Customer Reviews

Break 4 Love - The Collaboration (Part 1 of 2)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Living in New York and hearing Peter Rauhofer play this song in his set I have been waiting for it to be released to buy for so long. I had searched in the stores and last year the song was only released on Vinyl.

Now with a CD release I can finally listen to this mix whenever I want to hear a great dance beat.

The best club mix of the CD has to be the "Friburn & Urik Tribal Mix". This is the mix that you hear when clubbing at The Roxy and other New York dance clubs. The other US Mixes were OK but not as thumping, they have been played out for a few months now. But, if you want to dance hard (or work out hard, whatever you use your dance music for), then go and pick up this CD. All of the mixes sound cool but #4 is the best, Fast Beat, then chorded pauses and always plenty of Bass, with the "Break 4 Love" spoken vocal moving all the bodies across the dancefloor.
A 5 Star Dance Mix.

In the wake of the Pet Shop Boys new album release "Release", which leaves much to be desired, I ordered this double CD single set, and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of music put forth here. Somewhere before Christmas I heard a sample of this song, and was not very amused. With the "Home and Dry" single release, though, this song took on a better format. Additionally, the Rauhofer work on this song gives the entire collaboration a much needed Pep, while maintaining the Pet Shop Boys quality that we are used to. These tracks, and there are a lot of them -- close to two hours of playtime -- are very playable and definitely deserve the attention that they've gotten in club play. Even though I dare not elevate this set to legendary status as say, Absolutely Fabulous or Somewhere, it is a definite buy for electronic music lovers and a must have for die-hard Pet Shop Boys fans.

This is my review for what Amazon.com refers to as Part 2 of the "Break 4 Love" CD single, but is, however, actually labeled as Part 1 on the actual CD. Just wanted to clarify, in case there was any confusion.

"Break 4 Love" is the long-delayed US release of a dance/club collaboration between the venerable British synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, and renowned DJ Peter Rauhofer (aka Club 69). It had, I believe, originally been slated to come out in July of 2001 (perhaps earlier), but didn't see the light of day until later in the year. It was worth wait.

While by no means a club-anthem classic, the song (which is a cover) is a very well-produced dance song. This particular single features three radio mixes, and then 5 full-length club mixes. I prefer the UK radio mix over the US, for the latter adds a little too much percussion for my taste. The club mixes are quite good, my favorite (funnily enough) being the US Mix. It is strong, slick, and doesn't veer off-focus. The dubs are also solid in structure. Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys provides lead vocals. There are "spoken male" vocals by Thomas Frenes, doing his best Barry White impression.

This is a good, thumping, even tender dance/club song. Not one to miss.

Break 4 Love is essentially a new Pet Shop Boys club single as Neil Tennant sings lead vocals (it won't, however, appear on their upcoming Spring album). Neil's vocals are some of his best ever. Another singer (Thomas Frenes) does some spoken word vocals (he sings "Break 4 Love"). Hearing a Pet Shop Boys song with another vocalist on it is a bit jarring at first, but is kind of nice after one gets used to it. This CD has the basic US and UK radio mixes as well as several lengthier club-type remixes. The song was written by Vaughan Mason, who apparently recorded this song originally during the 1970s. Highly recommended for PSB fans and dance/disco lovers.

The Collaboration between Peter Rauhofer and PSB is inspired. Rauhofer manages to add considerable sparkle to what could have been an average PSB cover, and Neil Tennant's vocals are some of the best he's ever done (has he finally discovered he can use his chest and throat without those nasal overtones?) This cd release features nearly an hour of music - not all of it essential, of course, because some mixes work better than others; overall, though, this is very classy dance music, with Friburn & Urik's Tribal Mix, the USA Club Mix, and the Classic Club Mix being personal highlights.

For all the talent present here the simple fact is that this cover version of the house classic Break 4 Love is just not that good. Considering especially the original was recorded almost 20 years ago by Raze and still has more life and more energy than this version, it is a hundred times better and probably cost one hundreth to make. Galling, really. Pet Shop Boys have a great history of cranking out a stomping cover every few years
( think "Always On My Mind", "Go West", "Somewhere" the list goes on....), but this is just lacking.