Dead or Alive - Fragile
Product Information
Track List: Fragile
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Album Details: Fragile
- Release Date:
- 09/19/2000
- Label:
- Avex Trax Japan
- UPC:
- 4988064118236
User Reviews: Fragile
-
You've heard it all before, but better
, June 29, 2002Reviewer:
A (Dubious) National Secret - See all A (Dubious) National Secret's reviews
read all (1) user reviews for Fragile
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Dead or Alive Biography
A British dance-pop group which found fame thanks to the antics of androgynous frontman Pete Burns, Dead or Alive formed in Liverpool in 1980. Burns first surfaced three years prior in the Mystery Girls, later heading the proto-Goth rockers Nightmare...Full Dead or Alive Biography
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And this is much of the reason: According to the label, the fans want nothing but redos of DOA's old material. Getting Avex Trax to foot the bill for any entirely new songs has been like getting blood from a stone. Still, six new tracks and an actually welcome rehash appear on Fragile, the title a reference to leadman Pete Burns' former problem with psychotropic drugs (administered by a US doctor preceding a brief tour). They apparently left him near death from sleep depravation, and the effects took months to disappear.
Background information aside, what of the songs within? Well, the remixes are apparently not so, rather the tracks were re-recorded from scratch, unlike the remixes on Nukleopatra. Unfortunately, little new is brought forth from these new renditions, the 1984-1990 originals being far preferable, except in the case of the Blue Christmas 2000 version. The original version was too torchy and grim, and this new incantation lifts the dark sheen a bit.
The six new tracks are also a varied bunch. The weird and amusing Isn't It A Pity and the almost too uptempo I Promised Myself emerge as the best here. The remainder show somewhat low reserves in the Burns / Steve Coy coffer, sounding oddly familiar. Perhaps overwhelming the other four is the use of the older songs for the bulk of the album, but originality is waning drastically. If they are going to resurrect old stuff, perhaps they could look back to their really early days (1977-1982), before they had the deal with Epic / Sony that launched them into the mainstream world. I have all of the material from that period on vinyl, and some of it might be reusable.
The bottom line: When at their best, Dead Or Alive can still deliver fun, quirky-good dance music. But they are not at their best here, not for nearly 50 dollars anyway (I paid $38 for mine from a specialty retailer). Sony is publishing a "Best Of" compilation this year, and there have been whispers that they might take DOA back, after dropping them back in 1991. A truly international stage might bring back the luster of this oddly alluring gem. ...