REMIXES 81...04

Depeche Mode (album)

So far, Depeche Mode have released two singles compilations - they feature all the 35 singles released up to 1998. Add to that the six singles box sets doing the rounds (containing nearly every A-side, B-side, remix and live track they've ever done) and you'd be forgiven for thinking that surely that must pretty much just about cover everything. Mute Records don't seem to think so, so here's an alternative Best Of for you. Thanks very much, Mute Records. It's easy when you do a normal singles album, you just grab the A-sides and bung them on (hopefully in order, I've never seen the point of taking the songs out of sequence because you can't really get an idea of how the band concerned have progressed). The problem is that when you have several different mixes of one track, everybody's going to have their favourites and when you've only got room for one or maybe two at best, mistakes are bound to happen. For example - Renegade Soundwave's version of I Feel You. It's rubbish! It sounds like a different song with one or two bits lifted from the original, the only problem is the new tune plays too quickly so the original bits have been speeded up to fit. Why they didn't use Brian Eno's mixes I'll never know, but anyway... Other remixes are included almost by way of saying "If you're a huge Mode fan, these ought to fill in some of the gaps but if you're not, you're going to wonder what the hell these are doing here", Daniel Miller's mix of World In My Eyes and Adrian Sherwood's mix of Master And Servant spring to mind here, they're good, but not really memorable. So, that's the bad news out of the way, let's move onto the good news - no really, there is some. Some of the best remixes are the ones that take the original song, drive a truck over it and then put it back together again with Pritt Stick and Blu-Tack, thereby creating something very different from the original but still just about recognisable. Air's ambient take on Home is one of the better examples of this, but at the other end of the scale there's Nothing, which used to be a light, fluffy little tune until Headcleanr (no third e in the name kids, that's rock 'n' roll for you) got their grubby little mitts on it and turned it into a fantastic mini rock epic with loud guitars and everything. Now, if you're going to get this album then you really need to get the three disc edition, the reason being that that's where most of the new stuff can be found. Discs 1 and 2 are filled for the most part by... erm... "classic" mixes (which is a nice way of saying some of them could be older than you) and although they're good (if you skip the Renegade Soundwave mix), you still can get them elsewhere because Mute have a habit of keeping their back catalogue available. Disc 3 is where all the new remixes and the really scarce mixes are and there's some really good stuff here too. Are People People? is possibly one of the strangest remixes of any song you'll ever hear and even though Photographic is going to be on one of the Enjoy The Silence 12"s it's so good I'm going to mention it again. Admittedly, just as there are songs that have "only good enough for a B-side" written all over them, some of these remixes do have "Done in case my first choice gets rejected" written all over them, but surprisingly for a collection this big, the hits far outweigh the misses and the inclusion of new remixes is a very wise move. I may be a fan of theirs, but this was not automatically going to get a thumbs-up from me because of its "how many times can we repackage the same material" feel to it. After hearing it though, I am going to recommend it because it actually works. I may not be quite so accomodating if something like The B-Sides 81...04 ever becomes a reality, however.