Annie Lennox - Pavement Cracks

A major label is actually releasing all the mixes of a track, and I'm shocked. I adore the idea of legit, truly mastered CD Maxis making a comeback, but with the way the market is right now, I actually feel bad for the labels when I see releases like this. Effort and money was put into this, and unless every dance music fan buys it, they will lose money on it. And anything that makes me feel bad for major labels is a moral conundrum I don't even know how to approximate right now.

The Goldtrix (*) and Scumfrog (*1/2) Mixes are duds, the former doing nothing, the latter merely looping a background vocal and deploying some droning synth fills. Mac Quayle (**1/2) uses some nice guitar fills and has a great feel to it, but yet the track stagnates, shifting its dynamics only for the breakbeat bridge. Gabriel & Dresden (***), among my fave remixers of the moment, do the most they can with the song, but there are moments that feel forced, and I have to confess that their mix of La Lennox's "A Thousand Beautiful Things" is much better at preserving the unique properties of the song in its original form.

The prize on this package has to go to Shanghai Surprise (***1/2), whose mix (heard on the promo vinyl) initially did nothing for me.

Here, mastered well, it sounds like a lost Almighty track, and I can't help but be won over. It still isn't perfect, but of the options on this single, it wins hands down. Let's hope that it turns the tide on our friend the CD Maxi.