music knowlege, I dont think this makes it anti-American. After all, music is food for our minds. Am I right or am I right? :))

Why is this an Olympic authorised CD??.......2004-09-12

After visiting Athens during the Olympics and attending many of the events I eagerly looked forward to a CD being released of all the music played at the venues to keep the crowd going. Unfortunately "Unity" is the CD they released. Of all the songs on this CD I recognise about 3 that were actually played in stadiums during the Olympic Games - so why is this the official Athens 2004 CD?

Average customer rating:

Unity: the Official Athens 2004 Olympics Album Various Artists Manufacturer: EMI/Virgin ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Rock | Styles | Music ASIN: B0002Q2280 Release Date: 2004-07-15

Tracks:

1. Knocking On Heaven's Door
2. I Know
3. By Your Side
4. Universal Prayer
5. Thousand Years
6. Going All The Way
7. Issues
8. Love Together
9. Eyes On The Prize
10. We Want Peace
11. Oh Yeah
12. Mklfkwr
13. Stand
14. Everlasting
15. Still Standing
16. Pass The Flame

Rock Music:

1. Universal Audio [Import]
2. Untitled [Import]
3. Up Against the Legends [Import]
4. V.1 Unearthed [Import]
5. Wolf on a String Ep [Import]
6. World on a Wire Version 2 [Import]
7. 15 de Coleccion [Original recording remastered]
8. 16 Legengary Covers as Sung by Elton John
9. A Hangover You Don't Deserve [Import]
10. A Long Walk on a Short Pier

Rock Music