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Post Info TOPIC: Blur
fredthe3rd


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Anyone bought any special editions? Anyone bought THE BOX? I nearly bought 13 today (it took several years but it's become my favourite Blur album) but realised I already have most of the bonus tracks. Will the extra discs from THE BOX be made available separately?

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Violin Thing


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I hope so, I want to listen to 'Superman'

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Stephen


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I believe not, Fred.

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Barcroft


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fredthe3rd wrote:

Anyone bought any special editions? Anyone bought THE BOX? I nearly bought 13 today (it took several years but it's become my favourite Blur album) but realised I already have most of the bonus tracks. Will the extra discs from THE BOX be made available separately?

13? That would have been a hard hit on the bank funds! Hohoho

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fredthe3rd


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Actually quite funny that.

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triciathetree


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The box seems soooo expensive, but then again you get a lot. It's not that much more than that 20th anniversary Screamadelica that came out last year and that had way less really. I guess I don't care enough about Blur's b-sides/rarities to get it myself but I have a few friends who are thinking of buying it.

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andy


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For 21 cds it's not that expensive. Plus their bsides from Parklife to 13 are something you have to hear.

I bought it and it sounds amazing, everything has been remastered up to 13, and well, some albums needed that (the earlier ones).

Didn't really listen to the whole thing just odd tracks, but i will dig a bit deeper tomorrow. If you have any questions...

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Eamonn


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Some of the b-sides from Parklife/The Great Escape are embarassing rinky-dink, mockney Chas'n'Dave shite but I'm sure there's some interesting unreleased stuff spread across the other albums. Not sure I want to hear the one about Elton John's big phallus though.

Unless you're a big fan with a fair amount of disposable income it's a lot of money to spend, even if it offers value in terms of the amount of material.

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calumlynn


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You can probably just get the extra tracks by illegal means. (downloading not stealing them from the shop!) I resent the fact that the vinyl editions don't come with the bonus tracks as a digital download.. will definitely grab Think Tank and Blur on vinyl at some point, but I never play cds so I'm not going to bother with the boxset.

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triciathetree


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Didn't the boxset also come with a special link to all the Blurb fanzine scans or something?

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fredthe3rd


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Like this?

http://blur-zine.blogspot.co.uk/



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andy


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triciathetree wrote:

Didn't the boxset also come with a special link to all the Blurb fanzine scans or something?

 

Can't see that in the link they gave me



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andy


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Eamonn wrote:

Some of the b-sides from Parklife/The Great Escape are embarassing rinky-dink, mockney Chas'n'Dave shite

Not sure I want to hear the one about Elton John's big phallus though.

 

 well i disagree but it's not the first with you innit ? biggrin

 

Sir Elton John's cock is a lovely song. The title, not so much.



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andy


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Stephen wrote:

I think there are some amazing Blur B-Sides, but I think that generally they're a bit more hit and miss than other great B Sides bands of their era like Suede or Pulp...

 Yep, but bear in mind that Blur released 19 (19!) bsides for Modern Life is Rubbish, 13 for Parklife (13!)... and so on. They were really prolific and released almost everything they recorded even if it was a silly waltz. I love thoses silly Bsides but i can understand why people hate them.

So when you compare to their contemporaries, and even other eras in music, not so many bands released that many good bsides, bar early Oasis (I know i will get slated for that). There is some stinkers, but overall Bsides from Parklife, The Great Escape and Blur are something contemporary bands would kill to have as their own. The 90s were a great time for Bsides, i think we can agree on that. How many great songs were "wasted" on a Bside.



-- Edited by andy on Tuesday 31st of July 2012 03:29:33 PM

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Stephen


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I think there are some amazing Blur B-Sides, but I think that generally they're a bit more hit and miss than other great B Sides bands of their era like Suede or Pulp...

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weed


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Are Pulp really that great with B-sides? Although Hardcore was alright and Gift/His n Hers was awesome. They weren't consistently so Different Class & We Love Life were pretty poor. The latter inexcusably so seeing they had all that spare material.

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rawrsomesauce


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PTA, Mile End & Ansaphone are all great songs

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Stephen


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I think TIH B-Sides were pretty amazing, too - The Professional, Ladies Man, Cocaine Socialism, Tomorrow Never Lies, Laughing Boy...

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weed


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Mile End & Ansaphone - I agree. As I do with TIH choices but there were a lot if remixes that could have been substituted for something else.

On the subject of the Blur box set, I was thinking about buying it but there's a lot of other things I'd spend 130 quid on first. What if Pulp did something similar? I'd be on it like a car bonnet!

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liltman


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Pulp's b-sides were of a very high standard I tihnk, especially around His 'n' Hers time. They just became guilty of relying on now-very-dated remixes to fill up their singles, like many bands around that time. I still won't have anything said against the Vocoda remix of Common People though.



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fredthe3rd


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On a similar note, when I was in HMV they had got in new stock of the HnH, DC and TIH special editions having previously just had one copy of DC so there must still be demand for them. Maybe a good sign for WLL.

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shotoki


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Pulp's b-sides are often much better than the a-sides. Especially There Was...

I'm not a huge fan of Blur so I'll be giving this a miss. I'm sure it'll all turn up on Spotify/Youtube anyway

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Stephen


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I do think Suede beat Blur in a 'battle of B-Sides'. Very little was silly, and even during their nadir of New Morning there are a small handful of good B-Sides that are far more listenable to anything that made that album.

Early Pulp B-Sides are the same quality as Suede I think, but there's just a lot fewer of them. I mean, how many unique B-Sides did we get from DC? Underwear (discounted as it's also on the album), PTA, Ansaphone and Mile End. That's three tracks between four singles! Amazing quality...but so few! Compare how many Suede produced for their contemporaneous 'Coming Up'...

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ArrGee


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shotoki wrote:

I'm sure it'll all turn up on Spotify/Youtube anyway

 Looks like there is a lot of it on Spotify already, though I didn't see Sir Elton John's Cock.  (phnar phnar)



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ArrGee


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fredthe3rd wrote:

Anyone bought any special editions? Anyone bought THE BOX? Will the extra discs from THE BOX be made available separately?

 No. No. No.

But if someone would like to buy it for me I'd be grateful.



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Leazes1986


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If you take Oasis's b-sides from 94-97 and make an album out of them (which they did with The Masterplan), you have an album better than WTSMG? and nearly as good as Definitely Maybe. Unbelievable b-sides.

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Eamonn


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Stephen wrote:

I do think Suede beat Blur in a 'battle of B-Sides'. Very little was silly, and even during their nadir of New Morning there are a small handful of good B-Sides that are far more listenable to anything that made that album.

Early Pulp B-Sides are the same quality as Suede I think, but there's just a lot fewer of them. I mean, how many unique B-Sides did we get from DC? Underwear (discounted as it's also on the album), PTA, Ansaphone and Mile End. That's three tracks between four singles! Amazing quality...but so few! Compare how many Suede produced for their contemporaneous 'Coming Up'...

 

Agreed with Suede, Butler-era certainly being constantly top-notch for B-sides. Ditto early-Oasis though not as ambitious.

The stuff used to fill-up the 2CD singles for Coming Up (and thus get the fanbase to buy both copies and get the single straight into the top 10) definitely suffers from quality control though.

Different Class has so few b-sides because the gestation period of the album was very short, Pulp weren't as prolific as their contemporaries and their quality control was quite high (Don't Lose It, We Can Dance Again, Catcliffe Shakedown and Paula are all either great or at least great fun).

Disc 2's of HnH and TIH deluxe are arguably as strong as the parent albums, the same may be true of WLL when we finally get the missing songs any year now.



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fredthe3rd


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I'll tell you what I love until about two-thirds in: French Song. Then it gets farcically fast and they ruin it. Don't know how else they could have finished it though.

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triciathetree


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TIH produced better b-sides than some of the album songs. You could scrap Glory Days and The Day After the Revolution for a number of the demos/b-sides/extras.

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Stephen


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Re: Coming Up B-Sides I would like to offer a five point argument:

"Europe Is Our Playground"
"This Time"
"Another No One"
"Young Men"
"Sound of the Streets"

And another one:
"Sam"
"W.S.D."
"These are the Sad Songs"
"Sadie"
"Jumble Sale Mums"

I did this post thinking I'd find five. I found ten arguments. Can't believe all these were CU B-Sides. Wow. What an amazing 10 songs!

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fredthe3rd


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I bought a best of Suede a while back and didn't think much of it - even the songs I already knew sounded too similar to each other. Do I need to give it another squizz? Also: just been listening to Blur: Midlife in the car. Is the version of Death Of A Party different from the 'Blur' album version?

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Stephen


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Yes it is.

Which Suede best of? The singles comp, or the one that came out a year or two ago?

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fredthe3rd


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The one with two girls on the front and you can't tell if they're about to kill each other or kiss each other. I have to admit the cover was a large part of the appeal.

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Stephen


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Yeah, it's just the singles comp. Overfamiliarity possibly breeds contempt. I'd recommend the Sci Fi Lullabies B Sides comp...

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Eamonn


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Stephen wrote:

Re: Coming Up B-Sides I would like to offer a five point argument:

"Europe Is Our Playground"
"This Time"
"Another No One"
"Young Men"
"Sound of the Streets"

And another one:
"Sam"
"W.S.D."
"These are the Sad Songs"
"Sadie"
"Jumble Sale Mums"

I did this post thinking I'd find five. I found ten arguments. Can't believe all these were CU B-Sides. Wow. What an amazing 10 songs!

 

Different strokes (you don't like Rattlesnake!) I guess but Jumble Sale Mums and Young Men are the start of his descent into self-parody (not to mention lazy lyrics full of "lists") and musically fairly turgid. Sam, while charming and a guilty pleasure is a bit too ridiculous. Europe Is... is solid. Another No One is gorgeous but the production doesn't do it justice. Ed Buller strikes again. The NME gave away a live compilation around 2001 and it contained a fantastic version of it with just Anderson singing and Codling at the piano. This Time has nice piano bits but the chorus never really reaches the heights of the rest of the song. The other songs you mention are fairly bog-standard to my ears especially compared to stuff like High Rising and Whipsnade which had come before. 



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Stephen


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I would have agreed with you on Young Men once, Sir. But when they played it at Brixton I heard it for the first time as if my ears had been unclogged. He became angrier and angrier with each line and I realised it wasn't just a quasi-funny song about Tony only reading Asian Babes, but it was an angry, angry song about the Young Men "Cheating on the wives, all shiny suits and lazy lies, the young men Insulting everyone, picked up your sister, kicked your son". It impressed me hearing it properly for the first time with the passion that Brett gave to it live that I've listened to it on record a lot since and become quite the fan.

Also, the "This ain't the high-life" bit in Jumble Sale Mums is so beautiful it brings a tear to this cynic's eye.

'This Time' was also gorgeous live, but fell short of the ten I listed here I thought.

Whipsnade is beautiful - I agree with you there. But I think 'High Rising' falls short of the standard of a few of these here.

I often seem to find my tastes in Suede differ a bit from other Suede fans. I wonder what that's about!

I listened to the new Suede song 'For The Strangers' last night. It washed over me. And not in a good way. I think 'Sabotage' is ok, but neither are too exciting. I do hope they buck their ideas up because they're still a stellar live band and it'd be nice if they could get some new tunes to support that.

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Ian


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Blur do have some great b-sides and yes, some are a bit silly. Also, they seemed to pad out the early albums with what really should have been b-sides (Turn It Up, Intermission, Debt Collector, Topman, BLUREMI to name a few, I think the only album where I can handle the short instrumentals is "13").

I bought their last box set (the 22 singles) as well as all the albums so if the rarities discs are worth it I might just buy this one.

Suede, well, I think that about 80% of "Sci-Fi Lullabies" was album/single-worthy. There are also a couple of nice b-sides from the "Head Music" era that are worth checking out

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yankeehotelfoxtrot


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This is a brilliant box set, I will say that much. Love it.

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fredthe3rd


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Well I rather like BLUREMI and I'd have to argue that 13 is not an early album! At least not yet... Depends how many albums they release in the future...

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andy


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The only Blur record that is not too long is Blur. It's probably perfect from start to finish. But yeah MLIR, Parklife and especially The Great Escape are way too Long. TGE could have been a double album if the Bsides had been properly recorded (Most of of them were rush-recorded by the band). TGE is not a favorite among critics or fans but i tend to think it's one of their best.

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Ian


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fredthe3rd wrote:

I'd have to argue that 13 is not an early album!

 Point! I must have been thinking of something different biggrin



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yankeehotelfoxtrot


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TGE is my least favourite, but it's still got a lot of great tracks. Blur are the best.

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fredthe3rd


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No, Pulp are the best! Isn't funny how Pulp finally made it big at the same time as all the other bands with one word names? Also: Blur are often in the radio with different songs from different albums. If Pulp are on the radio it's almost always Disco 2000. You'd have thought Common People if anything.

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triciathetree


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fredthe3rd wrote:

No, Pulp are the best! Isn't funny how Pulp finally made it big at the same time as all the other bands with one word names?

 



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andy


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It's the same as the bands with all the "The" before their name in the early 2000s. I guess that was the trend back then. Pulp was just a coincidence. That would make an interesting book: what band names reveal about our society.

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Ian


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Last night I dragged some Blur files onto my playlist and randomised them. What did I get? "Rednecks" and "Alex's Song" back to back! What MUST buyers of the "End of a Century" single have thought? Then again, that's what b-sides are for...

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fredthe3rd


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What did you think of Jonathan Ross Tricia?

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Stephen


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Ian,

The buyers of 'End of a Century' must have thought of Blur similar to how my guests must have thought of Pulp after they were subjected to my 80 minute long "Senior Moments" CD.

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PaulTMA


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I took 'End Of Century' back to the shop as I thought the b-sides were so shit. It wouldn't be long before I regretted it, but pocket money was scarce.... I re-bought it for 50p years later, so all was eventually well. The outtake versions of 'Red Necks' on the 21 box are essential listening.

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triciathetree


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fredthe3rd wrote:

What did you think of Jonathan Ross Tricia?

 Er. I don't have any strong opinions on him really? He's pretty funny on Big Fat Quiz but I've never watched his show beyond that clip.



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fredthe3rd


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Just curious what an American would make of him. They show Big Fat Quiz of the Year over there?

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triciathetree


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Nah they don't. I wish BBC America would but I don't even get it so I guess it doesn't matter. I watch it on youtube when someone inevitably posts it the next day.

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Eamonn


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Home entertainment in 2012..we don't know we're born.

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calumlynn


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This thread has made me glad that bands don't really do B sides anymore. Such a shame to waste great songs! I think the Suede b sides are overrated, mind. I'm very eager to hear Think Tank era b sides, it's my favourite Blur album, and I know there are some other songs featuring Coxon from that era so would like to hear 'em.

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Freek


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I received my blur box last friday, so really early actually. I wasn't really in a blur mood, but the last days I've listened to some of the music. it looks fantastic, but the completist complaining: there are some songs intentionally left out, cause the band doesn't like them. I hate that. what I hate even more is that there are 7 extra tracks on the japan edition... but what IS on there is of course also a lot and the rematering on what I've heard this far is really beautiful.

everytime a favorite band of mine has these wonderful reissues (last few years: kinks, suede, pulp, smashing pumpkins, jesus and mary chain, even duran duran) I want to shake Prince (my all-time favorite) awake and say to him: your music really needs remastering, expanding, reissueing, more than any other artist, wake up! do it!

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