Welcome to the Pleasure Dome: 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Audio CD)

run out of money have they? good tracks that should have been left alone. i can only imagine that funds are low and this re-release will top up the balance again.

Nostalgic pleasure Frankie say nostalgia-for Frankie fans this anniversary edition is a welcome addition to their collection, enhanced to sound crisper and restoring the "oomph" back into the music makes it a real treat to listen too through headphones. Frankie say extras-the 2nd cd contains a mixed bag of material and sound bites which would only be of real interest to fans who were around when they emerged onto the music scene back in 1983, the demo's are really just an insight as to how the album came together originally,the one previously unreleased song included is sadly quite a let down, but these comments aside it still makes a welcome extra. Frankie say artwork- this digipack also includes a lot of the original artwork used for the vinyl release back in the eighties plus unreleased drawings and photos which never made the final product,included within this is a Frankie story of sorts which tracks the history of the band up to their demise in the mid eighties. Frankie say enjoy-This is still a great album with punchy tunes ,the inventive production from Trevor Horn gives this album a unique sound which to those with a fine ear for detail will be a great listening experience....enjoy. Frankie say.....no more.

A mixed bag Straight to the point. As one reviewer remarked, there is no sound improvement on the album, just louder, that's all. So you can dunk CD 1. Next, CD 2 is supposed to give us Frankie fans some pleasureable thrill, but sad to say, no. While the demo tracks are an interesting addition, the rest can be left out. "Relax (Greatest Bits)" is actually the original cassette single. While it's a historical curiorsity, it is actually an edited amalgam of the "Sex Mix", "Instrumental Mix" and the 7" mix. The "One September" and "One February" b-sides (which were already available in the last re-issue) are just nonsence gibberish. Why include "Power Of Love" extended version ? It's a strange inclusion while the extended versions of "Relax", "Two Tribes" and "Welcome" are left out. Then again, you can't really include all their extended versions, right ? so they should just leave them all out. "Disneyland" was already released in the "12 Inch" 2CD version. The 2 spoken snippets can be left out completely. Anyway, "The Last Voice" has been around a long time, included in the ending of the "Two Tribes (Annihilation mix)". "Relax (Disco mix)" is another amalgam of the "Sex Mix" and the 7" mix. Again, though historically interesting, you don't need it. With all the above taken out, I would include other interesting unreleased tracks, such as "Relax (International), Welcome...(Bernard Rose version), Welcome... (Pleasurefix), Only Star In Heaven (Starfix), and the other proper b-sides like "Happy Hi, Get It On and The World Is My Oyster (7" and 12")"

Hmmmmm.... I was expecting great things of this mainly because the original CD sounds so quiet and tinny. Well, this isn't much better, it sounds very trebly and not enough "oomph" - i have longed to hear the 13 minute title track in a pristine remastered form for a long time but on first listen it didn't sound much different to the original CD. Maybe i've just got a bit of wax that needs shifting but it doesn't sound that great at all for a recent remaster. The second CD is not exactly sparkling either but then there wasn't that much material to put on it I would have thought. It's OK though. Hardly groundbreaking, forgot having not listened to them for 25 years, how embarrassing "one September Monday" & "one February Friday" are though.

Horn: Symphonie #1 or... At last "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" gets the treatment it deserves on CD; or... How Trevor Horn invented deep house (because Ron Trent and Chez Damier were surely listening to this); or... 80s production masterclass. Name me any other "boy-band" album that makes references to Kierkegaard, Gogol, Barry Grant (implied) and whether or not Wham had willies (yes, that one IS on there) and I'll point you in the direction of Claudia Brücken's ex-husband. Anyway, enough of that Paul Morley s***e... Trevor Horn was way ahead of the game with FGTH (and also with Propaganda's A Secret Wish). Compare it to the other well-known sonic innovators at the time: New Order - Low-Life: Collector's Edition/Remastered & Expanded - holds up; Kraftwerk - Electric Cafe - holds up. Is anyone out there now doing anything like this now? Hope so, but doubt it. Yoda (Bill Drummond) has been replaced by Darth Sidious (Simon Cowell). The former is living in a cave in the Isle of Skye, looking for the next Skywalker. An eeelectronic classic and no mistake. May the force be with you all.