Wild!-reissue fan reviews

[Tin Soldier]

Actually, that may be in the pipeline, as mentioned vaguely in Vince's recent tweets. He'd stated he remixed Blue Savannah for an upcoming BMG release, and after a follow-up by a fan asking if it were a 12" or CD Single, Vince said "something like that".

We shall see...

[mrblue]

Wow, thanks for that incredible, in-depth review and analysis, mrblue!! It sure made me want to get Richard EIS on the phone immediately regarding the liner notes and why we don't have more info about the two new alternative (gorgeous) mixes!!

Thanks Mikey! Regarding the liner notes - it's hardly Richard's fault. It seems he just didn't have much to work with, since Vince and Andy clammed up. I try to picture myself in his shoes, trying to ask V&A about memories and stories and ideas from the making of Wild! but not getting much of a response. What would I write??

On the other hand, I put myself in Vince's and Andy's shoes to think about explaining something in detail from 30 years ago. It's not easy. Sure, they could have tried harder, but to they boys' credit they don't want to live in 1989. You all remember Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite who never let go of his high school football glory days. I suspect V&A don't want to be like Uncle Rico, going over and over their old albums. They've moved on! (I'm sure if some synth guru sat with Vince to discuss Wild!, Vince could probably explain every last gizmo and trick he used, but he probably just decided to stay quiet to avoid opening that can of worms.)

Still, a bit more effort could have been expended to flesh out the liner notes. Overall, I feel like the whole Wild! 30th Anniversary edition seemed to miss the point of actually celebrating Wild!'s anniversary. Hopefully that will change with a "new" single. It does make me a little worried about what may happen with the next Chorus re-issue. Was the half-hearted Wild! a fluke, or is this what we can expect with every Erasure re-release going forward?? I'm hoping for something big and amazing for Chorus, I Say and Erasure!

[kwerty]

I'm hoping for something big and amazing for Chorus, I Say and Erasure!

But why? What are you expecting them to be? I doubt the will do something completely different and astounding for the next re-releases. The most obvious thing they will do is continue with the same format they have all been so far (minus the DVD).

I suspect Chorus will be a double CD like Wild!, with the original album on disc 1 and the b-sides and some single remixes collated onto disc 2. It was a productive time for Erasure, so those alone will pretty much fill the disc! There may be one or two little surprises in there, but in all honesty I expect Chorus to be the least interesting re-release so far! I wouldn't build your hopes up!

[mrblue]

Why? That seems like a silly or obvious question, but the answer is: because I love those albums.

Next question - what am I expecting them to be? That's different than what I hope they will be... but I'll bite. We know there are demos that have never been officially released. The 3rd Mixes and Tommy Musto mixes of Chorus exist and have never been officially released. There are unreleased tracks from the Chorus era that only, finally, appeared on Buried Treasure II. There are rare promo mixes (Chorus Single Low End Mix) and edits (AIR? 7") that could be included. There were TV appearances in the US (ABBA-esque era) that could be put on a DVD.

All, or most, of those things should be included on an anniversary edition. Mute and BMG have the ability to commission new remixes and also have access to, you know, vaults of material that I don't - and I want them to release it! I want to hear it. So, I don't understand why you would even ask "why?" The onus is on the record company to put out a quality product filled with material that fans want. Honestly, from my own collection I could have made a better 30th Anniversary Wild! release, WITH a DVD! So it's really rather pathetic that the record label with access to much more material would come to us with a 2CD set (most of which everyone on these forums has likely had for many, many years) and expect us to just be overjoyed and thankful for being able to purchase Drama! (Act 2) again.

[MikeyC]

Re: Chorus

Hoping for the new version of "Turns the Love to Anger" that Vince had previously mentioned, along with a fully produced "Tune 5 (Mirror to Your Soul)"

*prays to the synth gods above*

[Pughie]

[kwerty]

In light of what we did finally get with the Chorus re-issue (which is marginally better than I predicted but not as great as @mrblue had hoped), in retrospect it's a shame they didn't do something similar with the Wild! reissue.

I get that they didn't want to put the Wild! DVD in this set as it's already a major part of FMTM, but instead of just two live tracks on CD2 pretending to be exclusives, they could have included an extra track-by-track WIld! live CD (perhaps replacing 2000 Miles with Supernature) like the third disc in Chorus Deluxe.

Then of course maybe include a NEW remix or two on the second disc. Vince had already done a mix for Blue Savannah which I thought was going to tie-in with this but never materialised (it's for 'something else' now according to a Tweet of mine he replied to). At least commission a remix of Brother and Sister!

But now the Wild! remaster seems the most lackluster of them all so far.

Although having said that I think, I'd rather the disc twos remained consistent with the previous editions, featuring just b-sides, remixes and unreleased material from the time, and they can make up for the lack of a DVD with a third CD of new mixes! (They can top it up with a few live tracks if they like...) OR release separate remix EPs for each album!

[Pughie]

In light of what we did finally get with the Chorus re-issue (which is marginally better than I predicted but not as great as @mrblue had hoped), in retrospect it's a shame they didn't do something similar with the Wild! reissue.

I get that they didn't want to put the Wild! DVD in this set as it's already a major part of FMTM, but instead of just two live tracks on CD2 pretending to be exclusives, they could have included an extra track-by-track WIld! live CD (perhaps replacing 2000 Miles with Supernature) like the third disc in Chorus Deluxe.

Then of course maybe include a NEW remix or two on the second disc. Vince had already done a mix for Blue Savannah which I thought was going to tie-in with this but never materialised (it's for 'something else' now according to a Tweet of mine he replied to). At least commission a remix of Brother and Sister!

But now the Wild! remaster seems the most lackluster of them all so far.

Although having said that I think, I'd rather the disc twos remained consistent with the previous editions, featuring just b-sides, remixes and unreleased material from the time, and they can make up for the lack of a DVD with a third CD of new mixes! (They can top it up with a few live tracks if they like...) OR release separate remix EPs for each album!

The Chorus live album is nice,it would’ve been a good addition for Wild!,but sadly going forward a lot of albums didn’t have tours which featured the full album tracklisting.

[kwerty]

The Chorus live album is nice,it would’ve been a good addition for Wild!,but sadly going forward a lot of albums didn’t have tours which featured the full album tracklisting.

Yeah I get that, but with the Wild! concert you can nearly do it - it just falls short by one song. The only song missing would be '2000 Miles', which is why I suggested 'Supernature' instead, which was at least a b-side song from the Wild! era.

Besides, does it matter if it's not the full track listing? It didn't seem to matter for the DVDs, so why should it matter for the CDs? I mean the Innocents DVD hardly has any songs from The Innocents on it - mostly it's Wonderland, The Circus and Crackers International! But it's still in 'The Innocents' deluxe set.

But sure - it's 'neater' if the CD is just live versions of tracks from the album, but just the nine Wild! live tracks from the London show (maybe with Supernature to make ten) would have been pretty neat too! They could have put them in performance order rather than trying to match the running order of the album so that it's less obviously trying to be a track-by-track listing.

But what we have now, when you look at them in order, is:

1: Wonderland - DISC2: B-Sides/Mixes/Bonuses - DISC3: Live DVD
2: The Circus - DISC2: B-Sides/Mixes/Bonuses - DISC3: Live DVD
3: The Innocents - DISC2: B-Sides/Mixes/Bonuses - DISC3: Live DVD
4: Wild! - DISC2: B-Sides/Mixes/Bonuses
5: Chorus: DISC2: B-Sides/Mixes/Bonuses - DISC3: Live CD

The first three are fairly consistent. The format change to a live CD should have come with Wild!, then at least 4 and 5 would be consistent with each other, and there would be an overall consistency of a live third disc of some sort in each set.

As it is, Wild! is the odd one out in that run of releases..