Who doesn’t love a good drunken purchase? After a few high-quality IPAs, I woke up the next day to a notification saying my copy of this album would be delivered later that afternoon. It seems that drunken me has a thing for 80s remixes, thankfully, sober me does too…
So what do we have here? A mixed bag of remixed/extended versions of some of the biggest songs of the 80s and a couple of not-so-big hits. There are good songs included like ‘Imagination’ by Beloius Some, some less well-known tracks like ‘Spend The Night’ by The Cool Ones and some cracking mixes like ’We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off’ by Jermaine Stewart
There are tracks I didn’t know I knew like ‘Hanging On A String’ by Loose Ends which was a pleasant surprise, songs like ‘Solid’ by Ashford & Simpson which made me shrug, and some absolute worldys like the 7-minute long version of ‘People Hold On’ by Coldcut featuring Lisa Stansfield. The problem with this album for me is that too many tracks are just ok and not enough bangers.
What really gets me is that the vinyl edition costs three times as much as the CD and has about half the tracks. Want ’Musical Freedom (Free At Last) by Adeva? Yeah, buy the CD. Want ‘Holiday Rap (Maxi Version)’ by MC Miker G & DJ Sven? Not available on vinyl (ok, you might not want this track but someone might!) It is swings and roundabouts though, buy the vinyl and you don’t need to suffer bobbins like ‘So Macho (Extended Club Mix)’ by Sinitta!!!
As I said at the start, this compilation is a mixed bag, with some absolutely cracking tracks on this album and some I really couldn’t care less about. It is another release where vinyl lovers pay a premium too, I get that there is less space on vinyl and the manufacturing costs are more but it still sticks in the craw.
Tracks To Try: ‘Kiss Me (Mixe Plural)’ by Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy, ‘Imagination (12” Version)’ by Beloius Some, ’We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off (Extended)’ by Jermaine Stewart, ‘Don't Leave Me This Way (12" Extended Version)’ by The Communards, ‘Hit That Perfect Beat (12" Version)’ by Bronski Beat, ‘Buffalo Stance (12'' Mix)’ by Neneh Cherry, ‘Who’s In The House? (The Hip House Anthem)’ by Beatmasters, ‘People Hold On (Disco Mix)’ by Coldcut (Feat. Lisa Stansfield), ‘Straight Up (12" Remix)’ by Paula Abdul, ‘Keep On Movin' (Club Mix)’ by Soul II Soul & Caron Wheeler