The Greatest Hits Remixed

Album review

As popular as Berlin was, it didn't build a very large catalog. When Berlin broke up in 1987, the group only left behind two full-length albums (Love Life and Count Three and Pray) and an EP (Pleasure Victim). Berlin's hardcore fans were left clamoring for more, and those are the people that this collection of remixes was obviously designed for. Assembled 13 years after Berlin's breakup, Greatest Hits Remixed tries to make the L.A. residents' 1982-1986 recordings relevant to the danceclub scene of 2000. The results are unpredictable and intriguing, if less than essential; only Berlin's more obsessive fans will need to hear Cleopatra's dance-oriented remixes of "Masquerade," "No More Words," or "The Metro." Some of the gems are remixed twice, including "Dancing in Berlin" and the erotic "Sex (I'm A....)." While it is interesting to hear elements of drum'n'bass, trance, and other rave-friendly styles being applied to Berlin's 1980s classics, Greatest Hits Remixed is too esoteric for casual listeners. Novices, in fact, would be much better off starting out with Geffen's collection, The Best of Berlin, which contains the definitive versions of most of these songs. Greatest Hits Remixed is strictly for Berlin's most die-hard fans.

© Alex Henderson /TiVo