Suffer Well'Suffer Well' is the third single release from Depeche Mode's 'Playing the Angel' and is the first Dave Gahan penned single ever.
As usual the cover is rather forgettable and bland. Depeche Mode covers used to be stark, iconic and memorable. A few became classics in their own right. For all Anton Corbijn classic black and white photography and work, the design of this one is a turkey, as is the covers of the previous few singles and albums.
Not unexpectedly, the regular single is rather lacklustre:
1. Suffer Well
2. Better Days
And the limited edition single:
1. Suffer Well - Tiga Remix
2. Suffer Well - Narcotic Thrust Vocal Dub
3. Suffer Well - Alter Ego Remix
4. Suffer Well - M83 Remix
5. Suffer Well - Metope Vocal Remix
6. Suffer Well - Metope Remix
Mute continues their normal practice of releasing a myriad of different media formats with different track listings. All in the name of money-grabbing. The true-blue complete-ist fan will have to maintain record players, cassette decks (previously), and other media players just to hear all the different versions. Can't they at least have all the versions on one single media format? Like CDs? Diehard fans will still surely buy them. To force a fan to maintain record players, cassette decks, mp3 players, etc is ridiculous...
Terrible.
4 comments:
Such is the way of the music industry these days. Not at all exciting. All I care about right now is the fact that they release the single as they did in the 45 days. The song and it's B-side (which is the reason I'd buy the single anyway).
I've had a hate hate relationship with remixes since the days that the DJs took over (I don't really think they qualify as musicians).
I just wish the days of the extended 12" in the form of Cds would come back. Whatever happened to those?
I totally disagree with V as far as DJs not qualifying as musicians. It's simply a different way of making new music from old sounds. Not much different from composing stuff on electronics or a computer actually. Perhaps if he witnessed a DJ Shadow or DJ Spooky live performance he might think differently. To this day though, most people who aren't very aware of that kind of stuff remain pretty narrow-minded unfortunately and the true DJs who use turntables and samplers as instruments deserve the just respect they should get for their extremely hard work and craft(no offence V).And it's bad enough electronica musicians get the same response from people who don't understand their craft (because the music isn't made on "real" instruments might not go by the standard Western musical notation). As far as music making's concerned, AsAl Jourgenson said once, "by any means necessary". John cage made astounding compositions from car brakes and scrap. Why should the sounds from a record be any different? Again, lack of knowledge equals ignorance and indifference. Anyhow, DM never were that good at choosing who remixed their work (with the rare exception of a recent Kettel remix) and that's strange 'cause Martin Gore is definitely in the know as far as where the good, current electronic music is at. And I don't know if Daniel Miller still runs Mute and has any say,because again, you'd think he'd be up with who is good and who is garbage as far as remixers. Who knows, maybe the guy's lost his edge. I don't know who is to blame or who decides on remixers really, but anymore I tend to steer away from the singles--like you guys said, it's big money making scheme really (probably to compensate for the not so good sales of "Angel",which admitedly wasn't up there with their better work). One thing I will agree with V about here is, I too miss the extended remixes. I remember how GREAT the "World in My Eyes" single was--the "Orb" remix was superb, as was the "Sea of Sin" track! As for the cover work, yeah I agree--it's truly dull and uninspired stuff. Please don't tell me that's NOT Anton's work!!! No, it can't be! Please no!! If so, what happened man?
V, Steve, I can completely understand where you are coming from when you said that you missed the days of extended mixes. I do too. Sometimes, one is simply looking for a simple extended variant rather than a creative concoction from a DJ.
Having said that, I can understand your sentiments, V. We have all bought singles where the DJ only retains a single vocal sample of two seconds. Nothing original remains. The DJ creates a totally new piece.
I do think DJs are musicians like what you are saying Steve. I have heard Orbital live and through samples, they create the most amazing pieces. However, when a DJ does that on a single and retains precious little, I wonder as to the point of the remix.
I know certain remixes are often created for certain markets. A house mix, a trance mix, a goa mix, a .... whatever suits that type of dancefloor. Oh well.
Good or poor at choosing, DM has been ahead of the curve at the choice of remixers. I mean look at the remixers of the singles from Songs of Faith and Devotion. You see Portishead, you see Air. Basically, you see a lot of interesting up and coming artistes before they are big.
Sadly, Steve, despite Anton's amazing ability with the camera and his previous great work, a lot of the design for the covers for the last three albums and their attendant singles are attributed to him in the credits. Those visual atrocities are nothing clever. It would appear he had reserved the best for U2, leaving DM with leftovers and garbage. Well, that is my feeling. It could well be wrong. What was the last cover you liked? Violator? World in my Eyes? Did you like any of the covers after that?
Good question. All the Violator stuff was great. Songs of F and D had a pecular cover, neither good nor bad.
I guess it's how you define musician, or DJ for that matter. I e-mailed V earlier today and went on about the difference between a guy like DJ Spooky, who'll have three turntables, knowing exactly when and where to drop the needle while plucking an African thumb-piano and manipulating the results on a mixing desk, then play bass guitar over it to pretty amazing effect. It's much different than slick trance joe spinning tunes while looking pretty. I guess my view is that if you can compose sounds, no matter from what source, and make them into a musical composition with melodies, beats, rhythms, etc., then essentially you are a musician. Now a classically trained violinist might beg to differ (though there are plenty of cases where clasically trained musicians go electronic or DJ and sing the praises). Anyhow, hope I didn't come off as too standoffish here. Just a pet peev of mine.
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