The MCA Albums 1973-1975

Since this is a three album box set, I won't go into too much detail about the music, and instead will mostly focus on the contents of the set itself, and the quality of the sound. I'll say more on the actual music in individual reviews for the three albums included in this set.

To start with, if a Budgie album box set was to only include three albums, these are the three you would want. I suspect that if you polled most Budgie fans, these are the three albums that would most often rank at the top, and in my opinion they also represent the best intro for beginners. Many of Budgie's best known songs are included on these three albums, such as Breadfan, Parents, In For The Kill, Crash Course In Brain Surgery, Zoom Club, and Breaking All The House Rules. It's also worth noting that Budgie's first ever compilation, Best of Budgie from 1975, only included songs from these three albums.

The packaging for these three CDs is pleasantly detailed, all three housed in mini replica vinyl gatefold sleeves with lots of pictures, and a picture booklet complete with a brand new and rather informative write up specifically for this release. All quite excellent! There's even a glowing quote by Dave Mustaine himself in the write up!

So how does this all sound? Well being my first ever Budgie purchase of these three albums, I have nothing else to compare it to, but it definitely sounds better than any YouTube offering that I have encountered. The sheer ferocity of Budgie's early heavy metal attack in my car speakers sounds great as I blast on down the highway on my way to work, and as I pull into the parking lot, my coworkers listen to my car in amazement that a band named Budgie could sound so ferocious. So yea, these CDs sound good!

Heck, Napoleon Bona-Part One and Two gallops so hard that it sounds like an Iron Maiden song, five years before Iron Maiden ever released an album! That brings me to one minor complaint though, which is that the separate tracks for Part One and Two have been improperly split up. Part One clocks in at 6:12 and Part Two at 1:03, whereas in actuality Part One is only 2:36, and Part Two is 4:43. Not an issue if you listen to them in order, but it does lead to a jarring segue in a mixed playlist.

Finally, at $13 CAD on Amazon, there's no reason not to grab this box set unless you already own all three of these albums on CD. Do it, and ride the Budgie into the heavy metal sky! A score of 95% for the box set as a whole, and a 90% average for the music on the individual albums.