New remixes of Vital Idol songs issued on CD and vinyl
Billy Idol‘s 1985 remix album Vital Idol has been rebooted for 2018 and will be reissued as Vital Idol: Revitalized with new remixes from Moby, Paul Oakenfold and others.
Despite being a remix album and Idol only having issued two records at the time, Vital Idol became a defacto ‘greatest hits’ and was very popular, thanks to a brilliant song selection and some excellent remix work. The parts 1 & 2 ‘shotgun’ mix of ‘White Wedding’ (remixed by Gary Langan) is a classic.
Vital Idol was actually updated in 1987 to include a remix of ‘To Be A Lover’ from the 1986 Whiplash Smile record and a year later in Japan there was yet another variant (which spoiled the fun a bit by including two live tracks).
Vital Idol: Revitalized is now 11 tracks and it remains to be seen whether selections like the Tropkillaz Remix of ‘Eyes Without A Face’, or the Shiba San Remix of ‘Don’t Need A Gun’ are any good or not. You can preview the RAC Remix of ‘Dancing With Myself’, below.
There is actually a new Billy Idol/Steve Stevens Remix of ’Mony Mony’ which sounds promising, but alas, this has been chosen as one of four exclusive digital mixes (see track listing further down).
When I heard rumours of this release, I very much hoped they’d paired a remastered version of the original with a second disc of new remixes. It seemed like an obvious thing to do, to keep fans of the old school mixes happy, while introducing the new reworkings. It’s rather disappointing that they have chosen not to do that.
So format wise, there is a single CD and a 2LP 180g vinyl edition.
Vital Idol: Revitalized is released on CD on 28 September and the vinyl will follow on 16 November. It’s out via Universal Music/EMI.
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Billy Idol
Vital Idol Revitalized - CD edition
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Billy Idol
Vital Idol Revitalized - 2LP vinyl
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CD edition
1. White Wedding (CRAY Remix)
2. Dancing With Myself (RAC Remix)
3. Eyes Without A Face (Tropkillaz Remix)
4. Rebel Yell (The Crystal Method Remix)
5. (Do Not) Stand In The Shadows (Moby Remix)
6. Flesh For Fantasy (St. Francis Hotel Remix)
7. Catch My Fall (Juan Maclean Remix)
8. One Breath Away (Paul Oakenfold Remix)
9. To Be A Lover (DJDS Remix)
10. Don’t Need A Gun (Shiba San Remix)
11. Hot In The City (Shotgun Mike Remix)
Digital only bonus tracks
12. Mony Mony (Idol/Stevens Remix)
13. One Breath Away (Paul Oakenfold Extended Remix)
14. (Do Not) Stand In The Shadows (Moby Remix) (Half Time Version)
15. Save Me Now (Lost Dog Remix)
2LP vinyl edition
LP 1
1. White Wedding (CRAY Remix)
2. Dancing With Myself (RAC Remix)
3. Eyes Without A Face (Tropkillaz Remix)
4. Rebel Yell (The Crystal Method Remix)
5. Do Not) Stand In The Shadows (Moby Remix)
6. Flesh For Fantasy (St. Francis Hotel Remix)
LP 2
1. Catch My Fall (Juan Maclean Remix)
2. One Breath Away (Paul Oakenfold Remix)
3. To Be A Lover (DJDS Remix)
4. Don’t Need A Gun (Shiba San Remix)
5. Hot In The City (Shotgun Mike Remix)
I’m not complaining – most of the new remixes are cool and the Mony Mony remix is completely insane. If he and Steve hits Chicago next year I will do whatever it takes to get them to autograph this! Rock On!!
Call me a heretic, but I would love to hear these tracks done with a real rock drummer as opposed to the electronic and unimaginative boom-thump of the originals.
How could they not call this “Revidolized”?
had the same thought
Modern remixers miss the point by and large ,they replace most of the track and add their own stuff instead of using effects and stretching out what is already there.
A Paul Oakenfold remix usually is all him with a few token accents of the original.
This is dire! To me this appears to be a lazy cash-in for some outdated 90′ and noughties DJs and dance acts trying to keep their legacy careers topped up at the bank by ruining some classic 80’s rock music.
Bag yourself the original 12″ singles on ebay for peanuts, make a nice box and voila – punk DYI SDE limited edition of 1 – priceless.
Give me some pure 80’s era Idol classics, outtakes and rarities – don’t mash up the excellent Idol and create a mediocre DJ collaboration. The Dancing With Myself (RAC Remix) is painful, and back in the day not fit to be a B-side in my humble opinion.
I wouldn’t characterize it as lazy so much as what he has to do if he would like to pay his mortgage. He hasn’t had a successful single since the 80s, so why not try to cash in on what people wanna hear? I agree with many of the comments I’ve read, and wish this album HAD COME OUT in the 90s.
I am pretty sure he makes a lot more money from his concerts than from this.
As to what people want to hear, I much rather have 2CD remastered versions of his albums with all the original remixes than this. I generally wonder who the intended audience for such remixe albums is, the fans of the artist like the originals better and I am not sure others are interested at all.
I don’t get digital bonus tracks. When the CD was new you wanted people to buy the CD rather than the Vinyl version, so it included bonus tracks to entice buyers.
Now the record company apparently wants to actively discourage me from buying their CDs and download a file instead. You can discourage me from buying the CD, but you cannot get me to buy a download instead.
Going by the RAC remix, this fortunately won’t be much of a loss anyway. I would have hoped for a more interesting rework than essentially just replacing the guitars with some synths. Be creative, akin to the PSB doing a cover of Elvis’ Always On My Mind, i.e. really change things up.
Billy Idol would warrant a set the size of Soft Cell’s Keychains and Snowstorms, IMHO. He had more success in the US than Soft Cell… and Almond/Ball are both younger than Billy Idol. It really pulls into relief the power of artist management/labels/companies.
i’m a fan of billy idol and remixes.
therefore i will be getting this.
and the fact some tracks have never
had mixes before.
good job.
later
-1
The Udiscover store has a limited coloured vinyl edition available. I’ve bagged one!
Ditto, thanks for the heads up.
I couldn’t actually find the specific colour. My money is on Red.
How do you find where to but it?! Nothing shows up for me!
Hi Alex.
I opened up the udiscover store website and clicked on the Limited Edition tab. and it is the first thing you see.
https://store.udiscovermusic.com/*/Limited-Edition/
I am interested to hear Moby’s remix of (Do Not) Stand in the Shadows since it is one of my least favorite tracks on Rebel Yell.
Did’nt Smash Hits used to call him “Sir William of Idol”?
They did, it was Neil Tennant who came up with the nickname.
I loved the Smash Hits nicknames… Sir Ronald of Wood, Dame David Bowie, “The 2” (U2), Ver Edge, Smiley Minogue, Foghorn Hadley (which became just Foggers), and, er, Thingy (John Keeble).
Smash Hits jokes too:
Which member of the Christians is also a biscuit? Gary Baldy!
What do you call a member of Depeche Mode who’s friends have all left him? Dave Gahan!
I also remember the Smash Hits subtle hint at Coke addiction,the “Summer cold” hinted at in the famous New Order interview with ‘ver Hits in the mid 80’s. Check out Hooky’s excellent book “Substance” for an hilarious take on things.
I think it was “Sir Billiam Of Idol”.
Yet another release with bloody Digital ONLY Bonus Tracks. I want my music on CD ONLY and certainly NOT all this awful Digital ONLY bulls**t! – Luckily this release does not interest me because all updated remixes rather than the far more superior originals from 1980s. In one word, DREADFUL!
I’m too much of an Idol fan to not buy this, upfront vocals be damned. But those lamenting the original Vital Idol not getting a reissue, the So80S Billy Idol comp nicely replicates, expands and improves upon it. Definitely worth picking up if you’re a fan of Vital Idol.
I like the remastered 1987 Vital Idol which i have on cd. They should’ve definitely made this new one a double album with the 2nd disc containing the original 12″ mixes. Love the new artwork though.
The original Vital Idol is a classic. Unlike the original, there’s nothing about this that looks vital at all. Now if they had re-issued the original and expanded it with all the missing mixes from BI’s catalog and added a disc of the new mixes, then that would’ve been a deluxe edition I’d be first in line for…like I was for The Cure’s Mixed Up.
Used to listen to Vital Idol on cassette while delivering papers on my bike. Totally agree this would have been a good opportunity to release the missing mixes from BI’s catalog. The so80s release had a few of them. Interesting track listing with the inclusion of two tracks from the latest album and a giant gap in between. Cradle of Love would have been a good track to include. Looking forward to hearing Moby’s mix. That’s a great album track.
4 tracks digital only? So disappointing!
Should’ve / could’ve been a deluxe 2 CD option at least with the original album all remastered from the original tapes. Seems money wasn’t much of an incentive with this release.
Oh and for the Idol fans here, the last album really was superb. Sad to see the extended PO remix of ‘One breath away’ and the ‘Save me now’ remix as digital only. With that update from the boys of ‘Mony Mony’ digital only have to say 3 of the possible best tracks on here for me are digital only. Depending on the mixes obviously…
I have the last remaster of ‘Vital Idol’ anyone here have an idea on the sound quality (i never seem to hear what others do so i’ll ask in order for the experts to come forward).
The 2002 CD remaster of Vital Idol is superior to the original.
Cool thanks!!
I rather like the idea that experienced remixers were tapped instead of anyone from the current crop of hacks. Skillful remixing for the most part peaked then shriveled up & died with the 90s, early 2000s. Gone are the respect for a song’s integrity & a remixer’s authentic intention of enhancing an artist’s original work, replaced with a knob tweeker’s masterbstory, egotistical & unrecognizable cut-and-paste crap.
Totally agree. One of the strengths of the original Vital Idol was that the remixes (most of them truly great) didn’t stray too far from the original tracks. Different, but still ‘sounds’ the same, if that makes any sense.
When you totally deconstruct a track like lots of remixes do these days the result is rarely very good IMO.
Yeah, probably Moby and Oakenfold listened to Billy Idol as teens whereas a hot young remixer might only do it for the paycheck from “that cheesy rock star guy from my mom’s favourite movie, The Wedding Singer.” A Moby might have a bit of genuine reverence for the source material.
Though I love the idea of some just bat-shit crazy dubstep mangles on here.
Moby ? Paul Oakenfold ? The Crystal Method ? Welcome to the 90’s.
Yup. Anyways, this a truly interesting remix album. Cheers for information, Paul!
This is quite bizarre. When I woke up this morning, my mind drifted inexplicably to Gen X and if a decent version of Kiss Me Deadly would ever be re-released.
It’s not as if I think about Gen X a lot.
Spooky.
Great sleeve design.
BTW, I hope and pray that the three fantastic Generation X/ GEN X LPs (1978-`81) will be re-released soon.
I bought Vital Idol on cassette when it was first released because it had a budget price tag. Played it to death over the following 12 months. A really good album but I won’t be buying this revitalised edition and the new mix of Dancing With Myself isn’t very good.
2 LP’s but only 2 sides?
That was when I thought it was only one vinyl record, but apparently it’s definitely two..
I would assume the mixes are either 7-10mins each or it’s 45rpm mastered.
That RAC remix is rather tepid. The song has lost its swagger.
Agreed Mike, vocals far too far forward. But it isn’t as horrible as I thought it would be. After being programmed to think of some of the appalling remixes on the TRemixes album and the Paul Simon thing, then the Tears for Fears Balearic bollocks I was fearing the worst. But as a mix it seems grand enough.
What the forward vocal does show is how great Billy’s diction is. Not quite the dumb rebel but the well educated rocker that can pronounce his worms beautifully.
Hi Paul
Any news on if the LP comes with digital download tracks as well?
cheers
Jason
Can’t find any confirmation of that…
Those vocals seemed far too high in the mix to me.