Level 42 - Living It Up Box Set

[WJGreer]

Level 42 has a new box set called "Living It Up". I think the Level 42 website is the only place to get it. I had to order it from the UK, and it arrived today.

There are 4 CDs in the set. The first two are a selection of tunes from their released albums. There is some fairly obscure stuff from the "Level 42" and "Pursuit of Accidents" albums on the first CD, along with several of the tracks you would expect from the next few albums. The second CD is a fairly prediectable list of tracks from World Machine forward. They included "The Way Back Home" from Retroglide, and I hope they remixed it. That CD is the only CD I have ever heard that does more unthinkable damage with compression than Rush's "Vapor Trails" does.

The third and fourth CDs are the reason you would buy this collection. #3 is a "rarities" CD. I've got quite a bit of hard to find Level 42 stuff, and the material on this CD is almost completely new to me. There are several demos and early mixes of songs that later appeared on albums, a couple tracks that never did appear on an album, a remix or two, and some really, really good live tracks from the Allan Holdsworth era, around 1990. He rips an absolutely wicked guitar solo on "Love Meeting Love" that might be worth the price of the whole set.

CD #4 also contains previously unreleased material, but these are new recordings, acoustic versions of 10 tracks spaced throughout the Level 42 body of work. I haven't listened to it yet; I'll update on what it sounds like when I do.

The box set contains a great set of notes written by Mark King (an excellent, candid retelling of the band's beginning, ascension, and decline), another set by Paolo Hewitt, and another set by Verdine White, who co-produced Level 42's "Standing in the Light" album.

This box set is probably of most interest to Level 42 fans. That said, it's got some really good and interesting material - and if you _are_ a Level 42 fan you will probably want to get a copy.

[Striver]

Thanks for the head's up on this. I love Level 42's music.

[MikeBass]

Originally Posted by WJGreer

Level 42 has a new box set called "Living It Up". I think the Level 42 website is the only place to get it. I had to order it from the UK, and it arrived today.

There are 4 CDs in the set. The first two are a selection of tunes from their released albums. There is some fairly obscure stuff from the "Level 42" and "Pursuit of Accidents" albums on the first CD, along with several of the tracks you would expect from the next few albums. The second CD is a fairly prediectable list of tracks from World Machine forward. They included "The Way Back Home" from Retroglide, and I hope they remixed it. That CD is the only CD I have ever heard that does more unthinkable damage with compression than Rush's "Vapor Trails" does.

The third and fourth CDs are the reason you would buy this collection. #3 is a "rarities" CD. I've got quite a bit of hard to find Level 42 stuff, and the material on this CD is almost completely new to me. There are several demos and early mixes of songs that later appeared on albums, a couple tracks that never did appear on an album, a remix or two, and some really, really good live tracks from the Allan Holdsworth era, around 1990. He rips an absolutely wicked guitar solo on "Love Meeting Love" that might be worth the price of the whole set.

CD #4 also contains previously unreleased material, but these are new recordings, acoustic versions of 10 tracks spaced throughout the Level 42 body of work. I haven't listened to it yet; I'll update on what it sounds like when I do.

The box set contains a great set of notes written by Mark King (an excellent, candid retelling of the band's beginning, ascension, and decline), another set by Paolo Hewitt, and another set by Verdine White, who co-produced Level 42's "Standing in the Light" album.

This box set is probably of most interest to Level 42 fans. That said, it's got some really good and interesting material - and if you _are_ a Level 42 fan you will probably want to get a copy.

RetroGlide is almost hard to listen to. Great playing, but what the hell were they thinking squashing the hell out of it like that!!

Might have to check out the box set. Even though I have a ton of stuff already!

[WJGreer]

Originally Posted by MikeBass

RetroGlide is almost hard to listen to. Great playing, but what the hell were they thinking squashing the hell out of it like that!!

No idea. It's terrible.

Originally Posted by MikeBass

Might have to check out the box set. Even though I have a ton of stuff already!

Me too, but there's some really cool stuff on this I have never heard. There's a demo of "The Ape", for example, that has the bass much more forward in the mix, and some alternate or early take of "True Believers" that is very sparsely produced. It sounds like a whole different song. And the 1990 live stuff is really good.

[WJGreer]

Update. I listened to the acoustic CD last night. Personally I enjoyed it very much. It may not be for everyone. It is definitely not the typical "Unplugged" thing where the guitarists play acoustic, the bass player sits on a stool, and they do pretty much the same arrangements with a mellower feel. Rather, you can tell that they spent a lot of time and effort on the arrangements.

A few of the tunes are not easily recognizeable, and I mean that positively. The instrumentation is acoustic guitar (possibly two), piano, and I may have heard an acoustic bass guitar. They have significantly enhanced the vocals, adding several layers of harmony in many cases. Also, some of the changes sound different, although a lot of it could be the result of the different instrumentation pulling out more interesting aspects of the chords that were already there.

It is like no Level 42 you have ever heard - very good.

[Steve Clark]

I still have a lot of Level 42 on vinyl from when I was younger but would really like to find those albums in a digital format. Standing in the Light is one of my all time favourite discs. I guess there must be some legal issues holding back a release of previous albums.

[WJGreer]

Originally Posted by Steve Clark

I still have a lot of Level 42 on vinyl from when I was younger but would really like to find those albums in a digital format. Standing in the Light is one of my all time favourite discs. I guess there must be some legal issues holding back a release of previous albums.

From what I can tell, they are all available on Amazon.

[bass12]

Cool! Level 42 is probably my all time favourite band. I already have a sizable collection of Level 42 records and CDs but I'd probably get the box set for the liner notes alone! Thanks for posting the details on this release - sounds like a good one.

[Striver]

Originally Posted by Steve Clark

snipped...Standing in the Light is one of my all time favourite discs...snipped

Same here. Mark King's tone and syncopation on Micro-Kid is fantastic.

[WJGreer]

Originally Posted by bass12

Cool! Level 42 is probably my all time favourite band. I already have a sizable collection of Level 42 records and CDs but I'd probably get the box set for the liner notes alone! Thanks for posting the details on this release - sounds like a good one.

The liner notes are really good, and half of the material in the set is previously unreleased. Half!

[Steve Clark]

Thanks for that. I just assumed since I couldn't buy them from Mr Jobs I couldn't get it anywhere.

Originally Posted by WJGreer

From what I can tell, they are all available on Amazon.

[Greyfin10]

Living It Up is available on Zune Pass right now. I have it on my player right now. Why isn't Zune Pass more popular amongst musicians I wonder? Is it Microsoft angst? I love the all you can eat music thing... I can assure you I get my money's worth every month.

[Jamie_Funk]

Originally Posted by Steve Clark

Thanks for that. I just assumed since I couldn't buy them from Mr Jobs I couldn't get it anywhere.

Canadians can't download from Amazon.com, and Amazon.ca doesn't offer mp3 download AFAIK

Steve - this is where you want to go - my favourite download site (I don't do the iPod/Apple thing and hate iTunes):

http://www.hmvdigital.ca/Search/?search=level+42

The Living it Up Box set looks very cool - might pick this up:

http://www.hmvdigital.ca/artist/level-42/living-it-up



J

[WJGreer]

Originally Posted by Greyfin10

Living It Up is available on Zune Pass right now. I have it on my player right now. Why isn't Zune Pass more popular amongst musicians I wonder? Is it Microsoft angst? I love the all you can eat music thing... I can assure you I get my money's worth every month.

Nah, I just don't think streaming music services have hit the tipping point yet. They will - let's have this conversation again next year and the year after that and see where we are.

I'm almost ready to climb on board, since 75% of the music I buy I only listen to a couple times and then forget about anyway.

[Silent Fly]

Originally Posted by MikeBass

RetroGlide is almost hard to listen to. Great playing, but what the hell were they thinking squashing the hell out of it like that!! (...)

+1

I am glad to hear that I am not the only one that found it over-squashed, over-processed and hard to listen to.