Box Sets

Bee Gees

"We were like one soul in three bodies," writes Robin Gibb about his late twin Maurice (1949-2003) and older brother Barry, who in turn now includes the trio's youngest brother Andy (1958-1988) under the Bee Gees' umbrella, although the teen sensation was never a member of the group. Each Gibb (or the estate thereof) curated his own disc mix on the 4-CD Mythology, which bottoms out its allegorical narrative due to the fact that none of the four siblings inhabited the soul of a drummer or bassist. Songs and harmonies still rise to the title of the brothers Gibb's last peak smash, 1979's Spirits Having Flown, but their musical mattes clank a tin can "Tragedy." Chic's rhythm section – wanted! Barry's unerring white funk opens into the Stevie Wonder-lite "Jive Talkin'" and Saturday Night Fever soundtrack ("More Than a Woman," "Night Fever," "How Deep Is Your Love," "Stayin' Alive"), while Robin's second disc cycles back to the beginning, its first dozen tracks summarizing 2006 box set The Studio Albums 1967-1968. Robin's throaty vibrato preps debut indelible "I Started a Joke," after which the 1970s and 1980s arrive overarranged ("My World"), overwrought ("Run to Me"), and overprogrammed ("Juliet"). Disc three fills in between the two, drum machines killing anything with promise. Maurice demonstrates the least personality vocally, sounding like the Alan Parsons Project ("Man in the Middle," "Omega Man"), although "Country Woman" could almost pass for Michael Nesmith. Andy's meteoric debut, a pair of No. 1 blockbusters in "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" and "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water," co-written by himself and Barry, give way to vocal stylizing that approximates a poor man's version of the eldest Gibb. When the Bee Gees back him on 1980's "Desire," which they wrote, he all but vanishes.