Fantasy Deluxe #17: How Men Are

As outlined in A Love Deluxe, the past year or so has seen me become just a little bit addicted to creating “fantasy” deluxe editions. You take an album, and use whatever extra material is available (B-sides, Single Edits, 12″ Remixes, Demos, Out-takes, non-album 45s) to piece together a multi-disc celebration of it. 

The third long-player from Heaven 17 proved to be the last of their imperial phase, debuting at #12 in October 1984 and producing their final two notable chart entries (90s remixes notwithstanding) in Sunset Now and This Is Mine.

How Are Men? With a nod to Record Mirror’s memorable review at the time by Betty Page, Men are finding themselves faced with the task of following the #4 success of The Luxury Gap, home to their big breakthrough single (Temptation) and a further Top 5 hit (Come Live With Me). Men are apparently past their peak, the smooth white soul/funk stylings as immaculate as ever, but not always backed up with truly memorable tunes and choruses this time. Men are, unfortunately, about to become strangers to the Top 40.

Men are, however, still capable of producing some very fine music when the mood takes them; the expansive 10-minute epic that is closing track And That’s No Lie was later remixed “to enhance its danceability” and the latter version remains my personal favourite Heaven 17 moment. This Is Mine is also one of their finest 45s, a stonking horn-laden groove that deserved better than #23 on the chart.

Guess who’s back….the Happy Jacks – and that’s no lie!

How Men Are is a bit of a strange one in my collection. Despite buying all 3 singles (two on 12″, one on 7″ – don’t ask me why!), I never purchased the album when it was released. It took me until the early 2000s to actually own it in any form (when I found the remastered CD for £5 in FOPP), yet now I have about 4 copies – including the expanded digital edition (forgive me, Father), a lovely original “blue face” Virgin CD pressing and another remaster from the massive Play To Win boxset. 

All told, the album has had three masterings; one ’80s, one ’00s, one from a couple of years ago, but the other “expanded digital edition” is unique in that 5 of the tracks are in longer variations. It’s not quite the same scenario as No Parlez or The Secret Of Association, where the extended mixes are just that…full 12″ versions. The longer Sunset Now is shorter than the official 12″, while The Fuse, Flamedown, Shame Is On The Rocks and Reputation last between an extra 30 seconds and two-and-a-half minutes. To confuse matters more, the longer Reputation was used on the 2019 remaster, replacing the 3.09 mix which had always been on the album prior to that!

The trio of singles add a wealth of bonus material, from 7″ mixes to instrumental B-sides and 12″ overhauls (including the aforementioned “Enhanced Danceability” reworking of And That’s No Lie). A handful of these were added to the 2006 CD reissue, and a few more were on the expanded digital release, but there wasn’t anywhere (besides the Play To Win boxset, and even then I’m not 100% sure) which gathered everything from the era in one place.

SOMETHING HAD TO BE DONE.

(Of course).

So, “No More Wasting Time…”, here’s the 4CD Fantasy Deluxe Edition of How Men Are. Synchronize!

Disc One
HOW MEN ARE [Original 1984 Version]
Produced by B.E.F. and Greg Walsh
Engineered by Greg Walsh and Jeremy Allom

01 FIVE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT 3.50
02 SUNSET NOW 3.36
03 THIS IS MINE 3.51
04 THE FUSE 3.04
05 SHAME IS ON THE ROCKS 4.06
06 THE SKIN I’M IN 3.48
07 FLAMEDOWN 2.59
08 REPUTATION 3.09
09 AND THAT’S NO LIE 10.11

Exactly as it says on the tin. Once I had the “Blue Face” early CD pressing, this was always going to be the first disc in the set.

Disc Two
HOW MEN ARE [2019 Remaster]
Produced by B.E.F. and Greg Walsh
Remastered by Phil Kinrade

01 FIVE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT 3.50
02 SUNSET NOW 3.36
03 THIS IS MINE 3.51
04 THE FUSE 3.04
05 SHAME IS ON THE ROCKS 4.06
06 THE SKIN I’M IN 3.48
07 FLAMEDOWN 2.59
08 REPUTATION 3.26
09 AND THAT’S NO LIE 10.11

Taken from the Play To Win: The Virgin Years boxset. For some reason the slightly longer mix of Reputation was included, but in terms of running times the rest are the same as the 1984 and 2006 editions.

Disc Three
HOW MEN ARE [Full Length Versions]
Produced by B.E.F. and Greg Walsh
From the 2006 Expanded Digital Remaster
Remastered by Donal Whelan

01 FIVE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT 3.50
02 SUNSET NOW 5.15
03 THIS IS MINE 3.51
04 THE FUSE 5.26
05 SHAME IS ON THE ROCKS 5.10
06 THE SKIN I’M IN 3.48
07 FLAMEDOWN 4.01
08 REPUTATION 3.26
09 AND THAT’S NO LIE 10.11

Includes the 5 alternate/extended mixes unique to this particular format. Both 1981’s Penthouse & Pavement and 1983’s Luxury Gap were given standalone deluxe editions by Virgin/EMI/Whoever Owns The Catalogue now, but as yet nothing similar for How Men Are, Pleasure One or Teddy Bear Duke & Pyscho.

Disc Four
HOW SINGLES ARE
Produced by B.E.F. and Greg Walsh

01 SUNSET NOW 3.36 (7″ MIX)
02 THIS IS MINE 3.24 (7″ MIX)
03 ..(AND THAT’S NO LIE) 3.26 (7″ REMIX)
04 SUNSET NOW 5.30 (12″ EXTENDED VERSION)
05 THIS IS MINE 5.41 (EXTENDED VERSION)
06 ..(AND THAT’S NO LIE) 6.11 (REMIXED TO ENHANCE ITS DANCEABILITY)
07 SUNSET NOW 5.10 (12″ INSTRUMENTAL)
08 THIS IS MINE 7.15 (FILMMIX)
09 THIS IS MINE 8.44 (CINEMIX)
10 CHASE RUNNER 3.26 (FROM THE “ELECTRIC DREAMS” FILM SOUNDTRACK)
11 COUNTERFORCE 3.00 (B-SIDE TO “SUNSET NOW” 7″ SINGLE)
12 COUNTERFORCE II 3.09 (B-SIDE TO “SUNSET NOW” 12″ SINGLE)
13 SKIN 3.42 (INSTRUMENTAL)
14 MINE 5.05 (INSTRUMENTAL)

As per usual, a round-up of all the edits, mixes, b-sides and non-album stuff makes up the final disc. Not a lot differentiates the 7″ of Sunset Now to its album version; just a cleaner into with no bleed from the previous track. The attempt to condense And That’s No Lie into three-and-half-minutes on the 7″ remix isn’t wholly successful, and it’s a shame they didn’t incorporate more elements of the incredibly dramatic and pulsating 12″. This Is Mine was issued on two 12″ formats, with the Filmix and Cinemix versions on the respective A-sides. 

Heaven 17, along with other Virgin labelmates Phil Oakey, Culture Club and Helen Terry, contributed to the Electric Dreams film soundtrack in the summer of 1984. Chase Runner isn’t especially memorable but it needs to be included here regardless!

For the artwork, I didn’t/couldn’t do anything too clever or drastic; the original 12 x 12 LP design is simply presented on a black background with some extra text underneath (I repeated this design style for my own deluxe of The Luxury Gap). A treated version of the Sunset Now backrop – to match the blue hues of the album’s visual theme – was created for the spine. The tracklistings and associated information take up enough space on the rear without too much else going on, so keeping it simple and uncluttered felt like the order of the day.