Hunting High And Low (2CD Deluxe Edition)

Following a couple of Duran Duran reissue disasters earlier this year I thought this could suffer from the same lack of care. After having sat through the entire main album ready to pick on anything, Digiprep have happily proved me wrong. There's a bit of top end distortion on The Sun Always Shines On T.V. which I suspect is on the original master tape, other than that, the original album remastered is faultless and well worth getting to take over from your vinyl, cassette or old 1985 cd copy.

As extra's there's some surprising stuff. The original 12" of The Sun Always... is included (I didn't even know this version existed), the original 7" of Take On Me is here with an introduction that isn't on my vinyl copy (that cost me 50 GBP a few years ago), Stop! And Make Your Mind Up from the original Take On Me 12" (which cost me 60 GBP) is at last released on cd for the first time, the brilliant Driftwood is here (although the sticker on the case is a little misleading as it's not a… more »

Following a couple of Duran Duran reissue disasters earlier this year I thought this could suffer from the same lack of care. After having sat through the entire main album ready to pick on anything, Digiprep have happily proved me wrong. There's a bit of top end distortion on The Sun Always Shines On T.V. which I suspect is on the original master tape, other than that, the original album remastered is faultless and well worth getting to take over from your vinyl, cassette or old 1985 cd copy.

As extra's there's some surprising stuff. The original 12" of The Sun Always... is included (I didn't even know this version existed), the original 7" of Take On Me is here with an introduction that isn't on my vinyl copy (that cost me 50 GBP a few years ago), Stop! And Make Your Mind Up from the original Take On Me 12" (which cost me 60 GBP) is at last released on cd for the first time, the brilliant Driftwood is here (although the sticker on the case is a little misleading as it's not a demo (of what is essentially a demo).

The majority of extra's on CD2 are demos recorded in Sydenham. Without going into spoiler detail, they're essential for fans. Some of them might be difficult listening but that's because they are only demos and not made for general worldwide release. There are 6 minutes spare at the end of CD2, 19 minutes spare on CD1, quite a few remixes haven't been included. I don't think that matters, everything seems to sit right.

The artwork's a little surprising as it mainly focuses on the Take On Me video illustrations (which 26 years later still look awesome). There are no variations of the front cover (if you overlook the a-ha logo being printed in a light colour instead of grey) though there is a great unused b/w photo from German reissue of the Take On Me single...and it's not packaged in an annoying and pointless slipcase!

Fantastic reissue by everyone involved.