Erasure / Always: The Very Best Of

What would be perfect for future reissues is to use the 3 disc format used for Always the Very Best of Erasure. After the remaster of the main CD, with each of the additional 2 discs include all remixes, b-sides and other any unreleased material. Then make them all part of a box set.

I am excited for this release, ALWAYS – THE VERY BEST OF ERASURE’, I have all thier albums, and compilations, and singles box sets. But what’s exciting with this release are (for me) the older classic remixes I have loved, Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer’s Day) [Tin Tin Out Remix], Drama! [Krucial Remix] , Run To The Sun [Beatmasters’ Galactic Remix], Sometimes [Erasure & Flood Mix]… just to name a few. And they are going to be remastered, which is important to me. I do like the new version of ‘Sometimes’ it seems to be more polished and some key vocals are more front and center which makes for a better mix. I am even more excited about next years box-set and reissues, can’t wait to see the track listing for those!

Right, Andrew… Daniel Miller should have remained mute on this subject.

Listened to Andy’s interview with Phil Marriott and Andy reported that although fans keep requesting a B-side collection, Daniel Miller head of Mute believes that a B-sides collection is only for bands after they have disbanded. Looks like a B-sides collection won’t happen until Erasure is no more. How short-sighted & ridiculous. I guess Daniel Miller believes that the Pet Shop Boys’ B-sides collections are from a band that has disbanded. At least Miller could authorize a B-sides collection for the first part of Erasure’s career and then wait for part 2 after Erasure has ended.

On the whole this compilation is for just money making reasons,BMG own the back catalogue so they want a return on their product. The newer material is lacking on this single discer as that’s not in the interests of BMG.
The newer mixes are really just to get the die hards to buy it,as they only appear on the 3 discer.
Next year a new anthology featuring ‘fan friendly’ material will appear in a deluxe box set so hopefully that will have material that is rare & exclusive we can only hope.

Thank you once again Paul for the word up. I just pre-ordered the 3 discs set from Amazon.co.uk. No time to wait for it to arrive in North America to Amazon.com or Amazon.ca. Too excited! It looks like a brilliant collection and the packaging will be deluxe as it always has been with Erasure. I love your blog Paul-you cost me a lot of money but what fun and delight it is.

I may be wrong on some of the details, but I believe BMG don’t own Mute the company, but instead own Mute-the-recorded assets, up to and including when EMI were sold to Universal, who were then required by Monopolies and Mergers Commission to sell some assets so as not to hold an unfair monopoly within the UK record industry (in order to allow the overall EMI purchase to go ahead). So, among other things, no doubt, Universal elected to sell the Mute part of the catalogue (that Daniel Miller had to give up when he sought a ‘divorce’ from EMI a few years previously), and BMG bought that. Going-concern-wise, Daniel Miller now owns Mute Artists, a smaller label with some old and new Mute artists signed to it (and they are formally signed nowadays – I understand that Erasure signed a formal contract just 2-3 years back, possibly as part of this re-shaping and firming up of the Mute business). DM left for Capitol. I *think* Mute Artists/Daniel Miller/Erasure own and retain full control over all material from 2011’s Tomorrow’s World onwards.

The real die hard fans of Erasure, the ones who have been with them from the ‘Wonderland’ days can do without the hits, no matter how allegedly brilliantly they have been remixed. True Erasure fans want album tracks with a twist, new tracks, unreleased tracks. This box isn’t for Erasure fans, it’s for people who ‘used to like’ them, and now get a chance to buy a set of all the stuff they remember with a few extras. The only sure way to snag the true fans would be to release it on coloured vinyl.

Carlton I completely agree with you. (I hope that Super Deluxe Edition.com is compulsory reading not only for BMG for all reissue labels). I guess they don’t think that the Pet Shop Boys who have issued 2 B-sides collections are still a group? Yes they continue to release B-sides which means they will eventually have to issue a 3rd edition in the future. However for Erasure after 30 years they certainly deserve a B-sides collection. In 2008 I created 2 B-sides collections for Erasure—Part 1 from 1985-1992 and Part 2 from 1994-2007. Each collection contained 2 cd’s but I think that if BMG issues a career-spanning B-sides collection they might be able to get it all on 3 cd’s or with the B-sides since 2007 it might now require 4 cd’s.

While the question has already been answered, I will second that this would be a far more interesting collection if it included b-sides. Erasure and Depeche Mode could both especially benefit from proper reissues of b-side material on official compilations. There’s so much classic material that has been off the radar for so long. Hopefully, someone from BMG is reading these responses and we’ll see something more appropriate for the fan base within the next year or so.

Regarding the ‘missing’ non-UK remixes it was interesting that they did get a hold of US mixes of Chains of Love and A Little Respect for the 2cd/dvd Innocents reissue. Hoping for Wild and Chorus reissues myself as the b-sides are already all on cd with the four singles boxes etc.

Paul

Continue to make your site mandatory reading. Trying to get some independent music store buyers here in the U.S. to also make your site compulsory reading to inform their buying choices.

This interview also explains why certain remixes don’t show up like Sometimes [Extended Shiver Mix], A Little Respect [12” Vocal], Stop [Justin Strauss Unreleased Mix], Blue Savannah [Out Of The Blue Mix], or Love To Hate You [Joe T. Vanelli Company Remix). These remixes mentioned by James were on promo or 12″ vinyl and commissioned by U.S. labels at the time like Elektra Records, WB records etc. From a recent Erasure newsletter, WB still owns the Erasure catalog in the U.S. and perhaps they are not made available to the Mute Label previously an independent label, then owned by EMI and now owned by BMG. However this might explain all the musical gaps in terms of remixes and why some of these promo or vinyl mixes didn’t end up on the 4 EBX box sets in 1999 and 2001. The complexity in ownership of music worldwide continues

For the many readers who have questions or criticisms about another Erasure Best of hits and remixes package, Andy Bell in a recent interview reveals the way this collection developed. For me who would want a B-sides collection. It seems BMG, Mute’s new owner only thinks B-side collections are for groups who are broken up. See excerpts from the interview bellow:

Question: Always – The Very Best of Erasure’ is released at the end of October. Who decided what tracks went on the CD, was it yourselves or the Record Label?

Andy: Mute got bought again by BMG, the Erasure catalogue is a bit spread out because we have been with so many different labels in the US and different parts of the world, so we don’t necessarily get the publicity or the big promotion that other bands might get, but at the same time it’s given us a certain amount of longevity. Now that BMG is on board again they wanted to re-release the catalogue because its 30 years.
Question: Did you have a list of favorite remixes to include on the deluxe package?

Andy: No, they asked us in the beginning, they asked if we had any recommendations. My partner, because he is in nightclubs he knows loads of people who do remixes. I put a name forward which was one guy from ‘Thunderpuss’ but BMG wasn’t into it , so we just left it to them to choose who they wanted.

Question: What sort of material can the fans expect in the box set?

Andy: I don’t know it depends on which part of the catalogue they own, obviously they are going to put hit singles on the first one but it’s a bit tricky for us choosing which of the more recent ones to include, there has been quite a few but people might not necessarily know them. The second CD has remixes that I particularly liked from the past and there were ones that Vince reworked for the ‘Violet Flame’ tour that were based on mixes that I really liked, so they are including some of those and a few new ones.
I think before it was going to be a B-Sides thing, but they seem to think that a B-Sides project is for when the band has broken up. They keep trying to repackage things and give a certain amount of fresh material included that fans haven’t had before or were only available on a vinyl issue or a ’12 inch. People seem to like when they repackage things and put it in a nice box now.

Erasure just posted a YouTube preview of ‘Sometimes (Love To Infinity 2015 Club Mix)’ at this link: http://po.st/ErasureStimesLTI

I find it to be a better remix than the simplistic ‘Sometimes 2015’.

No “I Love Saturdays”?? That’s my favourite song by them. I get they could only fit so much on one disc but…

Dear Vince and Andy, Please take a meeting with the folks at Edsel and learn how to do a proper reissue. I beg you. Love, Lanny

Agree with Joel. How long do we have to wait for deluxe versions of wild and chorus. Wild has missed the 25th anniversary opportunity and surely a decent seller back in the day. Hey ho. Agree with the other comments though about having the appetite to still release cd singles.

At least Erasure are still releasing cd singles and remixes. Unlike some other famous unnamed 80’s groups.

Just…no…how about continuing with the deluxe editioning of the older albums?…call me when they are coming out

The Total Pop 40 Hits compilation from a few years ago is a much better option, even though there have been other albums released since, so it’s not up-to-date. I think there’s only two more recent singles on this new one that aren’t on that anyway.

There are 4 CD-single BOX SETS that are FAR BETTER then this Budget edition. They could easily have re-released the BOX SETS again.
They are far better then this bad mistake of a 3 CD release.
And all those missing tracks, it’s just a crying shame !

Wikipedia link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBX_(album)

Oh, it’s a 3 disc set – still not interested! LOL

I have the Singles Boxsets 1, 2, 3 and 4 which are full of great extended remixes and the originals, rather than updated new versions! Therefore, I will not be buying this pointless compilation. It is okay for those that have nothing by Erasure but I doubt anyone that already does will be that interested in this 2 disc set unless to get the few new remixes, which are not really needed, or to have just to get everything by them to put on a shelf and gather dust.

It appears to have few unreleased tracks. At first glance they are Sometimes 2015, The Circus [Eternal Eraser Mix by Grumbling Fur], Breathe [GRN Remix], Chains Of Love [Vince Clarke Remix], and Sometimes [Erasure & Flood Mix]. I have listened to Sometimes 2015 and the update is so minimal it’s hardly noticed. Most of the other included remixes were on commercial CD Singles, the CD singles box 1-4, or Pop! Remixed!. Too bad they didn’t include hard to find gems like Sometimes [Extended Shiver Mix], A Little Respect [12” Vocal], Stop [Justin Strauss Unreleased Mix], Blue Savannah [Out Of The Blue Mix], or Love To Hate You [Joe T. Vanelli Company Remix]. These were vinyl or promo mixes that remain unreleased or are only on compilations. I think the fans that would be interested in a 3 CD Deluxe Edition will already have most of the remixes. Then there is a new Sometimes [Love To Infinity Club Mix] only on the Sometimes 2015 single. I will still get it for the few new tracks, but I wish it had more to offer.

for a split-second, i was excited – a 3CD set of Erasure hits. but no, it was not to be with discs 2 and 3 filled with remixes. i’ll let an ex of mine know – he’ll love it.

No remix of Supernature. Boooo.

Disc 1 would do it for me. Was never really a big Erasure fan although their first two albums were quite good.

The single disc version is a bit silly… condensing the entire catalogue down to one disc and yet putting TWO versions of “Sometimes” on it???

The 3-disc looks interesting, though… I’m pleasantly surprised that there are a lot of classic mixes on there rather than just a lot of dreadful modern reinterpretations…

*”included”, not “includes” obviously.

This looks like a really nice set; that being said, I have ‘Hits! The Very Best…’ and the singles box sets, so the period remixes I pretty much already own. Not a big fan of their most recent output, so I feel that the new singles disc includes is starting to crowd off actual classics. If someone were new to synthpop/Erasure fandom, this would be a great primer.

Just what we need…. another Erasure best of.

I do like the group but… nowt really new here is there

The compilations (again, again) are ok for new fans but there are only a few new mixes for the regular fans.

I think this is agreat track listing, focus on Imperial phase with nice batch of recent tracks. However, criminal neglect of ‘Light at the end of the world’ singles. ‘I could fall in love with you’, ‘Storm in a teacup’ and ‘Sunday girl’ are solid gold pop nuggets. ‘When I start to (break it all down) from ‘Tomorrow’s world’ is also pretty amazing.

Only so much room, I suppose. What would you drop instead? ‘Who needs love’ could go in the bucket frankly. ‘Take a chance on me’? Realistically, I don’t suppose that’s going to happen…

Pre-ordered the three disc set. Erasure is one of my few groups that are consistently consistent. The latest remixes have been outstanding.

What the world needs, yet another Erasure greatest hits. Don’t get me wrong i love most of their work from over the years, but i’m getting a bit fed up of Mute/EMI’s every few years approach to doing new ‘best ofs’ with their catalogue, seems needless. Even most of the remixes are pretty pointless, the 80’s ones being better of the bunch as this was the 12″ remixes heyday!