Sequal

This review is for: Sequal (2CD Deluxe Edition - Cherry Pop)Once again Cherry Pop digs into the vaults and comes up with an album that has cult status rather than mass appeal; Sequal's one and only album. None of these tracks were hits on the pop charts, but they made a big impact on the dance floors around the world, so much so that over 20 years later there is still much interest in this album and the original 11 track CD has been selling for relatively high prices on the second-hand market. Sequal were poorly served on CD with their singles being released exclusively on vinyl only, so this release collects up the majority of the 12" versions, remixes and dub versions. It's always exciting when an album you think will never get the reissue treatment does. Even better when the record label has enough faith in the product to give us a double CD crammed full of bonus tracks. The full disc capacity is used (Disc 1 - 79:31 and Disc 2 - 79:39), so there is no more room for any more mixes. We're lucky to get a reissue of this CD at all, so with 18 bonus tracks we are really spoilt. The excellent digitally remastered sound quality and the design of the packaging and booklet make this a perfect deluxe edition.The production and mix credits are impressive, including David Morales, Justin Strauss, Little Louie Vega, Lewis A. Martinee, Mantronik, Phil Harding & Ian Curnow, Pete Hammond and Stock Aitken Waterman. "Tell Him I Called" is reminiscent of Stock Aitken Waterman's production style used for Princess. The rest of the album is in the Miami/Freestyle genre (think Exposé and The Cover Girls or, if you're unfamiliar with those, Taylor Dayne "Tell It To My Heart"). Mantronik produced 3 tracks for the album; "Tell The Truth (Although not credited, I'll eat my hat if Taylor Dayne's powerhouse vocals aren't on this track. It sure sounds like it)", "Could've Had My Love" and "Took Another Chance" - all with Mantronik's slightly harder beats. "Why Can't We Be Lovers?" is written and produced by Lewis A. Martinee (producer of Exposé). This lovely ballad would have made a great single and could possibly have given Sequal a pop hit (Exposé's similar "Season's Change" had already been a No. 1 hit on the U.S. singles chart). "Let It Go" remixed by Phil Harding & Ian Curnow is one of the most accessible tracks here and would also have made a great single. "She Don't Want You" and "It's Not Too Late" are two of the strongest tracks here. It would have been great to have the extended mixes of these tracks, but the booklet reveals the master tapes are lost for the first 3 singles on the Joey Boy label. That is such a shame, but highlights the reason we should be grateful for what we have here (it could easily all have been lost). This release therefore focusses on the releases on the Capitol label.The 7" version of "Tell Him I Called" is remixed and removes the Princess flavour. I always felt this was one reason the track wasn't a hit. It sounds perfect in the album version, but this version lacks something. The U.S. 12" Version was `Mixmaster' Pete Hammond's Master Jam which although good was remixed for the UK 12" Watermix. It not only retains the Princess flavour buts adds a harder Soul II Soul-style beat and rhythm, complete with violin stabs reminiscent of "Back To Life". This was perfect for the UK in 1989 when there was no getting away from the Soul II Soul sound as it became something of a national obsession, not only blasting out of radio, TV, nightclubs and people's cars, but also the beat was sampled by just about everyone from Sybil to The Stone Roses. A 7" edit of this mix could have potentially been a hit as could an edit of the Patsy Kensit-ish Florida Mix of "Brand New Love".If sales of this CD are good, maybe Cherry Pop will release updates for the back catalogue of The Cover Girls and Exposé both of which have a lot of material yet to make it to CD. Fingers crossed.Full track list with versions and timings (please note: my timings are actual timings for the audio only, so the CD player will give a reading of a second or two longer):Disc 1 - 79:3101) Tell Him I Called (Album Version) 04:1402) Tell The Truth (Album Version) 04:1903) I'm Over You (Album Version) 04:5304) Could've Had My Love (Album Version) 04:1805) Why Can't We Be Lovers? (Album Version) 05:1106) Let It Go (Album Version) 03:5707) Took Another Chance (Album Version) 03:5608) Brand New Love (Album Version) 03:5709) Out Of Sight Out Of Mind (Album Version) 05:3010) She Don't Want You (Album Version) 03:4211) It's Not Too Late (Album Version) 05:1212) Tell Him I Called (7" Watermix) (UK 7" Version) 04:1313) I'm Over You (Newk Yor Mix) (USA 12" B1/German 12" A-Side) 07:1714) Tell The Truth (Rock The Truth) (USA 12" Version A1) 05:4215) Brand New Love (NYC Radio Mix) (USA 12" A3) 05:0616) Tell Him I Called (The Master Jam) (USA 12" Version A1) 07:37Disc 2 - 79:3901) Tell Him I Called (12" Watermix) (UK 12" Version) 06:1902) I'm Over You (Sunshine House Mix) (USA 12" B1 of "Tell The Truth") 06:5703) Tell The Truth (Groove The Truth) (USA 12" A2) 07:0904) Brand New Love (Popstand Club/Dub) (USA 12" Version A1) 09:3605) Could've Had My Love (Mantronik Mix) (USA 12" B1 of "Brand New Love") 05:0306) I'm Over You (Maxi-Miami-Mix) (USA 12" Version A1) 06:1307) Brand New Love (Florida Mix) (USA 12" A2) 05:0108) Could've Had My Love (Miami Mix) (USA 12" B2 of "Brand New Love") 07:4609) I'm Over You (Over Easy Dub) (UK 12" B1) 04:1810) Tell The Truth (Bomb The Dub) (USA 12" B2) 05:2611) Could've Had My Love (Dub) (USA 12" B3 of "Brand New Love") 04:5312) I'm Over You (Dubbed Over You) (USA 12" B2) 05:4013) Tell Him I Called (Oboe Mix) (UK 7" B & 12" B2) 04:57

Just adding to Mr D's review and my review of the original album on the US site.Everything about this re-release is almost perfect. As Mr D said, there were no singles released for Sequal on CD, so it's remarkable to have all the (Capitol Records) singles on CD, in part. Cherry Pop have squeezed in as much as they could on 2 discs. The release could have gone a step further and possibly had 3 discs, as there is enough material available. The guys at Cherry Pop work very hard to collate material that could otherwise be long lost, even though they may not be fans of all of their releases themselves. All we can do is keep requesting what we want for CD reissues. The mastering here is perfect, thanks to Tom Parker. It would have been great to have interviews with Maria and Angie, to provide some history on the making of the album and to find out more about the extraordinary number of huge producers they worked with to create this album. The continuity of the album is great, with the miami sound theme in mind.As Mr D mentioned, it would be great to have deluxe reissues for Exposé, however, I think it could be a matter of BMG/Arista (or another company) holding the rights to the material. That aside, you can get a lot of Exposé's remixed singles on obscure CD's but it would be good to have them in one collection, including the stuff that's never been released on CD.In a rare interview given by Sequal on an American radio station (during the release of their most recent single, 'My Love For You'), Maria revealed that she was potentially going to be one of the Exposé trio and Angie did sing background vocals for Exposé's No1 hit 'Seasons Change'. The two groups were quite tied together.My only complaint about this deluxe edition is that I wish that Cherry Pop would have left out the 'Oboe Mix' of Tell Him I Called and included the instrumental version of the Stock Aitken and Waterman/Pete Hammond original version, which is available on vinyl.For fans of these girls, who don't already know, Maria Christensen has two solo albums and there is one other track that Sequal released, produced by Lewis Martineé called 'There's More To Love' with Angie on lead. Also, Maria was the lead singer of a trio called '3rd Party' and released singles from that album in the 90's as well as contributing a cover of the song 'Pop Muzik' for the soundtrack to the film 'A Night At The Roxbury'. Maria also featured as lead vocalist on Next Level's 'Everything I've Got'. Maria has also written and co-written many songs for other acts and has performed background vocals on many of those recordings.The 3 remixed singles that were not included here were on the Joey Boy label. They are: It's Not Too Late (original), Stand By and She Don't Want you (original). Two of those were re-recorded for this album.This release is a real treat for fans of these girls and I'm so glad that Cherry Pop do what they do and throw open the vaults to remaster what we love.I only wish I could work for them!Enjoy listening.