Bellenger1981

I love the new remix of "Relax"!

Ah, found it! It's about 21:06 into the show if anyone wants to know. The "Radio Edit Remix" (at least, that's what I'll call it) is interesting. I like it based on the low quality audio provided. I knew it was going to be cut up quite a bit, considering that Universal has done the same to both "Love Today" and "Big Girl", with the latter track suffering a major butchering. I'm not sure why they want to cut everything down to 3 and a half minutes. Maybe it leads to better radio airplay? Overall, the cuts are pretty much where I expected. I knew the build-up part with the choir was going to get the axe. I was practicing a few edits of the song a few weeks back and had edited it exactly the same with the "little bit of love" section joining right in instead of the solo piano. I think my main problem with this edit is not really the cut "little bit of love" part but the ending. The chorus is only repeated once, not twice like in the album version. The cut makes the song lose some of it's coherence and integrity. It just seems to end too quickly. I have, therefore, just edited, from the album version, a near duplicate copy of this shorter version but kept the repeated chorus at the ending. It clocks in at 3:54 but seems to work more coherently as a piece of music. Oh well, at least it's not the worst edit I've heard! It works for radio airplay at least.

Hopefully "Your Sympathy" will surface as the b-side on a forthcoming single release. I love it.

Considering how often he's performed it in promotional appearances, I'd guess that the next single is "My Interpretation". After two uptempo singles, I wouldn't be surprised if we see something a bit more relaxed. As for "Relax", I was actually surprised that it wasn't pushed as the 2nd single considering it's #1 success in both France (#1 sales) and in Poland (#1 airplay). In the U.K., I think "Grace Kelly" is considered the first official single, whereas "Relax" was considered a limited promotional release in order to test the market. Considering the success of "Relax" perhaps it would be wise to push it a forthcoming single at some point, either on it's own or as a double A-side with another track. As for "Big Girl", it's an anthem. I would be surprised if it wasn't a single at some point. I'm guessing that "Big Girl" will be the fourth single following "My Interpretation". As much as I love "Lollipop", I question it being pushed as a single because of the lyrical content. I hope I'm wrong.

The purpose of the CD single is to promote the album in the same way that radio singles promote an album. People who buy the CD single of the song that they like may then be tempted to buy the album. Record companies are all in all after album sales, not CD single sales. The CD single is simply a promotional tool for the album. As to why radio doesn't play all songs from an entire album... well, some radio stations do. However, considering the number of tracks on most album it would be simply too much music saturating the airwaves at the same time by one act alone. Also, many CD singles come with exclusive rare tracks and exclusive remixes, including unreleased b-sides and new recordings not found on the album. For example, "Satellite" is on the 7" b-side of "Grace Kelly". You won't find the track on the U.K. edition of the album.

30,000 isn't as bad as you are making it out to be. It's actually quite good, considering the lack of radio support going for "Grace Kelly". Keep in mind that overall record sales in the U.S. are down. The #1 album in the U.S. a few months back sold 60,000+ units. Overall sales are still down, so he'll probably still debut within the Top 25 on the albums tally. Much of the music that gets airplay and heavy exposure right now in America is R&B and rap, which, while I like music of both genres, explains why I mostly lean to European taste for variety and originality. There's little room for new and upcoming acts to break through in America with such narrow-minded, segmented radio formats. In any case, look at Robbie Williams and Scissor Sisters. They don't see in America anywhere close to the numbers they see in Europe in terms of sales. Robbie's last 3 albums haven't even been released in America. I remember I was excited to just get 'Escapalogy' here, and I'm not even that big of a fan. So, don't worry about it too much. There's always the Internet for exposure beyond radio, and there's always Europe.

This is probably the standard U.S. CD release that the majority of U.S. stores carry. Best Buy and Target, are, as far as I know, the only U.S. retailers that feature bonus tracks on the physical CD release of the album. The rest of the retailers in the U.S. (Tower, Circuit City, FYE, etc.) carry the 13 track album with this UPC (it's actually 12 tracks with "Over My Shoulder" hidden).

Target UPC: 6 02517 26231 Best Buy UPC: 6 02517 26229 Good luck!

Try this site: http://www.mymusic.com/product_dl.asp?curr=1&muzenbr=100649306 It has acoustic downloads of Grace, Stuck, and Relax. I actually tried ordering those three acoustic tracks from this site, but it was for Canadians only!

I've gone acoustic mad. I had no idea that you U.K. folks get 3 bonus acoustic versions on the digital release of the album! You have: Grace Kelly [Acoustic Version] Relax (Take It Easy) [Acoustic Version] Stuck In The Middle [Acoustic Version] So, we're almost even then! U.S. fans get 4 bonus acoustic tracks (between 2 CDs), and the U.K. fans get 3 bonus acoustic tracks (digital download only). However, I was able to download from 7digital.com these U.K. exclusive acoustic tracks even though I'm from the U.S. My credit card will just have to charge me a little conversion fee from U.K. pounds to American dollars. THESE ARE AWESOME! I had no idea that these existed until a few minutes ago! Definitely worth having in your collection. I adore the acoustic version of "Relax"!

Yes! They are awesome! In fact, all the acoustic bonus tracks are awesome! I did my run today to both Best Buy and Target and bought the exclusive album at both locations! It's rare that I'll buy the same album twice for only 2 exclusive bonus tracks, but when the music is this good, I'll go for it. It's so nice having these acoustic versions on CD in brilliant sound quality! I love hearing them in a more simple form. I'm liking "Love Today" more in it's acoustic version than in it's original version. I'm so used to hearing the highly compressed live acoustic performances streamed from the Internet. It's amazing how much better they sound on CD! Hopefully, we'll see more acoustic versions appear on forthcoming singles. I would love hearing him perform acoustic versions of all the album songs. I highly recommend everyone add these acoustic tracks to their collection. Hopefully, they eventually will be made available to those non-U.S. fans as well. Now I'm waiting for an official acoustic studio version of "Grace Kelly" to appear on CD.

Yes, $7.98 is a bargain here in the U.S. Most new albums usually retail $9.99 - $12.99, depending on where you buy them. However, once in a while new albums by new acts will have an excellent first week "discovery" price. I remember buying Keane's 'Hopes And Fears' album for $6.99 at Best Buy when it came out here in the U.S. Of course, the price later went up to about $12.99 after it became popular. With this kind of pricing going around I'm sure the album will have a high debut in the U.S., which will hopefully only create further buzz for the album. Since nobody seems to know the Target bonus tracks I'll be stopping there tomorrow and post what they are here.

Here's what I have for the U.S. March 27 release... From BestBuy.com: 1. Grace Kelly 2. Lollipop 3. My Interpretation 4. Love Today 5. Relax (Take It Easy) 6. Ring Ring 7. Any Other World 8. Billy Brown 9. Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) 10. Stuck In The Middle 11. Erase 12. Happy Ending 14. Love Today - (acoustic version) 15. Satellite - (acoustic version) The first 12 tracks are all featured on all U.S. releases of the album. So these are the Best Buy bonus tracks: Love Today [Acoustic Version] Satellite [Acoustic Version] Note that Best Buy's official site [http://www.bestbuy.com] lists "Happy Ending" as track 12. Track 14 is "Love Today [Acoustic Version]" and Track 15 is "Satellite [Acoustic Version]". I can only assume track 13 (which is probably hidden) is of course "Over My Shoulder". Target also has 2 exclusive bonus tracks, according to their weekly ad. Can anyone confirm what these are? Hopefully these will be different from the Best Buy bonus tracks. (I'm guessing an acoustic version of "Grace Kelly" will be featured instead. I would love to get "Your Sympathy"). Well, I'll find out Tuesday. Also, both Best Buy and Target have the album on sale for $7.98! No reason not to pick this up at either or both locations. Excellent price!

Okay, thank you.

By the way, does anyone know the day this Virgin Radio performance was recorded? Was it March 19?

Thanks for the link! These performances are absolutely FLAWLESS. I cannot believe how on key he is throughout all three songs. These are probably the best performances I've heard him give of any of these songs. He is brilliant! These are keepers, so I've captured the stream and converted the songs to mp3 for my own collection.

"...say goodbye to the world you thought you lived in..." Right now it's "Any Other World". This track is just stunning.