DEPECHE MODE - THE SINGLES 1981 TO 2021 PART 41: ENJOY THE SILENCE 04

 

In 2004, Depeche Mode's role in pioneering the 12" remix was celebrated with the release of Remixes 81-04, a compilation of some of their most iconic remixes, specially commissioned new remixes and and Freelove - DJ Muggs Remix.

To promote the release, a single was needed. Enjoy The Silence was chosen and it was passed to various remixers to allow them to create their own version of the song. Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda's remix was chosen as the single version and he removing all of the song's original beauty and replacing it with lots of Linkin Park sounds. Enjoy The Silence - Reinterpreted is not exactly a high point in the band's singles catalogue.

Happily, the single's formats were stuffed with more interesting remixes. Here's the story of Enjoy The Silence 04.

AND FORGETTABLE - ENJOY THE SILENCE 04

The Single

Enjoy The Silence 04, BONG34, was released on 18th October 2004. It was the first single that the band had released since BONG magazine ended so there was no official announcement that way. From what I recall, (presuming I'm wrong then please send in pics and I'll add them with credits) there was no postcard sent out to mailing list members as there had been with previous singles. As the age of the digital download had dawned, there may well have been emails sent out - I can't go back that far in my inbox so can't confirm that one way or another. There would have been music press announcements of course, however, I can't find any pictures of them either.

I have failed you here, dear reader. All I can tell you for certain is that the single was released on 18th October 2004.

At least I'll be able to share the usual reviews with you right/? Well, no, I can't actually. I have looked into every corner of the internet and have come up with nothing. The album reviews did have a few things to say about it however. Here is Pitchfork's view, taken from its review of Remixes 81-04:

"The massive record concludes with "Enjoy the Silence" as "reinterpreted" by Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda. Appearing on the band's 1990 masterwork Violator, the original single was an elegant, expressive take on an old theme, one familiar even to Gloria Estefan: "Words Get in the Way". But I'd take Miami Sound Machine over Shinoda's thuggish faux-rebellious thrash and his penchant for using Pro Tools-perfect guitar distortion that's as frigid as your ex-girlfriend. "Words are meaningless and regrettable," Gahan sings, and so is this remix-- in all of its antiseptic glory."

Typically "edgy" Pitchfork language there but setting that aside, I do agree with the view that the remix does nothing for the song. Nice to see Gloria Estefan there too. Perhaps she and the Miami Sound Machine might have made a better fist of the remix. Ok, maybe not.

There was no promotion by the band so chart performance relied on the video which, I am sorry to say, we will come onto. The single entered the UK charts in the Top Ten, landing at an impressive number 7. It stayed in the charts for a further four weeks at 15, 24, 41 and finally 67. 

As I have repeated to the point that even I get bored hearing it, Enjoy The Silence was where it all started for me with Depeche Mode and, as a result, I love the song dearly. I also love all the 1990 remixes of the song and so when this single was released, I was keen to hear what Mike Shinoda made of it as I hadn't minded one or two Linkin Park songs. I didn't enjoy when I heard it and having listened to it again this week after what I imagine is a gap of nearly 17 years, I still don't like it now. He's made an arse of it basically, giving the song a sort of Nu-Metal makeover, ending in something that sounds like it took him three minutes to knock up. When a remix offers a fresh take on a song while still retaining the elements that made the song great in the first place, it can be wonderful. When a remix butchers the original, it's a mess. This is in the latter category.

This version of the song has never been played live thank God.

The Video

Oh, bloody hell.

This video is a disaster on every single level so I'm not going to waste your time by attempting to make you read a full description of it. Instead, here is in bullet point form:

• Cartoon workers all watching One Night In Paris at their desks
• Why is One Night In Paris not showing them playing Enjoy The Silence at least 
• The Reinterpreted version suddenly blares out of the speakers in the office no doubt as a punishment
• Look, there's a bit of Devotional too
• Men in hats
• Everyone runs away
• Flowers start growing around the office, sprouting out of every possible place
• Ah, the Violator rose
• Bollocks

Not quite a match for the original 1990 video basically

The Formats

There were nearly as many promos as there were official releases in the UK for this single, There were akso a frankly baffling number of digital only releases.

The promo CD, RCDBONG34, features three tracks, each a remix of Enjoy The Silence - Reinterpreted, Richard X Mix (reasonable) and Ewan Pearson Remix (Radio Edit) (hmmm).

The first of three promo 12" singles was a double 12". P12BONG34 features four remixes of Enjoy The Silence. On Side A, there is the Timo Maas Extended Remix which is very boring. Side B contains Ewan Pearson Extended Remix which is longer than the Radio Edit version and much worse for that.

On Side C we have Richard X Extended Mix which is the best of the bunch here and that is only because it's polite enough not to be any of the others. Side D features Ewan Pearson Extended Instrumental.

PL12BONG34 is the star of the show here. 

It features the same tracks as L12BONG34 so we'll come to that shortly.

Finally, there is PXL12BONG34.

The three tracks featured here also feature on XL12BONG34.

The first official release is the 12" single 12BONG34. On the A-side, we have the Timo Maas Extended Remix which really does nothing at all of any interest.

The B-side contains the equally uninteresting Ewan Pearson Extended Remix.

L12BONG34 is where things get interesting. Note that the cover says "depeche remixes 04" rather than "depeche enjoy the silence 04." That is because Enjoy The Silence doesn't feature here. On Side A we have the glorious Something To Do (Black Strobe Remix). This is a perfect example of a remix by a fan of the band that takes the original, puts the remixer's stamp on it thus producing something quite wonderful. It is an epic remix.

Side B contains two superb remixes too. World In My Eyes (Cicada Remix) is utterly splendid and Photographic (Rex The Dog Dubb Mix) up there with the Something To Do remix on Side A for me.

Finally in the vinyl section, we got an XL12. XL12BONG34 has three more new remixes on it. On Side A, we get Halo (Goldfrapp Remix), a lovely take on the song and the version used on the Delta Machine tour.

Side B isn't quite as interesting as Side A. Clean (Colder Version) does nothing to improve the original version at all and Little 15 (Ulrich Schnauss Remix) is fairly nondescript. That said, it's nice to see three songs feature here that aren't obvious candidates for remixing.

There were CD singles too of course. CBGONG34 features Enjoy The Silence (Reinterpreted) and Halo (Goldfrapp Remix).

LCDBONG34 contains the Timo Maas Extended Remix and Ewan Pearson Remix (Radio Edit) versions of Enjoy The Silence and is saved from mediocrity with track 3 - Something To Do (Black Strobe Remix). Phew.

XLCDBONG34 is an interesting one, at least once you get past the first two tracks - the Richard X Extended Mix and Ewan Pearson Extended Remix versions of Enjoy The Silence.

Track 3 is the excellent World In My Eyes (Cicada Remix) and itr's followed by Mercy In You (The BRAT Mix), a superb old fashioned 12" remix by the band's webmaster Daniel Barassi. 

Other than the records and CDs above. there were six different CD-Rs kicking about in Britain.  There were also digital releases of all the tracks on the formats above in addition to which you could get the digital only tracks Something To Do (Black Strobe Alternative Mix) and Photographic (Rex The Dog Faithful Mix). Both are excellent and would have been better candidates for actual format release than a few of the remixes featured on vinyl and CD.

Elsewhere, France released a version of CDBONG34 that for reasons best known to the label added the video of Enjoy The Silence Reinterpreted too. 

In the US, a double 12" promo was released. On Side A we get Enjoy The Silence (Reinterpreted) and the Ewan Pearson Extended Remix. Side B features the Richard X Extended Remix

Side C contains the Timo Maas Extended Remix and Side D thankfully has World In My Eyes (Cicada Remix) and Something To Do (Black Strobe Remix). There is another US 12 " promo that has the Halo remix, the Mike Shinoda remix and Nothing (Headcleanr Rock Mix), a disasterous take on the much-more-popular-than-I-thought-it-was Music For The Masses track. There is a promo CD with those three tracks on it too, plus another four CD-Rs.

The US 12" has the Extended Remix versions of Enjoy The Silence by Timo Maas and Ewan Pearson on Side A.

On Side B, we have Enjoy The Silence (Richard X Extended Mix) and World In My Eyes (Cicada Remix).

The US CD single is a 6 track affair. It starts with four remixes of Enjoy The Silence - Reinterpreted, Timo Maas Extended, Ewan Pearson Extended and Richard X Extended.

It ends with World In My Eyes (Cicada Remix) and Something To Do (Black Strobe Remix).

It was of course entirely right that Depeche Mode's contribution to the 12" remix was celebrated with Remixes 81-04 and it was fascinating to see new takes on some classic songs. The difficulty with remixing a song like Enjoy The Silence however is that you are taking on a classic and it is very easy to get that wrong. I suppose that the single released to promote the campaign needed to be one most people would know and using Mike Shinoda to remix it tapped into a music scene that was very popular at that point so, as an idea, it wasn't a bad one. It's a pity that in reality it just didn't work.

We would have to wait another year or so before we heard from Depeche Mode again and when we did, we were presented with a classic Depeche song, Precious. We will look at that and its bafflingly bad video next time.

DEPECHE MODE - THE SINGLES 1981 TO 2021 PART 40: GOODNIGHT LOVERS

 

With Freelove released on the day the Exciter tour ended, you would think that would be that for Exciter era Depeche Mode, but no. Ever keen to confound us, Depeche released a fourth single from the album, 3 months after the tour ended.

What we got was a lovely surprise AND the band's first UK Number 1!!!! 

Sort of.

BORN A LOVER - GOODNIGHT LOVERS

The Single

Originally given the working title of Born A Lover, Goodnight Lovers, BONG33, was released on 11th February 2002. The release was a fairly limited one, only seeing official releases in a few European countries. BONG 51, the issue of BONG that confirmed the end of the magazine, came out after the single had been released and curiously confirmed that the single had "finally been released" in February. They weren't wrong.

The single did pick up a couple of reviews. In Dotmusic (nope, no idea), Ben Gilbert said:

"The fourth single from last year's resoundingly well-received long-player 'Exciter' confirms the somewhat surprising but nonetheless commendable resurrection of Depeche Mode. Almost as much a prayer as a track, 'Goodnight Lovers' is a resolutely calm and reflective mesh of atmospherics, the embryonic incarnation subtly mirrored in rock and roll survivor Dave Gahan's gentle vocal lilt. Elsewhere, amid the deep, soothing vocal mix, chiming electronic flourishes resonate to the close. Nothing very much happens, but then, as some people in this business could do with learning, less is often more."

Thanks to the super Depeche Mode Press File site, I can also offer the opinion that matters - yes, it's the Huddersfield Daily Examiner:

When Exciter was reviewed, Goodnight Lovers caught a few ears. Stephen Dalton in the NME said:

"(B)etter still is beatific closing number Goodnight Lovers, where Dave purrs and whispers over a gliding ambient lullaby to 'all soul sisters and all soul brothers." This is the one to soften even hardened Mode haters, a gorgeous moment of sensual healing."

The best thing about Goodnight Lovers however is its chart position. Top 40 rules at the time excluded the song from the Top 40 because it contained three songs in addition to the single itself even though one of those is actually a remix of the single as we will see. The songs issue did however qualify the release for the Budget Albums Chart and on the week of release, Depeche Mode got a 

UK NUMBER ONE!!!

Ok, not quite what one would normally call a Number 1 single, but we'll take it. Technically it was the first time a Depeche Mode single had reached Number 1 in the UK so that is a win.

Goodnight Lovers is, of course, a wonderful song, both soothing and haunting. It's the warmest track on Exciter and ends the album perfectly. It has featured in the band's live sets too, but not on the Exciter tour. Instead, it was played 76 times on Touring The Angel and it was a joy. Dave and Martin sang together with Martin utterly drama queening it up at the end of the song most nights and the whole thing was tremendous fun. It was last played on 3rd April 2006 at Wembley Arena in London.

The Video

Third time lucky for John Hillcoat here as he makes a decent fist of this video. Perhaps that is because nothing actually happens.

The Depeche Mode boys are joined by the Exciter tour's backing singers Jordan Bailey and Georgia Lewis and everyone with the exception of Fletch has a good old singalong. Well, they do in the sense that they all appear to be in separate rooms with footage of everyone else playing on the walls. The video was filmed the day after the tour ended so perhaps they had all seen enough of each other and insisted on separate rooms for filming.

Everyone is of course dressed in black with Martin wearing what you would like to think is a leather shirt. Fletch only appears briefly and every time we see him he has his eyes closed. It had been a long tour for him.

We end with Dave shushing us all and with that gesture, the Exciter period comes to an end. I'm choosing to ignore the rather awkward appearance at the MTV awards a couple of days after this video was filmed. Stop bouncing around Martin. Just stop it.

The Formats

There's not much to look at here as there were only three official formats released. The 12" single was pressed in Germany and UK copies were imported in. 12BONG33 was available on black vinyl with a limited run of 9,000 on red vinyl. 3,500 of those were reserved for the German market. Initial orders from Mute Bank of the red vinyl single came with a free poster.

I think I remember reading that there were only 300 red vinyl 12" singles that came with the poster but that may well be something I have made up entirely. The 12" is filled with good music - well, almost. On Side A (above), we have Goodnight Lovers and When The Body Speaks (Acoustic), a lovely remix.

Once again, I really like the cover and the labels. On Side B, an attempt is made to do the impossible and make The Dead Of Night listenable. The Electronicat Remix tries its best but it didn't stand a chance. You can only work with the materials you are given and remixing that song is akin to being asked to build a workable spaceship with cheese. The second track on Side B is a joy however. Remixing Goodnight Lovers is a tough task, but the Isan Falling Leaf Mix does the job splendidly. It is a wonderful take on the song and one of my favourite Depeche remixes.

The black vinyl version features the same four tracks.

It doesn't come with a poster however. 

For any fans of promos who are feeling left out, welcome to your part of the blog. There was only one UK promo for Goodnight Lovers and here is RCDBONG33.

It features on track only and that is, rather unsurprisingly, Goodnight Lovers. For pedantry fans, there were also CD-R's kicking about and, apparently, a one-sided 12" acetate limited to 6 copies featuring Goodnight Lovers (Kreidler RMX). If you have that, well done.

Having had a CD promo, it made sense to have a CD single too. CDBONG33, like all releases from this campaign. comes in a cardboard sleeve with a thinner sleeve inside housing the disc. It is a lovely thing and my favourite CD single from the Exciter period. Now there's a fascinating fact.

It has the same four tracks as the 12" and a picture of the boys in hot live action on the inner sleeve.

Goodbye to both lovers and the Exciter campaign then. It had been a hugely successful one for the band and had seen them perform a lengthy tour to mainly capacity crowds everywhere. Releasing two singles after it ended seems odd right enough but there was a lot of momentum in DM world at the time so why not.

The next album would be three years away from this release but we would get a remix compilation before that. That means that I am contractually obliged to mention Enjoy The Silence 04. I'll skip over that quickly next time and instead focus on the excellent remixes that accompanied it.

DEPECHE MODE - THE SINGLES 1981 TO 2021 PART 39: FREELOVE

 

The Exciter tour ended on 5th November 2001 in Mannheim, Germany and Depeche Mode chose to celebrate that by releasing the third single from the album, Freelove. Quite why they waited until the end of the album campaign is a mystery but who am I to question their decision?

With the release of Freelove, we got a DVD single, more promos than we could possibly know what to do with and a host of remixes including one by Cypress Hill's DJ Muggs.

Ah....that's why they waited until the promotional wheel had stopped spinning. Let's take a look at Freelove and its many formats. Ok, and that remix too.

LET'S MAKE IT CLEAR - FREELOVE

The Single

Freelove, BONG32, came out on 5th November 2001. BONG 48 told us that this "beautiful ballad" was on its way on 22nd October which proved to be yet another barefaced BONG lie. BONG 50, released in December 2001, put the matter right confirming that the single was postponed and eventually released on November 5th. They are retrospectively forgiven.

As the tour had ended, Martin was too busy having his feathery tops dry cleaned to do any promotion. It seems that most of the music press gave Freelove a swerve too as they are very few, if any, reviews of the single around.

The song was received well when Exciter was reviewed however. Alternative Press called it "one of the best tunes Martin has written as far as pop-ability since Enjoy The Silence," which is high praised. That type of review leads you to conclude that when Fletch gave his standard pre-album interview in which he says:

"I was in a taxi/my house/a hot air balloon/ my personal underground bunker when Martin phone/faxed/sent a carrier pigeon with a new song I was blown away. It is his best since Enjoy The Silence/best ever/a sure fire hit" 

he was talking about Freelove. You can play Fletch Promo Bingo for any album since and including Exciter. The accompanying games are Martin Downplays His Efforts bingo and Dave Avoids Talking About Any Songs Except His Own Other Than To Mention That He Thinks Martin Now Gets Him bingo. I'll make cards for us to play along when the next album comes out in 2027.

Back to the reviews of Freelove. The Guardian referred to the song as "gorgeous" and "humble," and Q Magazine described it as an "unapologetic love song" in which "Gahan's voice (is) warm and intimate."  

In The Observer's review of the Paris gig on 10th October, Sam Taylor rather cruelly called Freelove "the risible new single."  Sam did however say earlier in his review "They begin by playing the worst song of their entire career - The Dead Of Night" so he can be forgiven. 

In chart news, the single managed three weeks on the UK chart. It entered at 19 and then dropped to 37 and finally 58 before disappearing forever. 

The single was remixed for release with Flood returning to the fold. His remix, Freelove (Flood Mix) is wonderful and a mix I prefer to the album version as it seems to suit the song more. It's a pity that of all the official releases, only Flood's remix does anything decent to the song. Freelove was played on every Exciter tour gig and rather marvellously popped up in Martin's solo slot four times on the Sounds Of The Universe tour. It was last played on 20th February 2010 at the O2 in London and I was there to enjoy it albeit it took me and my friends a while to work out what it was because we had enjoyed a very entertaining day in London before reaching the O2 and were thus not as focussed as we ought to have been. 

The B-Side (in old money) of Freelove is Zenstation which is an instrumental. It's fine as these things go but there hasn't been a fun DM instrumental since Kaleid has there? It plods along for 6 minutes only brightening up when Martin's "ahhh-ahhhs" appear. It's never been played live and that seems entirely reasonable to me.

The Video

John Hillcoat returned to directorial duties, so we can safely presume the band hadn't watched the I Feel Loved video. The video was filmed in New Orleans in July 2001 while the band were there on tour.

We open on a deserted street along which a driverless truck drives. There are megaphones on the truck so something musical is surely about to happen. Well, no. As you would expect, the driverless truck goes offroad and knocks over a few crates of oranges. An infuriated passer by picks one up and squeezes it, enraged at the needless orangey carnage.

All of a sudden however, the truck's purpose is revealed. It's Dave! The Depeche Mode Travelling Roadshow is in town.

Dave and Martin are on the back of the truck, Dave promising everyone "freelove" and Martin rocking about unsteadily playing his guitar. Various people including the angry orange man (that means something entirely different in Glasgow) are beckoned to the truck by this siren song and we see them each taking turns sitting in or writhing on Dave's throne. 

They have of course been fooled. These travelling roadshows are nothing but rip offs as all you wise readers know and the throne people soon realise their mistake. Instead of the promised free love, they are brought to their senses as the demo for Hole To Feed suddenly blares from the speakers. Dangerous Dave Gahan and his Dastardly Mode strike again as each of the victims fall under the song's spell. The only reason Freelove was played over the video was to ensure that Hole To Feed didn't affect anyone else.

The Depeche Mode Travelling Roadshow continues to wind its way through New Orleans with its driverless cab picking up more and more people, each turned to zombies by the sounds of Hole To Feed. Dangerous Dave Gahan and His Dastardly Mode's attempts to create an army bewitched by the smooth sounds of this future classic are on track.

There's no stopping them now. Fletch makes a brief appearance as does Christian Eigner which is slightly odd as (a) he isn't a band member and (b) if we're allowing the musicians onto the Depeche Mode Travelling Roadshow, where is Peter Gordeno? 

The Zombie Army are taken out into the countryside and abandoned, left to roam the land singing "When you get/What you need/There's no way of knowing" forever as they attempt to persuade anyone who will listen that while it was technically a double A side with Fragile Tension, we all know what the real lead track on that single is.

I don't know. I tried my best here but ultimately, that's a dreadful video.

The Formats

The promos are the obvious starting point for Freelove. The first UK promo is P12BONG32. My copy came with the promo sheet above which makes a number of hilariously inaccurate comments about the various remixes that pollute the record.

The sleeve is rather nice, as are both labels and that is all we need concern ourselves with for now. Luckily, all five tracks on this record appear on the official releases so we can worry about them in a bit. On Side A (above) we have the Console Remix of Freelove together with the frankly laughably named but pick of the bunch remix wise Schlammpeitziger "Little Rocking Suction Pump Version" of the same song. That name of that remix is spelled wrongly on the sleeve. They have Zenstation - Atom's Stereonerd Remix to keep them company.

On the B-side, we are blessed with two staggering remixes of Freelove - Bertrand Burgalat (spelled wrongly on the label) and DJ Muggs Remix. Presumably everyone on earth was drunk when these were commissioned. 

The second promo, PL12BONG32, is a lovely double 12" squarely aimed at people who went to clubs and therefore not me. On the first 12" we have Freelove (Deep Dish Freedom Remix) on Side A and Freelove (Josh Wink Vocal Interpretation) on Side B. The labels both make the same mistake as they say "Original version of I Feel Loved appears on the new Depeche Mode album Exciter." That is of course entirely accurate, but they probably meant Freelove.

The second 12" has Freelove (Deep Dish Freedom Dub) on Side C and Freelove (Powder Productions Remix) on Side D, albeit that one is called Power Productions Remix on the label. 4 out of 10 for spelling on these promos.

There was no promo CD this time though there were some CD-Rs but forget them. Let's move straight onto CDBONG32. It did appear with promo stickers on it in some places, but there was no bespoke catalogue number or difference between stickered ones and this official release. As with all Exciter releases, this one is in a card sleeve with the CD housed in another, thinner card sleeve inside. There is a wonderful picture of the band in there. Fletch and Dave came dressed up with Elvis wig and massive wig respectively. Given what Martin is wearing, it is hard to know if he dressed up or not. That could easily be Gore day wear.

There are three tracks on the CD. There's Freelove (Flood Mix) which is superb, Zenstation which isn't and Zenstation (Atom's Stereonerd Remix) which is the sort of thing that makes you think your CD player is unwell.

LCDBONG32 has another nice sleeve but is filled with a collection of remixes that is only saved by the one with the longest name.

Freelove (Bertrand Burgalat Remix) is the sort of remix that is exclusively enjoyed by people who thought Mike Flowers' Pops version of Wonderwall was funny. It's a smug, smartarse destruction of the song that you really never need to listen to.  The remix of Freelove called Schlammpeitziger "Little Rocking Suction Pump Version" is, despite what you may think, actually quite enjoyable. Then we get Freelove (DJ Muggs Remix). I'm not going to waste too much time on this one as I just listened to it again to see if it was as bad as I remembered. It is. I have no idea at all how this remix managed to escape the studio.

The five track 12" 12BONG32 starts its three track A-Side with Freelove (Console Remix) which is bad, but not Bertrand Burgalat bad. Side A also contains Schlammpeitziger "Little Rocking Suction Pump Version" and Zenstation (Atom's Stereonerd Remix).

Two words describe Side B - Burgalat and Muggs. Actually, here's two more - go and away.

Finally, there was a first - a DVD single. DVDBONG32 is an odd beast really. The first thing you find on it is Freelove - Live "Bootleg" Video. This isn't a shaky thing taken from the back of an arena on a video camera where the footage is interrupted by people going to the toilet however. This "bootleg" is a montage of live and backstage footage shot on the tour with the live elements taken from the 30th June show at First Union Center in Philidelphia. There are four "short films" too. They are incredibly short in fact but that would have looked odd on the sleeve. They are: A meet & greet, footage of Black Celebration live, Dave on the Freelove video set and a bit of the soundcheck for In Your Room. Blink and you will miss all four.

The other tracks on the DVD are live audio versions of Breathe and The Dead Of Night (really?) from the same show. On the inner sleeve, Fletch goes full Elvis and why not? 

Before we head to the US, let's have the Rest Of The World round up. Australia had one CD; Benelux the same four official releases as the UK plus a 2 track CD featuring Freelove (Flood Mix) and Zenstation; France had a promo CD; Germany a CD-R and a 5 track 12" and Scandinavia the 2CDs and DVD from the UK plus a 5 track 12" and a remarkable 4 promo CD-Rs.

In the US, there was a double 12" promo. It contains the same four tracks as the UK double 12" promo and even spells Powder Productions Remix correctly on the label. The sticker on the sleeve is shown earlier in this blog.

The US promo CD features three Freelove remixes - Dave Bascombe Mix, Flood Mix and, inexplicably, DJ Muggs Remix. The Dave Bascombe remix is fine. There are also 10 CD-Rs if that sort of thing is your sort of thing.

In official release news, the US CD single is a 6 track release containing all the remixes officially released in the UK with the exception of Freelove (Console Remix). The US version of the DVD single comes in a DVD style box. There was no 12" releasee.

That was Freelove then. It's an odd single really. It is definitely a lovely song and the Flood Mix really shows its potential but it was released at an odd time, had an odd format and featured a number of incredibly bad remixes. A missed opportunity.

Oddly, the band's Exciter releases didn't stop here. Next time we'll look at the curiously timed case of Goodnight Lovers.