Blancmange - Happy Families Too... (Blanc Check Records)
CD
Out Now
Blancmange re-work their classic 80s album.
If you saw Blancmange on their November tour in the UK, aside from
the usual array of their finest moments you will also have witnessed the
debuting of Happy Families Too. To quote
Neil Arthur he wanted to 'approach the songs using today’s technology', and
that seems to have been done very successfully.
There will be criticisms from people who really want the same album
again (but different, but not too different, but it can't be the same), and
those who say that the album should remain untouched, but there are probably
also reasons unknown to us for its re-vamping.
The originals tapes I believe, are lost, making live re-creations
difficult, and the sounds used are probably difficult to emulate without using
'old' synthesizers. To re-record the
album make sense and is testament to how good the songs were in 1982.
The album had four cracking singles on it (and an AA side) which
together with I Can't Explain created an album of quite memorable
proportion. Living On The Ceiling, which
will undoubtedly keep Messrs Arthur and Luscombe in M&S underwear for the
rest of their lives, is given a powerful immediate dance beat. The instrumental hook is still there but not
at the intro as the track now launches straight into the first verse. It would have been an easy option to keep
with the initial track layouts, but Happy Families Too sees the Mange delve a
little deeper and completely re-construct.
Even the original backing vocals from Madeline Bell and Stevie Lange
have been stripped away from Feel Me and replaced with an almost vocoder styled
'Ha' or 'Hey'. The 'cocky little friend'
joke is still there though and the commercial side of the track, which somehow
missed the UK charts, is as catchy as ever.
The typical Arthur wit is further present on the opening to Kind where
the word 'online' has been added after ‘shopping’.
Waves has the sound of waves removed and this will no doubt upset
the purists, but again, the track has been re-vamped and if listened to as a
standalone version it's rather damned good.
Perhaps the instrumental, Sad Day performed live by Neil, could have
been missed. It was almost filler the
first time around, and whilst every effort has been made to alter it, its
original simplicity is only there to be echoed.
Then again, if a job's worth doing....
If you missed the tour then don't worry as Cherry Red will be releasing a version of the album with different artwork, extra tracks and remixes in March 2014. Keep an eye on the Blancmange website too as due to inflated eBay prices it will shortly be obtainable there.
In short, this is a brave move by Blancmange and one that they
manage to pull off. Happy Families was
the sort of album that had timeless tracks that maybe needed a bit of a dusting
down, and with Happy Families Too the boys have succeeded admirably.
8.5/10
(Please note that the Vince Clarke remix above is not included on
the standard version of the album)
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