The FSOL Message Board

When I look at the track listing, it says that almost all the songs are 2006 edits, but the clips sound exactly the same as the album versions I already have. Is there actually anything new on this or is Virgin just cashing in on a compilation?

I got excited when I saw this advertised but I'm sure they are 99 percent identical to the originals.I might have heard a couple of different noises but nothing major.

The most common difference for those labeled as 2006 edits is that they are cut differently from the originals, often fading in or out at different points. This is most noticeable on the tracks Antique Toy, Glass, and Yage, which each have roughly a minute cut from their ends, and Everyone in the World, which has more than two minutes cut from its beginning. On the other hand, the My Kingdom and Lifeforms edits are fairly unique to this release and in my opinion are the best versions of their single forms.

Well, it works as a great introduction to FSOL, as most best-of albums do..

PNG, Expander and Lovers seem quite out of place IMHO, since rest of the stuff is from the Lifeforms-Dead Cities era. It does include some of the (if not the) most mind blowing material they've done and it's a masterpiece in that way. I heard WHE 7'' mix the first time on this one, excellent ending for the album, some sort of psychedelic anthem and conclusion

Never been a fan of "best of" compilations, except for the artists i was not familiar with. I got excited myself when I saw this advertised too, thinking maybe it will include a new track or something as a bonus, but my excitement quickly faded away when i listened to it since a friend of mine bought it. Its a good compilation for those who just discovered FSOL and want to know more, but for fans who listen to FSOL for years its not anything special. id rather buy a 'Dead Cities' version with the fat booklet (if there was any) or spend my money on the Pod room.

It's the most disappointing FSOL release I've purchased. I too was fooled by the '2006 edits' and thought the album would have segues to match the quality of their previous albums, so when I got an album that had nothing new and the tracks weren't mixed together at all with the 'edits' being that they just faded in and out at the start and end I was pretty angry about wasting my money. It's a good release for a curious newbie to the band, but a frustrating one to the long term fan.

Well, I'll hold off on buying it until there's no other albums with their material that I haven't heard then. I was a little skeptical after recently buying "Signed, Sealed and Delivered 2" and feeling burned that there was only one of their pieces on there that I hadn't heard instead of two (although I only paid $1 for that, so that seems worth while for one song, just disappointing when I expected two).

Well, there should be two unique tracks on "Signed Sealed Delivered 2"

10 - The Future Sound Of London - Bring Me Home
&
11 - Amorphous Androgynous - Subliminal Aura

But Subliminal Aura has since been released as Stomach Acid.

Sadly, I found out that the compilation had two songs from Rosses (Ross's? Ross'? IDK) compilations page, but totally missed the note saying that Subliminal Aura was the same as Stomach Acid.

Teachings was a huge disappointment - I was hoping the tracks would have been separated from their seguing sections to make them entirely new edits, rather than just fading in and out. The exclusive material is of vague interest to completists - the shorter versions of Everyone in the World and My Kingdom paired together (just faded rather than proper new mixes, sadly), the slightly different outro to the 7" version of Explosive, and most interestingly the four minute mix of Lifeforms, which hasn't been released before and it definitely the highlight of the disc.
It'd be wonderful if the whole thing had flowed together as an album. As it is, the fractured nature doesn't really represent FSOL to me and I'd be much more inclined to recommend Lifeforms or Dead Cities to a beginner rather than the compilation.

Ross wrote:It'd be wonderful if the whole thing had flowed together as an album. As it is, the fractured nature doesn't really represent FSOL to me and I'd be much more inclined to recommend Lifeforms or Dead Cities to a beginner rather than the compilation.

Absolutely, worded better than I could !

I'm definitely one of those people who has a much more positive image of Teachings as it pretty much was my introduction to FSOL. I'd come across their name numerous times before and had obviously heard We Have Explosive and one or two of their other tracks, so I decided to pick up Teachings when I noticed it in a store and I'm certainly glad that I did. In retrospect, it does lack the flow that distinguishes most of their other work, but there are things that I like about it and think make it unique, namely the Lifeforms and My Kingdom edits and the way that it starts off with Papua New Guinea and follows with Max. Ultimately, I can't deny the impression that it has had on me being the introduction to one of my now favorite bands and that it's likely responsible for my partiality of Dead Cities.

Where does it say 2006 edit? I have the CD i bought the year it was released and none of the tracks say 2006 edit. Also on my CD i noticed a couple of errors. It says Cascade (Shortform) original version on Lifeforms. Cascade (shortform) is off the Cascade single/EP. The Cascade on Lifeforms is different. Also "Papua New Guinea (12"version) Original version on Accelerator" Ok i'm not sure about this one because my Accelerator is the 2001 version so i don't know if this is different to the old one, but Papua New Guinea on my Accelerator isn't the same as the one on Teachings. Papua new guinea on Accelerator is longer than the version on Teachings and starts off ambient while the one on Teachings starts of with beats from the beginning. Now i look at it again i think some of the other tracks that say original version may be wrong as well.

I agree pretty much with what you guys have said. A disappointing release for FSOL fans that have all their albums / Singles. But a good introduction to the duo for the first time listener of FSOL.

I do like the Teachings edit of My Kingdom, but a lot of the other tracks are shortened considerably from the original track. Most notably Everyone in the world.... which is one of my favorite tracks on Dead Cities appears here terribly watered down to around the 2 minute mark. This version doesn't really do the track justice in the same way as the album version. Also, i would say some of the track selections were questionable, especially Expander and The Lovers although i was never that keen on the latter so maybe that's the reason i say that. I think they should have included Vertical Pig on Teachings since it seems to be a favorite among fans, and would have been a better selection than Expander or The Lovers.

The '2006 Edit' thing was a promotional thing, the tracks are often listed that way on Amazon and so on - but not on the sleeve.
As for the 'original version' credits, these highlight the fact that the original version is on Lifeforms (or Accelerator or whatever), rather than the version represented here.