This is a great collection of material from Playboy/Playgirl onwards to the end of the band. Some of the songs presented here are different mixes of album tracks while others are just the original.

There is enough sortof “new” material here to make this worth it for the Pizzicato Five fan. It opens with a new high speed piano and strings Jazz version of “I (All About Me)”. “Such a Beautiful Girl like You” appears with a nice heavy rolling analog synth bass line and harder acoustic guitar than the album version. “The Night Is Still Young” makes yet another appearance with a minimalist electronic mix, bordering at times on Ryoji Ikeda’s avant garde works.

A couple of tracks from “Sa e ra…” appear on this collection, but come from the EP’s, with more appearances by Maki Nomiya versus the album versions of the tracks.

The big standout piece is “Summertime Summertime” which originally appeared on a Pizzicato Five album from the 80’s (I believe it was on ‘Couples’). This version is a new recording, featuring Maki. It’s piano with a bit of big band thrown in.

The edition pictured here is the 2006 Reissue. This series of reissues features a large photograph on the bottom of the jewel case with ‘pizzicato’ in large type across the bottom. It’s nice for these to be released again, even if they’re not in the US, as it makes some of these albums easier to find. However! I would recommend finding an original of this one.

The original packaging has the exterior stylings of a formal party invitation. The packaging unfolds to reveal full pane video screenshots (all from ‘Twiggy Twiggy’, I believe) with phrases like “goodbye baby and amen”, cementing the fact that this collection was released to mark the end of Pizzicato Five. On the other side of these pictures are many TV screen shaped pictures of Pizzicato Five videos, photo shoots, and more. Inside the packaging is a small book with lyrics (in japanese) and numerous black and white pictures of Maki and Konishi from a couple of photo shoots – one in tennis gear, one with Konishi in a bear costume and Maki in an old polka-dot farm dress, one with them in band major uniforms. The 2006 reissue has none of this.