Tom Jones The Best Of 2000 Eacflac | Vtwi Top
Since no official Tom Jones album titled The Best of 2000 exists in major discographies, this could be a promo compilation or a digital‑only release for the 2000 holiday season. A likely fan‑assembled “best of” from that period might include:
For collectors, the string “EAC FLAC VTWi TOP” is a gold standard promise:
In contrast, a generic “Tom Jones MP3” from 2000 would likely be a 128kbps LAME encode, now considered obsolete.
We live in an era of streaming. Spotify and Apple Music offer Tom Jones, but they use variable bitrate AAC (typically 256kbps). While convenient, streaming cannot match the bit-perfect authenticity of an EAC FLAC rip from the original 2000 compact disc.
Why? Mastering differences. The 2000 CD version (the exact one referenced in this keyword) has a different loudness curve than the 2015 "remastered for iTunes" version. The original 2000 master is warmer, with less dynamic range compression. It represents the final era before streaming normalized -14 LUFS loudness.
Collectors seeking "vtwi top" are not just hoarding files; they are preserving a specific historical artifact—the sound of Tom Jones as he was heard by fans buying CDs in Virgin Megastores at the turn of the millennium.
In the vast landscape of the English novel, few works have balanced moral seriousness with sheer narrative exuberance as masterfully as Henry Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749). Often hailed as the best novel of the eighteenth century and a cornerstone of the comic epic in prose, Tom Jones is not merely a rambling picaresque adventure but a sophisticated, architectonic exploration of human nature, society, and the elusive nature of virtue. Fielding’s achievement lies in his fusion of classical literary models with a modern, almost cinematic sense of plot, creating a work that is at once a philosophical treatise on goodness and a rollicking, bawdy comedy of errors. To argue for Tom Jones as “the best” of its era—and indeed a contender for any era—is to recognize its revolutionary narrative voice, its psychologically nuanced hero, its intricate yet propulsive structure, and its enduringly humane ethics.
The Birth of the Novel as a Moral Playground
Before Tom Jones, the novel was still finding its feet. Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Richardson’s Pamela offered realism and epistolary intimacy, but Fielding sought something grander: a “comic epic in prose.” He drew from Homer, Virgil, and Cervantes, but he grounded their epic scope in the alehouses, country estates, and London bordellos of mid-century England. The novel opens with the discovery of an infant in the bed of the benevolent, childless Squire Allworthy—a founding event that sets in motion a vast moral experiment. Allworthy represents abstract, often misguided, benevolence; his sister, the hypocritical Bridget, embodies secret sin; and the villainous Blifil, Allworthy’s nephew, is a walking catalog of pretended virtue.
Into this landscape falls Tom Jones himself: handsome, warm-hearted, impulsive, and sexually active. Fielding’s genius is to make Tom neither a paragon nor a rogue. He steals, lies, and fornicates, yet his motives are never malicious. When he helps the gamekeeper Black George’s starving family, or refuses to betray his lover Molly Seagrim, or risks his life for a stranger, Tom acts from spontaneous compassion. Fielding thus poses a radical question: Is a man who breaks society’s rules but follows his heart’s natural goodness better than a man like Blifil, who keeps every rule yet harbors envy, cruelty, and greed? The novel’s answer, delivered through its sprawling plot, is an emphatic endorsement of active, flawed virtue over cold, legalistic “prudence.”
The Architectonics of Plot: Symmetry and Surprise
One of the most compelling arguments for Tom Jones as “the best” is its structural brilliance. Fielding famously divides the novel into eighteen books, each prefaced by an introductory chapter in which the narrator—a persona as memorable as any character—discusses his craft. These chapters are not digressions but metafictional blueprints. The narrator compares himself to a “master-cook” who seasons his dish with wit, and to a “guide” who leads tourists through a vast country. The plot itself, however, is a marvel of cause and effect. The first six books establish Tom’s childhood and his banishment from Paradise Hall; the middle six books follow him on the open road, where he encounters a dizzying array of rogues, clergymen, soldiers, and innkeepers; the final six books converge on London, where all secrets are unveiled. tom jones the best of 2000 eacflac vtwi top
Fielding’s great innovation is the “retrospective revelation”—what later critics would call the “well-made plot.” Early events that seem random (a lost muff, a chance meeting at an inn, a stolen bird) return with crushing significance. The pocketbook that Tom gives to a beggar turns out to belong to his unknown mother. The quarrel over a partridge at an inn foreshadows the revelation of his parentage. By the final book, every thread is tied: the foundling is revealed as the son of Allworthy’s sister and a clergyman’s son; Blifil’s treachery is exposed; Sophia Western, the novel’s heroine of wit and chastity, is finally united with Tom. This is not the episodic looseness of Don Quixote but a clockwork mechanism disguised as a joyous ramble. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge noted, the plot of Tom Jones is one of the three most perfect ever devised—along with Oedipus Rex and The Alchemist.
The Narrator: A Moral Companion
No discussion of the novel’s excellence can ignore Fielding’s narrator. He is urbane, learned, ironic, and deeply opinionated. He addresses the reader as “you, my good reader” and admits to manipulating our sympathies. He defends Tom’s flaws while condemning hypocrisy. He interrupts the action to discuss the nature of charity, the definition of a “great man” (which he scathingly redefines as a successful villain), and the proper use of wit. This narrator is the ethical spine of the book. He does not preach; he reasons. He invites us to laugh at Tom’s sexual escapades but also to question why we forgive Tom more readily than we forgive a woman who does the same. Indeed, the novel’s treatment of female sexuality is complex and uneven: Sophia is idealized as chaste and spirited, while Molly and Lady Bellaston are satirized or condemned. Yet the narrator’s self-awareness—his acknowledgment that readers “might be scandalized” by Tom’s affairs—shows Fielding’s sophisticated understanding of how fiction shapes morality.
Moreover, the narrator’s voice creates a democratic intimacy. He calls us “the reader” not as a passive recipient but as a co-adventurer. He warns us when a chapter will be dull, promises excitement ahead, and even apologizes for the novel’s length. This playful contract between author and audience was revolutionary. It broke the illusion of realistic transparency and instead made the act of reading a shared, conscious, and joyful labor.
Virtue in Action: Fielding’s Ethical Revolution
Tom Jones is often mistakenly reduced to a “comedy of forgiveness” or a mere celebration of high spirits. In truth, Fielding is a moral philosopher of considerable depth. He was a magistrate, a founder of London’s first police force (the Bow Street Runners), and a man who had seen cruelty and corruption firsthand. His ethics are anti-Puritan and anti-Jansenist. He rejects the idea that human nature is depraved. Instead, he argues that “prudence”—which for Blifil means selfish calculation—is not virtue. True virtue, embodied by Tom, is a disposition to do good, even when it leads to trouble. Tom’s worst mistakes occur when he lacks prudence: he nearly fights a duel, he sleeps with women he cannot marry, he is duped by villains. But his heart is never wrong. In contrast, Blifil is prudent but evil; Allworthy is good but naive; the squire Western is a buffoon but an honest one.
Fielding’s great moral insight is that virtue must be active, not passive. It cannot be merely abstaining from sin (Richardson’s Pamela) but must be the energetic pursuit of justice, kindness, and love. When Tom, at the novel’s climax, refuses to betray his friend Nightingale even to secure his own happiness, he demonstrates that goodness is not a state but a choice—often a costly one. The novel’s famous conclusion, in which Tom is forgiven and married to Sophia, is not a sentimental reward but a philosophical statement: a society that punishes genuine goodness while rewarding hypocrisy is corrupt. By restoring Tom, Fielding argues for a world where intention and action are weighed together.
Cultural Legacy and Contemporary Relevance
To call Tom Jones “the best of 2000” (if that phrase meant best of the millennium) is to recognize its influence on every subsequent novelist who blends humor with moral inquiry. Dickens’s David Copperfield and Great Expectations owe their orphan heroes and labyrinthine plots to Fielding. Thackeray’s Vanity Fair adopts Fielding’s omniscient, ironic narrator. Joyce’s Ulysses recreates Homeric parallels in a modern Dublin, just as Fielding recreated epic journeys in rural England. Even television and film—from The Simpsons to Fleabag—use the comic-epic structure of a flawed but lovable protagonist navigating a hostile world.
More urgently, Tom Jones speaks to our own age of moral absolutism and performative virtue. In a culture quick to condemn human imperfection, Fielding’s insistence on weighing the whole person—flaws, passions, mistakes, and all—is refreshing. He asks us: Would you rather live next to a warm-hearted adulterer or a cold-eyed saint? Is a man who cheats on his taxes but saves a drowning child worse than a man who pays his taxes but evicts a widow? These questions have not aged. The novel’s critique of hypocrisy, its defense of sexual pleasure, and its suspicion of those who claim to be “virtuous” without ever risking a mistake remain radical.
A Flawed Masterpiece
No honest assessment can ignore the novel’s limitations. Its treatment of women, while progressive in some ways (Sophia is intelligent, courageous, and she refuses Tom until he reforms), is often reductive. The sexual double standard is glaring: Tom’s affairs are comedic; Molly’s are scandalous. Fielding’s casual anti-Semitism (the character of the lawyer Mr. Dowling) and class biases also jar modern readers. Yet these flaws are the stains of their time, not the essence of the work. The essence is a belief that human beings, despite their appetites and errors, are capable of growth, redemption, and genuine love.
Conclusion: The Joy of the Journey
Why is Tom Jones the best? Not because it is perfect, but because it is alive. It has the energy of a country dance, the intricacy of a sonata, and the moral seriousness of a sermon—yet it never preaches. It invites us to laugh at a man hiding in a woman’s closet, then turns around and moves us with a scene of fatherly forgiveness. It respects the reader’s intelligence while never forgetting that reading should be a pleasure. In an age when novels are often grim, or ironic, or purely commercial, Tom Jones stands as a monument to what fiction can do: entertain us profoundly while making us better thinkers about character, society, and our own flawed hearts.
To read Tom Jones is to embark on a journey with a guide who is wise, funny, and forgiving. By its end, we have not only solved a mystery but also confronted our own prejudices about virtue. And we have laughed—genuinely, loudly, and often. That, perhaps, is the highest achievement of the comic epic in prose: to make us wiser and happier, simultaneously. For that reason alone, Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones remains not just the best novel of the eighteenth century, but one of the best companions a reader could ever find.
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The search for "Tom Jones The Best of 2000" primarily refers to the widely recognized compilation
20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Tom Jones , released on February 8, 2000, by Republic Records
While your query includes technical tags often associated with high-fidelity digital rips (EAC/FLAC), this specific album is the standard source for those high-quality versions.
Tracklist for "20th Century Masters: The Best of Tom Jones" (2000)
This 12-track collection focuses on Sir Tom Jones's definitive hits from the 1960s and early 70s: Apple Music It's Not Unusual What's New Pussycat? Thunderball Detroit City Green Green Grass of Home (It Looks Like) I'll Never Fall in Love Again Love Me Tonight Without Love Daughter of Darkness She's a Lady I (Who Have Nothing) Alternative "2000" Releases
Due to Tom Jones's massive popularity in the late 90s (following his Since no official Tom Jones album titled The
album), several other compilations were released in 2000 that may match your "VTWI" or specific rip criteria: Greatest Hits '2000 (Platinum Collection)
: An unofficial/Russian release featuring a much larger 25-track list, including later hits like "Sex Bomb" (with Mousse T) and "Mama Told Me Not To Come" (with Stereophonics). The Very Best of Tom Jones (Disky)
: A 2-CD UK compilation released in 2000 containing 30 tracks, including "Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow" "Puppet Man" Most Famous Hits - The Album : A 2-CD European set released in 2000 by Surpr!se records. Where to Listen or Purchase Tom Jones en Amazon Music Unlimited
The search terms "eacflac vtwi top" typically refer to high-fidelity audio specifications used in digital archiving, where stands for Exact Audio Copy (a tool used to rip CDs without errors) and Free Lossless Audio Codec that preserves original audio quality. Released in
, several "Best Of" compilations for Tom Jones captured his career's resurgence following his hit album
. These collections typically span his legendary 1960s baritone hits to his modern pop collaborations. Key Tom Jones "Best Of" Releases (2000)
20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Tom Jones
: A popular US release under Polydor/Republic Records featuring 12 essential tracks. Greatest Hits '2000 (Platinum Collection)
: A broader compilation, often found in international markets, featuring up to 25 tracks including his year 2000 collaborations like "Mama Told Me Not To Come" with Stereophonics. The Best Of Tom Jones - Volume 1
: Released by Musicbank, this 20-track collection focuses on iconic performances and covers such as "Unchained Melody" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". Essential Tracklist Highlights
Most "Best Of" collections from this era include these definitive hits: What's New Pussycat In contrast, a generic “Tom Jones MP3” from
A compelling compilation in 2000 had to achieve three things:
For Tom Jones, that meant balancing his iconic 1960s singles with strong interpretations from later in his career: soulful covers, live staples, and collaborations that underscored his adaptability.
