It took me a while to find my own copy of this cd as they seemed to be selling out all over the city. This is a muct buy! I am starting out my review by saying that so those who may not like it or have reservations do understand where I stand. Also please forgive any sort of exuberance I may have for this project but this is what I feel the public has been waiting for. I know many Warren fans will be disappointed that he is not included on this album, and there are so many songs that they could make an Essentials 2-8 series for, but I think e-prop which was a small division of EMI (it has now been reabsorbed into EMI) did a great job of picking some of the best of Duran's Early years.

As a fan from 1981 I can tell you I was enthralled with the project it has the original night version of Planet Earth with some of the best bass work JT has ever put out. Drumming, guitar work, keyboards and yes even vocal is fabulous. These are what made them the fab five! Young fans will appreciate this because many of these extended mixes are not available today or are collector items which can run pretty expensive. Older fans will get to hear songs or versions of songs they haven't been able to get on cd!

Of course not every song is my favorite but I think it is a great compilation. The liner notes are written by Nick and provide an enormous amount of insight on how the band got created and how they chose to do certain things. They really have to be read, to be completely honest I can't find one thing wrong with this project.

I don't know one fan who has bought this that was disappointed, and I know a number of former fans just dying for the stores to restock the shelves here. I think the boys have a winner! On a score of 1-10, a 9.5 (more pictures of the band would have been cool).