As (long) promised, this week brought us the physical release (and digital re-release) of last December's shockingly amazing 'All You Need Is Now' from Duran Duran - also known as the band who refused to die. ("Planet Earth" came out 30 years ago - THIRTY YEARS - and they're still here. Whod'a thought?)
The good: it's still incredible and "Girl Panic!" will go down as one of the greatest songs of the decade, mark my words.
That out of the way, they've totally made a mess of the entire thing. First off, as feared, they've made the album too long by mixing in five new songs with the original nine. (9 tracks is the perfect length for a Duran Duran album as the first three LPs - and 'Notorious'-minus-"Winter Marches On" - will attest to.) That's not to say the new songs aren't quality. We've had "Medeterranea" as part of an EU-only iTunes EP since the album came out and it's still great in it's second-side-of-the-first-LP kind of way. Even better is the fantastically titled "Too Bad You're So Beautiful", which is essentially "Girl Panic!"'s twin sister - one wonders if I would be raving about it as much as "Girl Panic!" if it had appeared in the original track list. My guess is yes. There's also "Other People's Lives" which is yet another track that would have sounded very comfortable on 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger', so a win. The last two are orchestral interludes based on the title track arranged by Owen Pallett, which are fine but a bit pointless - this is a Duran Duran BIG pop album not some epic concept album that needs pallet-cleansers (see what I did there?), so they do drag things down a bit.
The big culprit, though, is the formatting. What a fucking disaster. For years, fans have been "rewarded" with different bonus tracks being available through different distributors or distribution methods but this has to be the worst case of fucking the fans over by far. Depending on where you buy the album in the UK, you get either the 14-track expanded album, one bonus track and a bonus remix, a different bonus track, yet a different bonus track, or the first two bonus tracks plus a bonus disc with two additional remixes. In the US we're slightly luckier with only four options: the straight-up 14 track album, a 15-tracker with one of the UK bonus tracks, a 16-track CD with the same bonus track and one of the remixes from the UK bonus disc (but NOT the one from the bonus track/remix pairing in the UK - got that?), or a 17-track disc with all three studio bonus tracks but no remixes only available at Best Buy. (This is, as far as I can tell, the only way to get two of those tracks on CD as they're digital only in the UK.) The other two remixes are MIA as of now in the US, as is the mentioned-by-name-by-Nick-Rhodes-in-an-interview fourth bonus track entitled "This Lost Weekend" which is on none of the myriad of options presented above for either country. (Fitting, I suppose.) There's a DVD with some of those different configurations up there with your typical EPK type crap plus a band commentary on the main 12 tracks of the album, but that gets kind of lost in the bonus track mania.
*deep breath*
Not done yet. Best Buy has the best option, so off I go to do some shopping. Well, someone somewhere fucked something up and there are multiple SKUs for the album in their system - as best I can tell, for the 14-track version, the 15-track version and the exclusive 17-track version. The 17-tracker + DVD is being advertised in their ad for $11.99, which isn't terrible in this day and age, and when I show up in the store at 10:05 on Tuesday morning there's only one version on the shelf - 17 tracks but no mention of the DVD, though the packaging looks like it could be holding one. I don't care too much about the DVD - right? - so I'll take my chances. When I get to the cash register it rings up at $13.99. I feel a bit silly arguing over $2, but at this point I have already bought the album once back in December and am feeling a bit put out by this bonus track nonsense so I bring it to the cashier's attention. We have to go back to the shelf to look at the shelf-tag and the SKUs don't match - ugh. I point out this is clearly the version being advertised in the circular - hoping she won't notice that the DVD isn't explicitly mentioned on the packaging, which she doesn't - but she has to call her supervisor over to ask. Fine, I work in retail I get it - but then she gives me the run around for a good five minutes about how it's a different version (it's not), that it's not the one being advertised in the ad (which is the same argument, and it is) and we putz around on the computer for a while trying to figure it out. She eventually begrudgingly gives it to me for $11.99 - along with a side dish of attitude - and pulls every other copy off the shelf to "try and figure out what's going on". I've read and heard similar stories so way to stay on top of things, Best Buy. (Granted, I'm sure the new Duran Duran album is not their top priority, but if you're going to be the exclusive retailer of something you really should get your shit together.) There also is apparently a pressing issue with some batches of the Best Buy version where the last half of the album is riddled with digital noise but I thankfully didn't experience that. There's commentary on the decline of the music industry somewhere in there but I can't even be bothered at this point.
So now we get the three bonus tracks and how are they? Bonus track-y. "Too Close To The Sun" is pure 'Astronaut' - fine by me, I still maintain it is a fine album - sounding a bit like one of the dubbier mixes of "(Reach Up For The) Sunrise". That said, it is a bit out of place with the rest of the album. "Early Summer Nerves" sounds to me like what I wanted 'Red Carpet Massacre' to be - a modern update of 'Notorious' - so I love it, even if it is a bit short and also out of place. "Networker Nation" - the bonus track that appears on the most versions of the album if you're trying to keep score at home - is the one true mis-fire, with it's mention of "Facebook friends" and terrible modern club beat. Ugh. If I recall, none of the three were part of the sessions with Mark Ronson that produced the main album, being completed with different producers after the fact and it really shows. (It also doesn't bode well for the future, but we'll worry about that when we get to it.)
End result? Still one of my favorite albums of the past few years and one that I have a feeling I'll be coming back to for a long time to come. Your best bet is to keep at least a playlist with the original 9 track running order and then play around with the extra tracks to make a solid companion EP. And, while I don't generally condone this kind of thing, steal the fuck out of whatever bonus track(s) your edition doesn't have because this is bull. shit.
Duran Duran have no right to be this good in this day and age, but that's what makes the whole thing so fun. I really, really wish I had been able to get tickets to the show at the Phoenix in Toronto next month - it's going to be a total blast.
NPR is streaming the new PJ Harvey album this week ahead of its release. Despite what the glowing reviews are saying it's not terribly good, however a mediocre new PJ Harvey is better than no new PJ Harvey I suppose. ("In The Dark Places" has a bit of an "It's You" vibe going for it and the title track thankfully does not have that stupid "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" sample in it, but that's about all the good I can pull from it for now.)
Far more interesting is 'Hotel Shampoo', the new LP from SFA's Gruff Rhys which is also streaming this week courtesy of his website. I haven't been able to drum up much excitement for this one for some reason - still a bit burned from 'Dark Days/Light Years' I guess - but the album continues in the breezy pop vein of 2007's 'Candylion' and is pretty solid from start to finish. (I'm personally waiting for the lo-fi follow up to 'Yr Atal Genhedlaeth' but I might be alone on that one.) It's definitely the better bet of the two, but truthfully both are probably just force of habit at this point.
Of all the bands that are no longer with us, I would have to say I miss Catherine Wheel the most. [Yeah, I've gone on about this before...no wait, come back!] Similarly, with all this reissue/repackage madness going on the past few years, the one band I would love a thorough catalogue overhaul of is - you guessed it - Catherine Wheel.
So imagine my excitement last fall when I get a text from my friend Joe that Cherry Red is working on a re-issue of 'Ferment'. "Hooray!", I think, even though I know the finished product will certainly fall far short of the ideal package I've created in my head. [Imagine it: disc one is a DualDisc with the original album on one side and a sparkling new 5.1 mix on the other. Yeah, I know, that's so totally 2006, but imagine a well done one, something along the lines of the 5.1 mix of 'Black Celebration' - specifically "Fly on the Windscreen - Final". Amazing. Throw the period promo videos on there while you're at it. Anyways, disc two could go a few ways. You can't fit all the b-sides onto one disc, so you can either stick some at the end of CD1 and put the rest on CD2, but that doesn't leave much room for unreleased material. You could cherry pick the best, but then you aren't really getting a complete picture AND without a doubt you're going to miss someone's favorite, however this leaves more room so it's probably the best bet. There are confirmed to be unreleased masters sitting in the vaults, so let's dig those out, and there's probably more demos where those on the second "I Want To Touch You" 12" came from so unearth them as well. Actually, scratch that - let's make it a THREE disc set with all of the b-sides at the end of disc one and taking up disc two and dedicate disc three to demos and live stuff and "new to us" material. See how out of hand this can get, and fast?]
Anyways, so I've been waiting quite impatiently for some info to come out. And then, all of a sudden, there's a track listing. And what are we getting? A one disc set - boo! - with six bonus tracks: "Balloon" [not a bonus to us in the US, folks], "Intravenous", and the whole of the "30 Century Man" EP.
Weak.
Not only are both of the EPs those bonus tracks are sourced from relatively easy to track down in this day and age - two "30 Century Man"'s recently sold for under $10 each on eBay, I had no idea it had gotten that inexpensive - but anyone who is interested in buying this re-issue more likely than not already has them, perhaps multiple times over. [Hello "Balloon" CDS/12"/7", nice to see you.] The promise of "extensive liner notes" doesn't a worthwhile re-issue make.Perhaps those who needed to be involved weren't playing nice - watching from a far as a fan, it wouldn't totally surprise me - but if you're going to put together a [relatively] niche re-issue, you really need to make it worthwhile for those it's aimed at to purchase again. If there was a vinyl edition coming out, I'd be a little more forgiving - good luck tracking an original down for less than $50. But there's not, so I'm not. Talk about a crushing disappointment.
*sigh*
Blur's "Country House", with time as distance, is both much better and twice as obnoxious as you remember.
Happy December.
A solid year after it first appeared on them thar internets, Annie's fan-fucking-tastic "Songs Remind Me Of You" finally - and rather quietly - got a single release. Yay!
Oh, it's iTunes only? Slightly less exciting, but at least it's out there. And, for once, iTunes US gets it with the rest of the world. OK, we can deal with thi...
...oh, wait. It's only the album version? No b-sides, no remixes, so fucking live tracks from the i-fucking-Tunes festival last year? Thanks for bothering, but nevermind.
I suppose this means we won't be getting that Richard X extended mix I had imagined in my head. *sigh*
So for the past five days or so, I've been listening to one of two things: the amazing, amazing, amazing La Roux album or [more often than not] that piece on the left - the 22-disc, damn near complete Girls Aloud singles box set.
I've always had a love/hate [see what I did there?] thing with the Aloud. On one hand, they've released some of the best pop singles of the decade - "Sound of the Underground", "Love Machine", "Biology", "No Good Advice", all brilliant. On the other hand, they've released some of the worst, most unnecessarily pointless cover versions of the decade: "Jump"? "I'll Stand By You"? "I Think We're Alone Now"? I really don't think anyone was crying out for updates of those. [I used to think "I'll Stand By You" was their worst recorded moment, but then I came across their cover of Wheatus' "Teenage Dirtbag" - hardly what you'd call listenable in the first place - on the b-side to the quite lovely "Whole Lotta History" and I very quickly changed my mind.]
Anyways, the box itself cost close to $100 and was a solid 8+ week wait between order and delivery. So was it worth it?
Er, yes and no. Yes, I'm a completion freak and having pretty much everything all in one place is amazing. This box also marks the CD debut of a solid chunk of tracks that were previously digital, promo or vinyl [usually picture disc] only, so that's nice as well. And who doesn't love a good megamix or four? On the flip side [see, I did it again], many of the whopping 151 tracks that make up the box don't exactly beg for a second listen. Especially on the singles for the second, third and fourth albums when pretty much all of the remixing duties were handled by some faction of the Xenomania team - who produced the singles in the first place - things tend to get a bit tedious. There is a bonus disc of previously unreleased tracks - plus - however it is only 8 tracks - minus - and a good chunk of those 8 are just alternate lyric versions. Bonus disc fail.
That said, there are some gems buried in here - many pretty readily available on a sub-$5 CD single eBay or the Amazon marketplace, but that's besides the point - and it is kind of a badge of honor to be able to say "I made it through the Girls Aloud box set and lived to tell the tale."
If anything, it's nice to finally have one of their top 3 moments - rare for such a group, a picture disc vinyl-only b-side, the early-90's dance-act-with-female-guest-vocalist-esque "Memory Of You" - in CD quality. [Even if the bass is a little less exciting in HQ.]
As an art object, A+. As something you'll want to pull out and listen to over and over....notsomuch. Oh well.
10 choice cuts:
"Androgynous Girls" [b-side to "Love Machine"]
"Memory Of You" [b-side to "The Loving Kind"]
"Nobody But You" [b-side to "Biology"]
"It's Your Dynamite" [b-side to "Untouchable"]
"Girls Allowed [Almighty Mix]" [b-side to "Jump" - total club cheese but it's tolerable that early on, plus it's one of their finest non-single tracks to begin with]
"Some Kind of Miracle [Illicit Mix]" [previously unreleased, on 'The Rarities Disc']
"Life Got Cold [29 Palms Mix]"
"Biology [Benitez Beats]"
"Girls Aloud Megamix" [b-side to "Something Kinda Ooooh"]
"Whole Lotta History [Acoustic Version]" [quite lovely version of an underrated single]
bonus: "I'll Stand By You [Gravitas Vocal Dub Mix]" and "See The Day [Soundhouse Masterblaster Mix]" [completely ridiclous clubbed to death overhauls of two snorefests]
Things to avoid:
Any cover version that isn't "Girls On Film"
Any Tony Lamezma remix after your first two - "The Show" and "Love Machine" pop up first and they're probably your best bet.
"Girls on 45 Volume 2" - it just doesn't work for some reason, though the other megamix and album medleys are good fun
The edit/dub versions of the remixes - especially during the 'Out of Control'-era when they're all stacked in a row. Nice to have, yes. Nice to listen to back-to-back-to-back, no.
The interviews on the "Sound of the Underground" and "The Show" discs - all they do is reinforce my idea that the girls only wanted to be famous and became pop stars because they happened upon the opportunity, not because they care anything about music.
As (long) promised, this week brought us the physical release (and digital re-release) of last December's shockingly amazing 'All You Need Is Now' from Duran Duran - also known as the band who refused to die. ("Planet Earth" came out 30 years ago - THIRTY YEARS - and they're still here. Whod'a thought?)
