Madonna - Finally Enough Love (2022)

Versions:
CD
3-CD
2-LP
6-LP Box Set

Best Tracks:
Everything up until (and including) 1992 
Impressive Instant (Peter Rauhofer's Universal Radio Mixshow Mix)
Sorry (PSB Maxi Mix Edit)
Celebration (Benny Benassi Remix Edit)

Currently listening to:
6-LP Box Set

While the release of any Madonna retrospective is cause for celebration in my house, I did go into this one with a little trepidation. The premise for Finally Enough Love is an interesting one, collecting her 50 (!) #1 hits from the Billboard Dance chart. I've often longed for a Madonna singles collection that collected every single one, and this is the closest we've come. Being a (very long) remix album, I wasn't sure if this would be as great as it could, or even should, be. Basing the tracks on the American Billboard chart - a chart that has not been kind to Madonna in the last 20 years - is an interesting choice. And while promotion for the album noted that these were #1 on the Dance chart, the album itself just calls them "50 Number Ones". The result is an album that features almost every single from 1999-2019, but doesn't include 'Crazy For You', 'Live To Tell', 'La Isla Bonita', 'Papa Don't Preach' or 'Lucky Star' (among others).

Firstly, credit where credit is due. This set actually has all 50 tracks on it, spread across 3 CD's, or 6 LP's (if you were lucky enough to get one of the vinyl sets). There is, of course, a truncated 16 track single CD/2-LP release, too. The 16 tracks selected are an odd choice (2 tracks from Madame X, but none from True Blue? Really??) and I'm not sure exactly who this shorter album is aimed at. While the four sides of the 2-LP, 16 track version are cleverly split between 80's/90/s/00's/10's, giving any Madonna compilation a mere one side of 80's songs is never going to do it any justice. While I bought both the CD and vinyl variations of the 16 track version, I'm yet to listen to it (so I guess I can't judge too harshly). The 3-CD/6-LP box set is the real star here.

I tried listening to the 50 track version on Spotify before the vinyl arrived. It just felt like I'd put a Madonna playlist together. And, once we got to about 1995 (or Disc 2 of the CD version), it became a bit of jarring listen. I know most of these remixes rather well. Even the ones I'm not particularly fond of. I was worried how the set would hold up once we got to this point of Madonna's career. The 80's remixes go together pretty well. Possibly because the first actual remixes are the You Can Dance edits from 1987, or because the 80's remixes didn't completely alter the tracks the way that the later remixes do. Which is not a criticism by any means. Merely an observation. If nothing else, Finally Enough Love is a good education in the evolution of the art of the remix in pop music over the last 40 years.

Listening to the vinyl is a different experience all together. It's certainly more digestible split over several sides of vinyl. And the box itself is a thing of beauty. Given that there doesn't always seem to be a lot of care put into Madonna's releases, especially reissues and the like (something like this would have been great for Celebration on vinyl), this box is a welcome surprise. The records are house in poly-lined sleeves (and not stored in the paper inner sleeves!), the booklet is printed on good, thick paper and the alternate black and red vinyl is a nice touch. As far as the packaging on the vinyl set goes, it gets full points from me. The sound is also surprisingly good. A lot of the later remixes have either not been easily available on vinyl, or I don't have them (and if I do, I don't play them often. I was impressed by the detail in 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina', which made me realise that I don't think I've ever played either of the two seperate 12" copies that I own). The earlier tracks, especially 'Express Yourself' and 'Vogue', I'm used to hearing on 30 year old 7" singles that have, frankly, seen better days. Thankfully, everything sounds fantastic here.

I have heard rumblings on the internet that the album uses edits of the remixes instead of the full length versions. While I understand this complaint (the 12" versions of 'Like A Virgin' and 'Material Girl' should have been included, if nothing else), it just wouldn't have been practical to put 50 6-9 minutes songs together on a single album. In some cases, I actually really enjoy the edits. Though, some do suffer - I was looking forward to the edit of the 'Hung Up' remix, which has always been a favourite. But the edit is edited in all the wrong places. I also disagree with some of the choices. Apparently, Madonna selected the tracks herself, which I hope is true. And far be it from me to argue with the good lady. But Stuart Price's superior Thin White Duck remix of 'Hollywood' - one of Madonna's best in my opinion - should have been included. The Beast Within remix of 'Justify My Love' is easily one of Madonna's best remixes, but it would have been out of place here, so I can forgive that one.

For me, the album is an interesting listen. I'm fully aware that I'm not going to be able to subjectively listen to any Madonna compilation, and Finally Enough Love is no different. I can certainly track my younger years through Madonna's singles discography. The remixes from Erotica through to American Life are particularly nostalgic for me. As a kid/teenager, when buying CD's was still a luxury, I played my coveted Madonna CD singles endlessly (and I was buying them all even then). These remixes are still etched into my brain, even if I rarely listen to them these days. I have enjoyed the edited version of most of these remixes - when the original CD singles had the edits, these were the ones that I preferred to listen to. From Hard Candy onwards, I still bought all the singles on multiple formats, but none of the remixes really grabbed me at the time, so they were largely forgotten. There were a few exceptions, of course, like the Offer Nissim remix of 'Girl Gone Wild', sadly not included here. One of the big highlights for me is that we finally get a commercial release of Peter Rauhofer's wonderful 'Impressive Instant' remix.

I had my doubts, even as an obsessive Madonna fan, but Finally Enough Love is - generally - a success. Listening to the album on vinyl, it flows way better than I expected. And the remixes together make for a better listening experience than I expected. It is nice to have them all in the one place, rather than reaching for the 50 individual singles. The elephant in the room here, however, is that the song selection does lean too heavily on Madonna's work in the 21st century. Yes, she's still topping the Billboard dance chart in 2020, which really is impressive. And I do firmly believe that her post-Confessions On A Dancefloor work is highly underrated. However, it does feel odd, after listening to the first 3 vinyl discs, getting such a complete picture of the singles from 2000 onwards. It does feel like we got to the Music singles too quick, when we still have 3 LP's left to listen to. I know the track selection is based on the chart, but the Billboard chart sucks (which is a whole other story. I could never understand how so many of Madonna's post-2000 singles hit #1 on the Sales and Dance charts, but barely troubled the main chart), so I'm not sure it was the best way to select the tracks for this album, even if saying "50 Number Ones" is a good selling point. As much as I've enjoyed the album, it would have been much more satisfying if it was as generous with the 80's and 90's tracks as it was with the 2000's and 2010's tracks. It evens leaves off 'Causing A Commotion', which was also #1 on the Billboard dance chart in 1987. I know "51 Number Ones" doesn't have the same ring to it, but when Madonna's whole 80's output is represented by 9 tracks, yet we have 7 combined from Rebel Heart and Madame X, it doesn't exactly paint an accurate picture of Madonna's career. We have 'I Rise', 'Crave', 'Turn Up The Radio' and 'Nothing Fails', but no 'Human Nature', 'Borderline', 'Hanky Panky', 'La Isla Bonita', 'Dress You Up',  'Lucky Star' or 'Burning Up'. It's still a solid collection, but hardly definitive.

The AllMusic review of the 50 track version of Finally Enough Love accurately describes it as "the photo negative of Celebration, the 2009 album that contains all the pop radio staples: where that largely played for comfort, this is percolating and alive, with even the biggest hits being offered in alternate single or video edits or different mixes". And, in that context, Finally Enough Love is a triumph. But, in 2022, we're still yet to receive a definitive Madonna retrospective, post-The Immaculate Collection.

PJ Harvey - Reissues & Demo Albums (2020-2022)

Now that the PJ Harvey reissues, announced back in 2020, are all here, I thought would be a good time to reflect on them.

The reissues of the studio albums was very welcome in 2020. Original pressings were nigh on impossible to find - and prohibitively expensive for most people when they occasionally did pop up. I was lucky to buy them either when they came out, or for the older albums, on eBay before prices sky rocketed. The only one that escaped me was Is This Desire?. Being that most original pressings of Is This Desire? were defective, I never found one for a price that I was willing to pay. Bootleg pressings, particularly of Dry, Rid Of Me and Stories From The City..., popped up in the 2010's. I never bought them, so can't comment on the quality of them, but I think it's safe to assume they weren't ideal. By 2019, a bootleg pressing of Is This Desire? had popped up, so when the official reissues were announced in 2020, they were long overdue.

Overall, I am thrilled with the reissues. And yes, I bought them all, despite only needing Is This Desire? to complete the collection. I couldn't help myself. However, before going any further, I really need to point out that these records need to be cleaned before you play them. Sometimes more than once. I can't stress this enough. It's been an issue with every single one. I've seen mixed reviews for some of them online, and many of the complaints that I also experienced were fixed with a clean (or two or three). Rid Of Me and Is This Desire? were the worst affected (Side Two of ITD? in particular), but they all suffered to some degree. Incidentally, my original pressing of Let England Shake was the same. I always thought it sounded like shit, until I finally learnt about cleaning records. After a clean, it sounded absolutely beautiful. These reissues are no different. 

Sound-wise, the reissues are on par with the original pressings. Only the original pressing of Rid Of Me seems to be a little more dynamic than the reissue. I did read somewhere that Rid Of Me was the only PJ Harvey album where the original was an analog pressing, but I can't confirm that (and I'm not going to get into an analog versus digital discussion. These records sound great, so I'm not fussed if they're digitally sourced or not). The Rid Of Me reissue, like all of them, is still excellent. If you're used to hearing these albums on CD or on Spotify/streaming, these records will be a revelation. While I could argue for any of these albums, listen to To Bring You My Love on vinyl and you'll soon realise why us geeks prefer it. When I first got To Bring You My Love on vinyl (which was the 2001 repress and is surprisingly outstanding), I didn't realise that these songs could sound as detailed and dynamic as they do. White Chalk is also worth a mention. The the vinyl versions have a clarity that I didn't think was possible when I first heard the CD.

All of the albums are beautifully (and faithfully) recreated, with the original labels and inserts, down to the super flimsy paper inserts for Dry (though, A Woman A Man Walked By doesn't include the poster that came with the original. Hope Six does). If I were to nitpick, I would have preferred To Bring You My Love to have the original back cover, but this is my one teeny complaint:

(Original on the left)

Most of the albums are printed on matte card stock, which I really like, even though the glossy covers of the originals are a little more vibrant than the reissues (particularly Dance Hall At Louse Point and Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea). That said, I love the way the reissues look. 

I've seen rumblings that some of the albums included download cards, while others did not. None of mine did, save for Dry - Demos. From what I've read, the digital downloads were the standard CD masters, except for Dry, which appears to have been remastered. I've also seen complaints that the albums weren't reissued on CD, though I think CD reissues would have been pointless, aside from the remastered Dry. Even then, CD's are pretty much dead at this point, so I understand why they chose not to do so (though, there was a Japanese CD reissue of Dry in 2021 - if anyone knows if this is the remastered version, do let me know! Post-Covid shipping prices to Australia have stopped me from buying it myself to find out).

Now, onto the demo albums. This was the really exciting part for us die hard PJ Harvey fans. The demos for Dry and Rid Of Me are part of PJ Harvey lore, so I can see why it made sense to release the demos for the subsequent albums - Dry Demonstration and 4-Track Demos have become legendary in their own right. Though, I can't think of any other artist that has released the demos for all of their albums like this as stand alone albums. While it would have been somewhat logical to release the demos packaged with the corresponding album, much like the original Dry Demonstration, I do like that they've all been released separately, not as part of deluxe editions of the albums or anything like that (though, I still want deluxe editions of these albums, please and thank you). I do wonder how much mass appeal there is for the standalone demo albums (I'm already seeing them going cheap around the place), but I am certainly not complaining. 

Dry Demonstration and 4-Track Demos represented a very different time in PJ Harvey's evolution. Importantly, PJ Harvey was a band when these demos were recorded. I was intrigued, to say the least, to what these new demos albums would show us. I've met several people over the years who claim to prefer Dry Demonstration and 4-Track Demos to Dry and Rid Of Me. I wondered if these new demo albums would have the same impact. I also wondered how they would be presented. Would they be demos versions of the songs on the album in order, like Dry Demonstration, or would they include songs not included on the album, like 4-Track Demos did?

As it turns out, they followed the Dry formula. For the most part, I think this was the right decision. To Bring You My Love - Demos was the first look we got at the new demo albums (Dry Demonstration was re-branded Dry - Demos, but it's the same record). The first thing that struck me with the To Bring You My Love - Demos was how fully realised the songs were in their demo form. I've read several interviews with Polly Harvey where she says that she starts working on an album in the studio with the demos she's recorded. This became apparent on To Bring You My Love - Demos. There's an impressive amount of the demo elements that ended up on the finished record. This proved to also be true for Is This Desire?, Stories From The City..., Uh Huh Her and White Chalk. The quality of the demos is impressive, even if - now, as their own albums - they aren't quite the statement that 4-Track Demos was.

There are surprises to be had on each demo album. While some feature vocals and instrumentation that are very familiar, others show songs going in other directions. Is This Desire? - Demos features 'Angelene' with the beat from 'My Beautiful Leah' (which Harvey actually played live when touring White Chalk). The album version of 'The Wind' appears to be a remix of the demo, which features Harvey solo on guitar and vocals. It also made me realise that the demo of 'No Girl So Sweet' plays at the end of 'The Faster I Breathe The Further I Go', a b-side (and also a demo) from the album.

The demo for 'Big Exit' sees Harvey singing, "I'm immortal when I'm wit chu", which made me wonder how much input she had to 'Make It Wit Chu', a Queens Of The Stone Age song that was written when Harvey was part of the Desert Sessions in 2003 (she sang backing vocals on the original Desert Sessions recording). The album version of 'Big Exit'  - rightly - changes to 'when I'm with you'. 'Make It Wit Chu' was the right place for this inflection, rather than 'Big Exit'. The demo for 'A Place Called Home' features a drum pattern similar to 'We Float', while 'We Float' features a completely different drum pattern, complete with vinyl scratch samples. The demo for 'Kamikaze' sounds like it could have been on 4-Track Demos.

Uh Huh Her - Demos is the only demo album that feels like a missed opportunity. 'No Child Of Mine', 'Cat On The Wall', 'You Come Through' and 'The End' are missing. This is the one demo album that I would have liked to see follow the 4-Track Demos formula. 'No Child Of Mine', probably a demo itself on Uh Huh Her, was the coda to a song that Marianne Faithfull recorded on her wonderful Before The Poison album (on which she collaborated with Harvey on 5 of it's 10 tracks). Apparently, Marianne didn't like the ending of the song, so it ended up on Uh Huh Her. However, when Before The Poison was released a few months after Uh Huh Her, it was on that album also. I guess Marianne changed her mind. I would have loved to have heard Harvey's full demo of 'No Child Of Mine'. With the missing songs, Uh Huh Her - Demos clocks in at a mere 31 minutes - and one of the tracks ('Who The Fuck') had already been released a b-side. Most of the demos that are included are very close to the finished album versions, so it would have been good to fill it out with a few more songs, even if they weren't album tracks. A song called '97°' was a b-side to 'Shame' and featured the music to 'Cat On The Wall' with different lyrics. If this was the demo, it would have been cool to include it, along with some of the albums other b-sides. Two songs, 'Uh Huh Her' and 'Evol' were played live during the tour for the album, but recorded versions have yet to be released - the demos album would have been a great opportunity to do so (live versions were released on a promo CD, but if you want the best versions, seek out the Peel Session versions from 2004 that were also, sadly, left off the official Peel Sessions album). Given that, at the time, Harvey described that she wanted Uh Huh Her to be a 'patchwork quilt' (her words, not mine), it would have been the perfect demo album to not follow the track-by-track formula.

Things gets really interesting on Let England Shake - Demos. While some of the demo albums suggest different directions (Stories..., Is This Desire?) and others shows interesting variations on directions that are already clear (White Chalk, To Bring You My Love), Let England Shake - Demos are the ones I would compare most to Dry Demonstration or 4-Track Demos.. 'Bitter Branches' and 'Hanging In The Wire' were the real surprises here. More than any of the other demos released, I prefer these to the albums versions. I always felt that both tracks slowed the pace of the album somewhat (though, each of Harvey's albums are impeccably sequenced, so I always trust her judgement), however, the demos versions  - each considerably different to the final versions - show that the finished versions actually help the pace of the album as a whole. As usual, she was right. She was also right to excise the The Four Lads and Eddie Cochran samples from the albums versions of 'Let England Shake' and 'The Words That Maketh Murder', but boy, are they a hoot to hear on the demos album, especially on 'Murder'. As Pitchfork said in their review of the Let England Shake demos, "Let England Shake - Demos is by far the most enlightening of the bunch. Like an uneven block of stone, it allows us to witness how she chipped away at the album’s singular shape, abandoning ideas that might have lessened the songs’ impact". The same can be said for The Hope Six Demolition Project - Demos, but the demos for Let England Shake are the clear winners. As I said, I'm not sure who the target audience was for the demos albums (presumably the hard core fans, such as yours truly), but if you're a casual fan and only listen to one of the demos albums, make sure it's Let England Shake - Demos.

To say that I am happy with these reissues would be a massive understatement. Finally, in 2022, anyone can walk into a record store and buy a vinyl copy of Rid Of Me. Or White Chalk. Or Is This Desire? (or Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, if you really must - just don't stop there). And that's how it should be.

Being the insatiably rapid fan, of course, the big question is, what next? While there have been a few soundtrack releases in the six years since The Hope Six Demolition Project (and I do recommend her All About Eve soundtrack - not included in the reissues, but still easily available on vinyl), it has been a long wait for a new album. An article in The Guardian about her new book, Orlam, let slip that she's planning on putting a new record out next year. I'll believe it when I see it, but I am quietly optimistic. 

The other issue, that the vinyl reissues don't rectify (as wonderful as they are), is the staggering amount of non-album tracks that PJ Harvey has put out over the last 30 years. When interviewed about Dance Hall At Louse Point, and the reissues, John Parish stated that, 'I might be wrong, but I think there might be some kind of b-sides and rarities thing to come out as another package at some point down the line'. As I pointed out when blogging The B-Sides CD from 1995, a b-sides and rarities compilation is long overdue. If you're a PJ Harvey fan, and you've only heard the studio albums, I feel like you're only getting half the story. There was a three volume vinyl bootleg series of b-sides, titled Maniac, Harder and The Falling, released in the 2010's, that teased what an official b-sides compilation series could look like, but they ultimately fell short (many of the tracks sounded mp3 sourced, complete with poor vinyl rips of vinyl only tracks). I have long fantasised about a PJ Harvey collection in the same vein as Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds' B-Side & Rarities compilation (a 3-CD collection from 2005 that was expanded to a 7-LP vinyl box set earlier this year). There are many obscure treasures lurking around PJ Harvey's vast back catalogue, from outstanding b-sides ('Nina In Ecstasy', '66 Promises', 'I'll Be Waiting', 'Reeling', 'Sweeter Than Anything', every To Bring You My Love b-side), to soundtrack songs ('Naked Cousin', 'Nickel Under The Foot', 'An Acre Of Land'), to songs yet to see a proper release ('Primed And Ticking', 'This Is Mine', the aforementioned 'Uh Huh Her' and 'Evol' and various Hope Six outtakes) and it would be nice for these strays to have a home as part of a bigger collection. These are some of Harvey's best songs, and they often feel lost to the ether. A b-sides and rarities compilation feels like the logical next step after the album reissues. 

Big Brother & The Holding Company – Combination Of The Two (Live At The Monterey International Pop Festival) (2021)

 

Versions:

LP

Tracklisting:

Side One - Saturday:

1. Down On Me

2. Combination Of The Two

3. Harry

4. Road Block

5. Ball And Chain

Side Two - Sunday:

1. Combination Of The two

2. Harry

3. Ball And Chain

Best Tracks:

Ball And Chain (Sunday performance)

Down On Me

Combination Of The Two (Saturday performance)

Currently listening to:

LP 

I've been waiting a few months for this one to arrive, and it finally came today.

This release is a perfect example of why I both love and hate Record Store Day releases. After an extensive search, I think it's safe to say that no Australian stores received their stock of this LP. Usually, that wouldn't present too much of a problem, but in the post-COVID world, having records shipped here from overseas isn't as easy as it once was. Plus, shipping from overseas now doubles, if not triples, the price. It's frustrating, and there appears to be no end in sight. I've certainly had to adjust. Five years ago, I'd have scoffed at paying $60 for a record like this. In 2021, I was pleased to find it for $60.

The flip side of this is, more importantly, the very fact that a record like this is actually being put out in 2021. If RSD is the only way to get records like this into my collection, then I'll (sometimes reluctantly) take it. For Janis Joplin/Big Brother fans, this one is well overdue. 

Big Brother And The Holding Company's 1967 Monterey Pop Festival appearance is famous for breaking them out into an unsuspecting world, and shooting them - and, Janis Joplin in particular - into fame. As is typical for Joplin's back catalogue, parts of the set have been released on official compilations and bootlegs, but this is the first time that both of their sets at the festival (they famously played a second because the first wasn't filmed) have been made available.

This release is a revelation. The tracks released on the 1993 Janis box set, from the Saturday set, suffered from rather average sound. I've had most of these tracks on a CD bootleg, also called Combination Of The Two, that featured Saturday's set with Sunday's rendition of 'Ball And Chain' (which is the famous one from the film, though both versions are quite similar). My expectations for this release weren't particularly high, but this record absolutely blows them both out of the water. I had no idea that these recordings could sound so good. It's a blistering little set that they played on the Saturday - and I really didn't appreciate that fact until I heard this record.

Also surprising for a Janis Joplin release, a lot of love and care seems to have gone into the presentation of this one. Housed in a beautiful tip-on sleeve and pressed on translucent purple vinyl with a black smoke effect, it is a thing of absolute beauty. I usually don't care for coloured vinyl, but this one looks real nice. Most recent Joplin releases, like her Woodstock set that was finally issued on vinyl in 2019, feel slapped together without much attention to detail. This pressing actually feels like there was some thought that went into it. I also bought the vinyl release of The Who's Monterey Pop Festival set that came out for RSD in 2020 (and was much easier to find than this one), which is also beautifully presented. Both were put out by the Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation, rather than the bands' big labels, which probably explains that care that has gone into them. If they keep putting these sets out, then we're in for some treats.

These are (mostly) recordings that I know well. I thought I was buying this record as something of a gap filler, but I am seriously impressed. There's been a surprising number of live Janis Joplin records come out over the past ten years or so, both officially and as bootlegs. This one, happily and unexpectedly, is one of the best.