It comes to something when a compilation which is targeted at, in the words of the label, ‘the casual fan’, is a 190-minute, three-disc extravaganza, full of ‘hits, tracks & remixes’. That is what you will find on Simply Frankie Goes To Hollywood, a new triple-disc set from Union Square Music.
All seven of Frankie‘s UK hits (including number ones Relax, Two Tribes and The Power of Love) are present and correct, but they add up to just 35 minutes of music which means you have well over two hours of extra material on top of the familiar singles. But while the track listing is ludicrously generous, it’s also extremely broad and rather random. It’s as if the record label have tossed a large fishing net into the ocean of previous releases (compilations, deluxe editions etc.)…
320 kbps | 637 MB UL | UP | RG | HF | TB ** FLAC
…and whatever gets caught in the net, goes in! You could say it’s a fish pie of a compilation, that includes a very long (23 minute) remix from a CD single, some B-sides, bonus tracks from previous reissues, a promo remix, some rare-ish instrumentals, a few actual period twelve-inch mixes and some good old fashioned album tracks.
But much like an ‘all you can eat’ buffet, just because it’s presented to you doesn’t mean you actually want or need it. Is the ‘casual’ fan going to be happy to digest the rambling B-sides One September Monday and One February Friday which consist of Paul Morley interviewing the band to a pulsing industrial backing track? Seems unlikely. And sitting through the six minutes of absurdity that is Rage Hard flipside (Don’t Lose What’s Left) Of Your Little Mind is akin to torture. It’s musical excrement. To make matters worse Simply Frankie Goes To Hollywood chooses the long six-minute version above the shorter four-minute cut. An truly atrocious idea to force this upon someone who quite liked Relax and Two Tribes.
The bottom of the Frankie barrel has effectively disappeared, such is the vigour with which it has been scraped over the past five or six years. As an enthusiast, I’d love Frankie deluxe editions to keep on coming, but even I have to accept that the material just does not justify it. After all, the band released just two albums and only one of them is anything close to being ‘good’ (Welcome To The Pleasuredome).
Perhaps Union Square and ZTT recognise this, after all there is nothing ‘new’ on Simply Frankie. No umpteenth unheard version of Relax. Of course, it is a record company’s job to release music – or re-release as the case may be – but there was a time when you waited decades between ‘hits’ collections (Kate Bush’s last one was 29 years ago) but 15 months on from the same label’s Frankie Said deluxe – a smart and compact hits collection that truly fitted the bill in terms of what a casual fan might want – comes Simply Frankie Goes To Hollywood a bloated collection that surely no one wants. Nothing to see for the diehards, too much to see for the curious.
CD1:
01 Relax
02 Two Tribes
03 The Power Of Love
04 Welcome To The Pleasuredome (A Remade World)
05 Bang!
06 Ferry Cross The Mersey (And Here I’ll Stay)
07 San José (The Way)
08 Relax (Sex Mix, Edition Two)
09 One September Monday
10 Black Night White Light
11 The Only Star In Heaven
12 War (And Hide)
13 Two Tribes (Annihilation)
14 The Last Voice
CD2:
01 Rage Hard (The Young Person’s Guide To The 12” Mix)
02 Warriors Of The Wasteland
03 Suffragette City
04 Watching The Wildlife
05 Is Anybody Out There?
06 Maximum Joy
07 Warriors Of The Wasteland (Attack Mix)
08 Watusi Love Juicy
09 Watching The Wildlife (Movement 2)
10 Rage Hard
11 Watching The Wildlife (Voiceless)
CD3:
01 Born To Run
02 The World Is My Oyster (In Its 7” Form)
03 The Ballad Of 32 (Mix 2)
04 Do You Think I’m Sexy?
05 Warriors Of The Wasteland (Compacted)
06 (Don’t Lose What’s Left) Of Your Little Mind
07 One February Friday
08 Rage Hard (Voiceless)