If you have been looking around the world to get CD versions of Burt Bacharach’s A&M albums, there is no better time than the present to grab yourself a copy of the Something Big box set, issued by Hip-O Select. Fortunately, Bacharach’s A&M albums are under the same corporate umbrella as his Kapp recordings from the 60s, so it was an easy task to put all of them into a box set.  So, how good is this set?

This set is good enough that it will remind you of the old days of Rhino, where attention to detal are all part of the experience.  The list price of the set is around $90, so at $18 per disc, this is not cheap.  Compare it to some of the expensive Japanese imports available in the past, and it’s a bargain.  Keep in mind, too, that it is a limited edition, and painstakingly packaged.  The “case” is actually a hard-bound cloth cover, with booklet pages inside and paperboard CD sleeves.  The discs match the sleeves also–there are five different hues.  And the booklet notes are helpful.

What does the set cover?  All of Bacharach’s A&M albums.  Disc 1 gives us Reach Out and Make It Easy on Yourself.  Disc 2 features the self-titled Burt Bacharach album, Living Together and the first track of Futures.  Disc 3 features the Futures album, and Woman, his orchestral project with the Houston Symphony.  On Disc 4, you’ll find the Butch Cassidy soundtrack, a single-only track from that album, and the live Burt Bacharach In Concert album that only saw an original release in Japan.  Disc 5 is billed as “Essentials”, and contains the entire Hit Maker! album on Kapp, two additional tracks that appeared on another Kapp album (a reshuffled Hit Maker!), and some stray single tracks, including the single-only release of “Nikki” on the Liberty label.  Unfortunately due to various circumstances, the early rare tracks recorded as Burt & The Backbeats were not able to be included here.

I won’t get into the music here, other than to say that if you are a diehard Bachrach fan, especially of his A&M output, there is no question that you need to get this set.  New to Bacharach, or his own recordings?  Pick up a single disc compilation first.

Sound quality is really good on this set–I did not detect any of the nasties like heavy-handed compression or noise reduction.

Highly recommended!