Detailed Reviews [IQ - 1993 - Ever [2018 Remix – "25th Anniversary Collector's Edition]"]

Prolusion. Ever 2018 Remix is a box set released for the 25th anniversary of IQ’s 1993 studio album. It consists of a booklet, 2 CDs and 1 DVD. CD 1 is a remix of the original album plus 2 bonus tracks, CD 2 is a full live version of the album. The DVD contains a surround sound mix of the studio and live albums, presented on Discs 1 & 2, respectively, and a lot of additional material, such as demos, dismissed ideas and much more.

Analysis. The first segment of the box set is occupied by a thick booklet. Along with the traditional lyrics in the beginning, on its forty pages you will find an interesting story from each of the band members that took part in the production of the original or this work, rare historic photos and much more. The stories are really fascinating, telling a lot about the life inside the band – how it all began, what made Peter Nicholls leave them, how they finally re-joined, as well as about tragedies and successes that accompanied their long creative path. Next comes the remixed version of the original Ever enriched with two bonus tracks (CD 1). Things are not that simple though. For technical reasons, Neil Durant had to re-play many of keyboard sections, for which he not only had to find right notes, but, since the original keyboards used by Martin Orford had been lost, was tasked to find right sounds. Mike Holmes also wished to improve some of his guitar parts, so, finally, much more was done than just remixing, but the resultant deep and clean and fresh sound was worth it. Of the two bonus songs, the first one presents a variation of the guitar solo from Came Down, which itself structurally makes up a song without words, with verses, a chorus and a coda. Lost in Paradise is a lyrical and somewhat spacey remixing of The Darkest Hour, also found on the 2008 Frequency Tour album. CD 2 presents Ever played live at the Colos-Saal, Aschaffenburg, Germany, on 10th Ferbruary 2018. The concert is well-recorded and well-performed, as usual. And, as usual, IQ play live with drive and enthusiasm, adding zests to familiar songs and making long-listened compositions sound fresh and interesting. The tracks on it are slightly shuffled. Apart from the material from the two CDs, the DVD additionally offers an extensive section, Further Listening, subdivided into 4 chapters titled Album Demos, Studio Outtakes, Unused Ideas and Rehearsals. Each track there is provided with a short description, all of which, together with the musical material, unfold a detailed story of how the 1993 studio album was created.

Conclusion. IQ’s 1993 album Ever was one of the most important symphonic prog albums in the 1990s, the one that predetermined the band’s subsequent successful development. This boxset is a gorgeous present to their fans, a definite must-have. Can it replace completely the original? Mostly, yes. There are very few moments which I would question (namely, in Came Down, in the line ‘Far away we say (wave) goodbye,’ there was a lovely deep synthetic bass accent on ‘say (wave)’ in the original, which disappeared in the remixed version), but as for the rest, the 1993 album is now only for collectors or nostalgists.

Proguessor: May 2022
The Rating Room