CD1
01. Greatest Day (Odyssey Mix)
02. It Only Takes A Minute (Odyssey Mix)
03. These Days (Odyssey Mix)
04. Could It Be Magic (Odyssey Version)
05. Everything Changes (Odyssey Version)
06. Travel Interlude
07. Out Of Our Heads
08. A Million Love Songs (Odyssey Mix)
09. Sure (Odyssey Mix)
10. Love Ain’t Here Anymore (Odyssey Version)
11. Spin
12. Cry (Odyssey Mix)
13. Said It All (Odyssey Mix)
14. How Deep Is Your Love (Odyssey Version)

CD2
01. Let’s Do It Again Interlude
02. Patience (Odyssey Mix)
03. The Flood (Odyssey Mix)
04. Back For Good (Odyssey Mix)
05. Get Ready For It (Odyssey Alt Intro)
06. Everlasting
07. Giants (Odyssey Mix)
08. Shine (Odyssey Alt Intro)
09. Never Forget (Odyssey Version)
10. Relight My Fire (Odyssey Version)
11. Babe (Odyssey Version)
12. Pray (Odyssey Version)
13. Rule The World (Odyssey Version)

Take That are, arguably, one of the nation’s favourite pop groups. The boy band – currently made up of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen – have been in action since 1989, producing hits like ‘Rule the World’ and ‘The Flood’. The boys have achieved success both within the UK – with 28 top 40 singles – and on the international stage, garnering 56 number one singles. Despite a rocky journey together, with both Robbie Williams and Jason Orange leaving the band, Take That continue to deliver some brilliant songs as a threesome.

Odyssey is their fifth compilation album release and is a mix of some of the band’s greatest hits, with remastered versions of previous singles, such as ‘These Days’. The album is mixed by Grammy-winning English musician and songwriter Stuart Price as well featuring snippets of all five original band members. Sigma and Boyz II Men also contribute to the album.

The success of the originals is undeniable, so how do the Odyssey versions compare? How can Take That possibly top what they have already produced? With remixed versions of classics like ‘Patience’ and ‘A Million Love Songs’ the band prove how talented they are, and with the help of other exemplary artists as well as Price, this album is nothing short of fantastic.

Other remixed tracks include ‘Greatest Day’; Barlow in particular has described this as an anthem which makes set lists for gigs easier due to it being a killer opening tune. The remix on the Odyssey version is the opening song on the album and starts with lyrics from ‘Never Forget’, leaving fans slightly confused. The differences are quite noticeable between these two versions, however nearing the end of the song, Take That throw in a live clip of Barlow asking fans to put their hands in the air. That, right there, is the magic of the remix, the listeners really feel the emotion of the journey Take That have been on. The Bee Gees classic, ‘How Deep Is Your Love’, on the other hand, was originally covered by the band in the mid ’90s, and proved to be a hit with the fandom, “Thatters”. Odyssey’s version is an even more modern version of the song. A perhaps refreshing piece of music for the fans to hear. A classic sung in a way that generates both nostalgia as well as feelings of excitement for the rest of the album. Another key song on the album, and one that may have come as a shock to listeners, is ‘Everything Changes’. This song features previous member Robbie Williams on lead vocals, with fans often feeling the song was about the boys leaving their loved ones behind whilst they went on tour. The remixed version for this album, surprisingly, keeps Williams’ vocals, whilst it drops the upbeat-disco nature of the song. This rhythm is replaced by a more orchestral vibe.

The album also presents three new songs: ‘Out of Our Heads’, ‘Spin’ and ‘Everlasting’. Each song is important to a different member of the band, less of the Barlow show. Fans have particularly taken to Owen’s ‘Everlasting’ which is an upbeat anthem that Owen supposedly sings to his kids as an alternative to a traditional lullaby at bedtime.

Fans and critics have been quick to comment on the brilliance of the album, with many noting the subtle references to the band’s history. My friend, and fellow UoS student, Erinn Sturgess, is a Take That super fan. The minute the album was released, she was listening to it on repeat. Whilst discussing their latest work, Erinn was keen to comment on how loyal fans will notice that sections between songs involved other Take That hits, and that the spoken words at the end of many of the songs, such as ‘Everlasting’, truly resonate with the listeners. The album humanises the band, which makes them even more relatable to the public.

It is quite clear that the songs were placed in a specific order. Disc one opens with ‘Greatest Day’ whilst the whole album closes with ‘Rule the World’. The choice for the latter perhaps encompasses how the band members feel Take That has impacted their lives. Closing this greatest hit album with this exact song emphasises how iconic the band is to British music history, and leaves listeners feeling comfortably reminiscent.

The album is fittingly named Oydssey. The word itself essentially means a long and eventful adventure. Frankly, nothing could summarise the journey this band has been on in a better way. Take That has been through several break-ups, rifts and reunions and has always produced some powerful and emotive songs, that are almost always a hit with the public. The remastered versions of their previous hits clearly represent what the band was in the 90s and 00s as opposed to the band they are now; the people they have become. Odyssey is magical to listen to and will no doubt evoke bittersweet feelings in anyone who sits down and plays the whole album through – the way it should be. ---Ottilie Young, theedgesusu.co.uk

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1. The Flood
2. SOS                  play
3. Wait
4. Kidz
5. Pretty Things
6. Happy Now
7. Underground Machine
8. What Do You Want From Me?
9. Affirmation           play
10. Eight Letters

11. Flowerbed (Hidden track)
Bass – Stuart Price (tracks: 2, 7 to 9)
Drums – Howard Donald (tracks: 1, 4), Karl Brazil (tracks: 2, 8)
Guitar – Ben Mark (tracks: 1, 2, 8), Stuart Price (tracks: 1, 7 to 10)
Keyboards – Gary Barlow, Stuart Price (tracks: 1 to 2, 4 to 9)
Leader [Orchestra] – Everton Nelson (tracks: 1, 3, 5)
Programmed By – Gary Barlow, Ryan Carline (tracks: 4), Stuart Price (tracks: 1 to 4, 6 to 11)
Strings – The London Studio Orchestra (tracks: 1, 3, 5)
Vocals – Take That 

Does it matter what the new Take That album sounds like? After all, the success of Progress – the first 'That album since 1995 to feature Robbie Williams – is assured. Websites crashed a fortnight ago when tickets for next summer's reunion tour sold out in record time. Bookies confidently predict a Christmas No 1. The new Michael Jackson album next month might queer that pitch a tad, but promoters claim the demand for TT tickets has been exceeding that for Jackson's ill-fated comeback. Take That's extraordinary second act has the kind of momentum little can stop.

Not even Progress will get in the way of progress, it seems. For this, in truth, is an album only intermittently recognisable as a Take That record. Historically, ballads are what Gary Barlow does best. There are none here.

Lead single "The Flood" still sounds like one of Barlow's songs, of course. Similarly, the prodigal Williams's paw marks are all over the likes of "SOS". The rest of "the lads" – the collective name for those whose neediness is less prominent – hover just recognisably in the background.

Since Take That's 2006 comeback single "Patience", the band have begun writing about themselves (something Williams has been doing for years, with varying degrees of appeal). Robbie's enjoyable kiss'n'make up single with Gary, "Shame", paved the way for the small flurry of reflexiveness here that just about locates this album's authors within it.

"Wait" – sung by Rob – is just one of a handful of songs in which romantic contretemps double as tunes about Rob and Gary's relationship. "Eight Letters", Gary's album closer, is the most gushing and canonical track here, and will go some way towards mollifying a slightly baffled listenership.

Because the rest of Progress is the kind of record critics often carp on at pop stars for not making. Written while the band toyed with renaming themselves "The English", Progress is oblique, eccentric, even bold. The arresting "Underground Machine" begins with the dragon-breath hydraulics, and someone – poor old Howard, probably – chiming in with "choo-choo"s. The glam, stomping "Kidz" beseeches: "Say nothing/ Deny everything/ Then make counter-accusations," like a paranoid version of Iggy Pop's "The Passenger". Astonishingly, Progress probably recalls one of Williams's commercially malfunctioning synth-pop experiments – Rudebox, say – more than the commercial gold of latter-day 'That. It is, often, a quirky club-pop record; a feat, when you consider how much Barlow loathes dancing.

Thanks to the heavy hand of Stuart Price, credited with re-energising Madonna, Progress also resembles his recent charges Scissor Sisters and the Killers (Price did Brandon Flowers's solo album). You suspect it's down to Robbie's grandiosity and paranoiac tendencies that it also sounds like Queen and Muse.

There are affecting moments: when Robbie mutters "Super-heavy elements/ Embrace me," on "Happy Now", for instance. But this offbeat record is not quite strange enough to be truly heroic. You do want to applaud "The English" for taking gambles. But with so much goodwill ker-chinging into the bank, the threats stalking Take That's future were only ever paper tigers. ---Kitty Empire, theguardian.com

Take That – nagrodzony nagrodami BRIT's brytyjski boysband, który powstał w 1990 r. w Manchesterze. Członkami grupy są Mark Owen, Jason Orange, Howard Donald, Gary Barlow i Robbie Williams. Do roku 1996 grupa wydała cztery płyty, po czym zespół zawiesił swoją działalność, a jego członkowie rozpoczęli solowe kariery. Niepełne 10 lat później, bo w roku 2005 zespół reaktywował się (już bez Robbiego Williamsa).

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01 The garden 
02 Greatest day 
03 Hello 
04 Said it all 
05 Julie 
06 The circus 
07 How did it come to this 
08 Up all night 
09 What is love 
10 You 
11 Hold up a light

John Barclay 	Trumpet
Gary Barlow 	Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
Howard Donald 	Vocals
London Studio Orchestra 	Brass, Ensemble, Strings
Wil Malone 	Brass Arrangement, Brass Conductor, String Arrangements, String Conductor
Ben Mark 	Guitar (Electric)
Perry Mason 	Orchestra Director, Orchestra Leader
Mark Nightingale 	Trombone (Tenor)
Jamie Norton 	Piano
Jason Orange 	Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals
Mark Owen 	Vocals
Jeff Rothschild 	Drums
John Shanks 	 Bass, Guitar, Keyboards, Producer
Philip Sheppard 	Cello
Owen Slade 	Tuba
Matthew Ward 	Violin
Derek Watkins 	Trumpet
Andy Wood 	Trombone 

A Take That reunion was perhaps as inevitable as the fact that Robbie Williams would decide to opt out of the proceedings. He inexplicably became the biggest star out of the franchise, in no way needing the support group the rest craved after their solo projects imploded. And there is something to be said for brand names: even if it didn’t jump-start the phenomenon, the 2006 reunion Beautiful World returned Take That to the upper reaches of the charts, and their 2008 follow-up, The Circus, builds upon its template, offering more of the same without quite seeming like pandering. Fittingly for a foursome facing 40, dance-pop has been banished in favor of well-manicured maturity, culled chiefly from Coldplay, whose tasteful, chilly surfaces blend easily with Gary Barlow’s Elton John and George Michael aspirations. Barlow is also responsible for the gentle Sgt. Pepper's pastiche of the title track, but the one responsible for giving The Circus a bit of a beat is Mark Owen, whose contributions, particularly the cheerfully respectful stomp “Up All Night,” are a welcome respite from the album’s steady, stately march. A little of this Coldplay influence goes a long way -- craftsman that he is, Barlow can mimic this sound as expertly as he mimicked Michael years ago, but these skyscraping sonics aren’t particularly suited for his brand of commercialism, so it’s fortunate that Owen is here to give this a bit of a pulse, with Howard Donald and Jason Orange acting as the bridge between them both. Without those mitigating factors, The Circus would be too coldly calculating -- but this is no longer Barlow’s show, it’s the work of a group where the sum is greater than the parts, and Take That have wound up with an adult pop album that isn’t compelling, but is somewhat comforting. ---Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic Review

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