Music For The Road

At times quite sprightly, at other times ponderous not least in its treatment of dotting and though played with the professional efficiency one expects of the ECO, this recording fell short of medal-ranking when it was first issued. During the intervening 16 years even middle-of-the-road performances of the Music for the Royal Fireworks have become more attentive to scholarship and there are now several excellent recordings of the kind available (not to mention others on period instruments) on CD.

Music For The Masses (it’s title deliberately tongue-in-cheek) was issued in 1987 and co-produced by Dave Bascombe (best known at that point for his work with Tears For Fears). Less dense than it’s predecessor, this album managed to deliver some classic singles in (particularly in ‘Strangelove’ and ‘Never Let Me Down Again’) even if, again, they weren’t massive commercial successes at the time. Music For The Masses is a personal favourite for this writer – managing to be intimate, cinematic, and industrial all at the same time – and this album and the 101 tour very much laid the groundwork for the next album Violator which of course was massive, both creatively and commercially. Music For The Masses: The 12″ Singles breaks new ground by including SEVEN 12-inch singles; two for each of the first three singles and one for slightly forgotten fourth single ‘Little 15’. It too includes a poster. All audio was remastered at Abbey Road Studios and these come with download cards offering 16- bit WAV files.