On the 25th November 2016, Cherry Pop released Wanted: The 3CD Deluxe Digipak Edition, a reissue of Yazz’s classic 1980s album. The accompanying press release states “This 3 CD Edition includes the 11 album tracks from the original CD released in 1988, plus 31 related bonus tracks and remixes, making this the most complete collection available of Yazz’s best known releases.”
In actual fact, the way the tracks are listed, CD1 is broken down into two sections, Wanted comprising the nine original tracks as per the vinyl released in 1988 and nine additional ‘Bonus Tracks’, primarily 7” edits of the four main singles from Wanted, along with a couple of B-sides and the 1990 non-album release of Treat Me Good and its B-side I Want Your Love. CD2 and CD3 contain a further twenty-four extended versions, 12” versions and remixes of the singles, a large number which have previously been unavailable on UK release, and include the production and remix talents of people like Coldcut, Beatmasters, Bam Bam, and Sound Iration to mention but a few.
The accompanying 16-page full colour booklet is packed with an expanded design of the original artwork along with lots of glossy pics, extensive sleeve notes and a full UK discography, immensely handy if you fancy completing your collection of Yazz’s back catalogue, or fancy finding out what she has been up to over the last few decades, musically.
So what of the original album and has it aged well? Wanted was classed as Electronic, House, Synth Pop, Dance, Pop and Acid House, depending on your preferred album information repository and personal judgement, but this fails to fully cover the varied and eclectic range of genres on the album, which include jazz, soul, reggae, hip-hop (the Neneh Cherry-esque Wanted On The Floor) and world music (Got To Share), proving that Yazz’s vocals are not just for the dancefloor and promise of more to come. Whilst the styling of the tracks is blatantly late 80’s House, there are gems that still sound as good today as they did 28 years ago. The included non-album single of Treat Me Good sees Yazz’s vocals maturing towards a more Annie Lennox style richness, even in the few short years after the release of Wanted.
It is a little strange that one or two of the remix versions are different to those this reviewer remembers, and has in other formats, but ultimately there are equally plenty of versions of the singles to keep any fan of Wanted very happy and it’s cool to have them all together in one handy set.
UPDATE It seems there have been a number of complaints lodged with Cherry Pop about a few of the contained remixes and versions, note my last paragraph. Cherry Pop have released a statement on their site and Facebook page admitting to the fact there are anomalies in what is listed and what is actually contained on the CDs and that they are in the process of remedying this, to the point that buyers will be reissued with the updated CD1 containing the correct version of the 7” version of Stand Up For Your Love Rights citing their inability to get hold of the original masters due to their unknown whereabouts. (Full article is here.) So, your choice is either buy it as is and then get in touch with Cherry Pop to get the replacement CD, or hold on in the assumption the corrected version will be re-released in the fullness of time. Personally, despite this information, it’s still a damn good compilation, well priced in this current climate of overpriced triple CD re-releases.
7/10
