Thanks Rob for keeping us up to date with John's releases. We are totally spoilt. We all have to admire John's vigour and enthusiasm for art.

My petition here is for all versions of Cities of Light to be included here.

John Foxx' music truly deserves the double disc treatment.

Thanks to all involved!
Chris

If i remember rightly from about eight months ago, the 'Cities Of Light' track was a re-mix or re-work that was to be in place of the original in this remastered album. Personally, i think John's (and Louis) albums are all classics in their own right, and should not be changed other than remastered and extra tracks as bonus. Even if that includes new versions recorded especially for a re-issue, but still only used as bonus tracks, not in place of. The only exception to this imo would be 'In Mysterious Ways' where the album did flow better when the new tracklist was applied. I agree with Chris that all versions of 'Cities Of Light' need to be included, but i hope their in the right track order too. One things for sure, there will not be any need for download only tracks, as with Ultravox - 'Lament' My only thought for now, is that all tracks on the physical discs, are in the best order possible. Hopefully to avoid the problems like at EV in recent weeks.

Great news about these two albums and the one with Paul Daley too!

Seems it will be a nice autumn this year...

Let's hope the re-release of Sideways doesn't include those two extended versions either

Totally out of place IMHO, and they seem rather crudely stuck on the end.

And of course, that makes a case for a double-disc edition of From Trash in 2012... :p

But seriously, what a bumper harvest we are enjoying this year.
Thanks to everyone for everything

Who among us in 1985 could ever have imagined we'd be here now.

You're right Ken.
Uploaded to myspace/foxxmetamatic in September 2008.

Yes agreed, this is a case of 'less is more'.

At EV someone asked recently in the thread about the 'Lament' remaster, if there was still time to change the tracklist and / or was it set in stone.
Well there must be time to leave the original tracklist for 'TPOE' album and just remaster it, then add bonus tracks, like re-mixes etc. Although as i said at the time, ultimately its John's material to re-purpose it. Personally, i like albums to be as they were.

For what it's worth, purely as an opinion, I agree. From my perspective, as a fan going right back to the original releases (as most of us are, I presume), I would prefer a remastered reissue of the original album tracks in their original order, since that is the way we got to know the material originally. I find it difficult to appreciate an album reconfigured with different tracklistings, even if the artist prefers it that way because that was the way it was originally supposed to be (including track titles and artwork). I appreciate this is somewhat a selfish point of view, but since we are the ones that this impacts on (the fans who do go back to the 'beginning', as opposed to the new customers who know no better), I would prefer things left original with as much unreleased material as the artist is prepared to release as 'bonus material' (which is hugely appreciated, of course) on the CD or as a separate CD all together.

I'm going to struggle somewhat with Thomas Dolby's forthcoming The Golden Age Of Wireless CD though, because it is in the original format and I got to know it with one of the later versions ... talk about contradicting yourself!

Cheers ...

As my favourite Foxx album, it would frustrate me to see TPOE changed on the one hand, but on the other, I'd be interested to hear the differences!

I'm wondering if "appropriate extra tracks" means other material from the period rather than unreleased session tracks. Not that I can think of anything though...

Anyway for two of John's most important albums, it will be great to see them repackaged with bonus discs.

Forgive me if I missed something - but there's never been any indication that TPOE tracklisting would be changed or re-ordered or anything.

Where's that notion come from?

Not sure... probably dates back to the new mix of Cities of Light on Glimmer - where it was mentioned (somewhere) that more tracks on the album would be subject to the same treatment.

But yeah.. I don't remember anything about having the tracks re-ordered.

Agree, the original material on the first disc please, the rest on the second one!

Maybe im going loopy, but i remember it was stated a while ago, around the time it was being prepared for remastering. Also it was unclear at the time if 'Shifting City' had been re-worked too. As its already been remastered around seven months ago.

The only issue I have is; does TPOE really need remastering? As far as I remember, the album was recorded almost exclusively using computer-based softsynths and then maximised to sound as loud as possible without compromising sound quality.

I agree with John's pre-comeback albums being remastered to take advantage of new digital technology but have we really advanced so far since TOPOE was released in terms of sound quality that a remaster is necessary?

Personally I don't think it does - there's no problem with the sound at all, unlike its predecessor.

It does need reissuing, and if that presents an opportunity to expand the artwork and add extra stuff, then great. But I really hope the original album isn't tampered with too much - if at all. Out of the new mix of Cities of Light and the original, I still prefer the original.

Shifting City, likewise, except this one will benefit enormously from the remastering as it's so quiet.

In both cases I can't wait to find out what extras will be thrown in.

Shifting City is the one I'm really looking forward to. I came onto the Foxx scene around 3 years ago, and since then it has not been possible to get a (used) copy of this CD at a sensible price. No sign of any new copies either!

So I imagine there is quite a lot of pent-up demand for this album. When you add in the reported sound quality deficiencies of the original release, this could well turn out to be the biggest seller of the re-issues.

I guess it really was his 'comeback' album, planting him back in the urban settings of Metamatic for the first time since 1980.

Although, I have to be honest, my copy of Shifting City sounds fantastic since I booted the sound levels in iTunes. Although of course the CD version is still the same...

It'll be nice to have expanded artwork too, as the booklet was a little sparse.

Couldn't you just turn up the volume?

Oh damn, never thought of that...

Hahaha!

(that's why I love this forum)

Cheers Halloway and Alex!

I'm curious to know what the extras for Shifting City will be.

I guess there's a good chance that the second disc could be the Subterreanean Omnidelic Exotour tour CD but I'm hoping that, since this is where Louis and John started creating things together, there may be a pool of tracks from that original period of creativity that we've never heard before.

I agree. I really hope there are some unreleased songs lurking about. Same for TPOE, although John once told me that many tracks from those sessions did go into Crash & Burn.

I see it a positive sign that both albums will be a 2cd set.

Isn't it more likely that the second CD in each case would be an interview disc?

Why? The recent re-issues of Metamatic, The Garden and The Golden Section had no interview discs

Certainly possible, but concidering 'Sideways' will be given a single cd release soon, to give it 'stand alone album status', it would be odd to then release established albums with an interview cd.

Six years later and no one talked about the actual release?! Let me say that I finally saw a copy for sale in Amoeba Hollywood last year and bought it. That it was used soothed the cost of buying it twice. I had the original "Shifting City,"Exotour" EP and "Subterranean Omnidelic Exotour" CD so the sole new track here was "Shadow Man [early mono mix]" but wow… what a difference! I think I much prefer the demo to the final product. Any chance we could hear the rest of John's demos to that album?

I'm still waiting for the From Trash 2CD set ...@...@...@

Definitely - whatever happened to that one? I have given up waiting so have finally compiled a playlist of the extra tracks from the others. I am tantalisingly close to hearing them for the first time! (Good grief ...)

You can, it's called "Electrofear" by Nation 12

Just wanted to say, I was listening to "Haunted" today, which is an extra track on the Sideways 2CD re-issue (of 2010) - I'm sure I must've heard it back in 2010 when I got the reissue, but I'd forgotten all about it. It's lovely!