Welcome to the Pleasuredome [ENHANCED]

Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 20, 1998)
• Original Release Date: 1984
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Umvd Labels
• ASIN: B00000DFFQ
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #136,266 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Welcome to the Pleasure Dome, October 29, 1998

By A Customer

This is an interesting album, full of energy and style. Anyone who grew up in the 80's will remember the hit, "Relax," but this album has much more to offer than a little 80's nostalgia. The music presentation is experimental and diverse, an attempt to mix pop music of the era with new styles and techniques.

There are remakes of older songs in "Ferry," "War," and Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run," as well as original compositions ranging from the 80's pop style "Relax" and "Two Tribes" to the melodic epic "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome."

The recording quality is excellent as is the production. And speaking of the production, that is where this album truly excells. There is a spacial depth to the melodies and instruments that was not common to the minimalist production of most 80's pop music. The credit here lies with the album's producer, Trevor Horn.

Horn was responsible for the recording's depth and structure, giving it his signature spatiality. His other credits include: Performing/composing/producing with Yes on "Drama," forming his own band, The Buggles, with Geoff Downes with the hit "Video Killed the Radio Star," Producing the Yes album "90125," and more recently producing two hit albums with the artist, Seal.

Overall, this is an excellent album, one that can be listened to over and again, offering the listener something new every time.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FRANKIE SAY, '"NO MORE!" TOO BAD FOR US!, October 12, 2001

By	Robert Edler "Master Of Mystery" (Saint Louis, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The year 1985 marked the middle of my mid-life crisis. It was the time I tuned out Reaganomics, starwars and the dawn of downsizing and turned on to MTV's 24/7 wall-to-wall music videos without a drop of reality TV or rap.

Frankie and Welcome To The Pleasuredome were a couple of my discoveries from this period. Ok, I admit the music was a mixture of overproduced techno-pop as well as every other musical style from the previous twenty years. But the sound caught my attention then, and it still does. I never did figure out what the whole "Frankie Say" mystique was all about; I guess I was too old. But what the heck, the band didn't last that long anyway.

Amazingly, the recording holds up 18-years later. Guess that makes it a classic -- at least the originals like PLEASUREDOME, RELAX and TWO TRIBES. The covers on the albums were all better done by the people who created them.

So, if you've never experienced Frankie, RELAX and give Welcome To The Pleasuredome a try. It has my recommendation.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars original and very danceable, November 30, 1998

By A Customer

I agree with the first two reviewers- this is first-rate stuff.

Welcome to the Pleasuredome, FGTH's (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) first effort, is a genre-spanning, sometimes wacky, kinda weird, highly original but very musical epic CD. It was available on vinyl, too (hey, it was the 80's), but who would buy it that way when it was also available in a very high quality CD recording as well? In fact, the sonic quality of this recording is so high that it would make an excellent CD sampler for high-end audio equipment.

Back to the music: FGTH was highly original in their efforts to produce 'dance' music with more of an edge, using substantial electric guitar work and aggressive rhythms. This is even more impressive when one takes the time to listen to the *very* interesting ways that they intertwine and phase in-and-out similar rhythms, syncopate,etc. (esp. on the track, 'War'), keeping things far from the monotony that plagues much modern dance music.

'Welcome to the Pleasuredome', the second track, is by far the best. Over 11 minutes of rambling, evolving rhythms, well-timed sounds and sheer madness and beauty, this epic number is a classic among those who know FGTH beyond 'Relax'.

Since I listen to it often, this CD does not bring to mind an 80's reunion; rather, it compares very favorably to 'dance' music being produced now, and it deserves to be considered an estimable body of serious music.