Frankie Goes to Hollywood Album: “Reload”

Excellent variations on familiar songs. Although you may not want to listen through the whole album at once since doing so may be boring (there are several versions of one song in a row), you'll probably easily locate you favorite. I, for one, like some of the remixes almost better than the originals.

From the moment you pop in this CD you will start to move your feet. Frankie's biggest hits have gone through a make over and the result is mindblowing. Relax, Two Tribes and Welcome to the pleasuredoom all take on new meaning with this remix CD. If you love to dance, you'll love Reload. My favorite track is the 12 inch guide of Rage hard, funny, yet sentual and full of beat. A great CD for parties and dancing.

The original remixes from the eighties are the most original. I have always admired FGTH for their remixes which were an important aspect of their image: "remixing is a work of art, reforming a song into a new one". This means that all the mixes are different. Well the old ones I mean the 90's remixes are based on the rigid EuroHouse formula. The problem with this CD is it diversity. One half of the cd contains dance remixes from the nineties, the other half consists of some original mixes which most of us enjoy most. If you like new mixes you'd better get "Club Mixes 2000" . If you like the eighties (original) mixes than you MUST get "Twelve Inches".Conclusion: Either way you'd probably like only half of this cd..

By C.S.

Every era has a one- hit wonder and / or an artist that had a short term shelf life but long- standing impact. Jimi Hendrix is a perfect 1960's case and point.

In the 1980's that honor belongs to the second version of the "Fab Four" from Liverpool, Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

With their ambient synths, throbbing bass lines and efficient, powerful guitar riffs, the group hit big off their first of only two LP's they released "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" with the mega- hits " Relax", banned by many outlets for the suggestive sexual overtones,and the politically charged anthem "Two Tribes".

Remixes became a big marketing tool during the New Wave era and FGTH certainly took full advantage. Some of that is captured on the " Re- Load" compilation.

Remix LP's are always risky business if you make the mistake of lulling the crowd asleep with re- works that offer little difference in arrangement. Frankie avoids that fate on the first two versions of "Relax",but by the third re- work the overkill has set in. No doubt the third version could have been replaced if at worst by the first re- mix that became public knowledge after the album cut took off. After such a rousing start, a seperate high -quality Frankie track also would have worked well here.

The first of the mixes to "Two Tribes",The Carnage Mix,is well done while the second could have easily been thrown out,though by a scant margin it passes for being listenable.

But for sheer excitement,the band's best track outside of the aformentioned hits lie in both re-makes to the title song to the first album, "Welcome to the Pleasuredome". Both en-capsulate the 80'S and 1990'eras very eficiently and enhance the original the way a re-mix should.

The "Warriors of the Wasteland" mix,taken from the original version from the second record "Liverpool", offers nothing new except to one that has never laid ears on the song and/ or a die- hard fan that failed to obtain the mix upon initial release and would like to add this version to fill out their Frankie library. On the plus side,the song duration on the "Re-Load" version is far shorter than the 11 minute mix on vinyl that was originally released in 1986, but upon review the long version wasnt particularly earth -shattering either! In all likelihood a more exciting version of this track that easily surpasses either one of the takes on this record is in existence.

"Re- Load" re- boots itself back into gear at album's end with the solid "Rage Hard" mix,though it does fade out abruptly just when the listener is about to sink their teeth into the well- structured bridge of the song that made the original recording so striking. This is another song that should have had more space reserved for a second take that would have bolstered the strength of this compilation. Despite some of the gaps here, take into consideation that compilations,whether it is a greatest hits deal or a remix collection like this one, are often times done by record companies wihout any artist input. More than likely,one would believe the band would crafted "Re Load" a bit differently than the final product here, but all of this testimony is purely speculative at best.

C.S. 5-27- 2003

I wanted this CD just to get the "Carnage Mix" of "Two Tribes" on CD, and for that it's successful for me. There are 4 modern (post 1980s) remixes here and they are not bad! ZTT manage to pull off this conceit with a little class. The "Two Tribes [intermission legend mix]" is pretty spiffy. But I would steer listeners to the import 2xCD [the German version on Repertoire is better] of

for an even better spread of FGTH remixes.