According to Neil in Literally 35 they have a contract in America for a new B Sides album which would carry on from where Alternative left off. Neil also says that EMI will also have to release it globally. They say there is about 40 tracks and it could be released next year, maybe even this year!! They also say they are quite keen for it to come out!

It also says that the current plan is for an album to be released of the PSB music from the ballet, to be released in March when the ballet starts

so thats 2 new albums coming!!!!

The album of ballet music was predictable, I think. They've never lost sight of the fact that they are first and foremost musicians that have a loyal fanbase that follows them beyond the confines of pop. I'm looking forward to this immensely.

The b-sides compilation I can live without. There's nothing in that, musically-speaking, for any of the die-hards. A booklet in the style of its predecessor would be most welcome, but I'm not sure if there's much appeal in a compilation of tracks that we all have.

Alternative was unique in that many of the tracks on that record had never been released on CD before. There may be one or two tracks like that on this new prospective compilation, but there can't be much. Then again, given the surfeit of DVD-only tracks over the years...

Dog's thread from last November suggests possible track-listings.

Drico.

Yes. "Alternative II" is interesting considering the B sides that never really were part of any physical formats.

We can potentially (eventhough I would be surprised if that happened) count on a single to promote that album ? Paninaro 95 had that function for Alternative....

I'm sure that question will keep the forum alive for the next couple of weeks...

Definitely good news! The new B sides album could be promoted by at least one live concert - well, I can dream!

Well, following the logic of the prospective track-listings in Dog's thread, I suggest that this would be the time to finally release Fugitive as a single. It's by far the most contemporary sounding record in the track-listing, and the one thing that prevented its earlier release (the obscure and controversial subject matter) can be justified this time as it's a single promoting a collection of obscure and experimental songs.

Drico.

I doubt they'll release Fugitive. More like this.....

In terms of the new B-Sides album I'm most looking forward to buying Nightlife, instead of watching it on YouTube. Apart from that, I won't be touching it I'm afraid.

Strange that the U.S. record company (who are they with now, anyway? Astralwerks?) is so keen to release a b-sides compilation. I'm not aware that the first Alternative did particularly well. There haven't been any PSB CD singles released in the States since 2000, though, so for casual fans on this side of the Atlantic this compilation could be of some use. (And I guess Astralwerks is enough of a boutique label that this it the kind of thing they'd go for. They put out a Chemical Brothers b-side collection a while back, I believe.)

I trust the Boys to use the opportunity to throw in a bonus for hard-core fans, whether it's a new single or something else. Plus the possibility of mistakes means you never know when you might get unreleased versions or edits of songs you already have. We saw that with PopArt, though fans mostly moaned about it.

For what it's worth, my approach to getting the essential material onto two discs (assuming we even get two discs) would be to start with the Nightlife era. The Bilingual b's are all on the deluxe edition of that album anyway. That breaks the "picking up from where Alternative left off" rule, but doing a straight-up Alternative 2 would be problematic.

I sold my Minimal DVD single and bought mp3s of Blue on Blue and the other tracks. At least we can have those on a normal CD now. Yeesh.

Why not do a three disc-er, and any extra room there is, add NEW tracks, rare tracks, anything exciting for the fans. While Alt 2 doesn't excite most of us much, as it shouldn't, I think it's a good idea for a release. Like Drico, I would mostly want it for the booklet, but I do think I'd listen to it as well. Their CD singles are such a mixed bag, I rarely put them on my player (and I still mainly listen to CDs), so everything in one place would be ok with me.

Will the Ballet be getting a US release as well?

Also, does Overture to Performance count as a B side, and maybe a stupid question, but why is it not on Performance, yet that other classical song is?

I think it will be good to have a release of all this stuff together, kind of for posterity anyway. I know I bought the Fountains of Wayne b-side collection even though I had only vaguely heard of them before, just based on a great review of it.

Interesting you bring this up, because that must be the only other group that I listen to their B sides and think many of them are better than album material. I prefer the B side collection to the first two albums.

Whilst I am missing a few of the more recent b-sides, "Alternative II" would be low on my list of priorities, unless it had a commentary-style booklet like it's predecessor.

Many of the b-sides have not been released at all outside of Europe.

In North America, if a song isn't on an album, it doesn't exist. This is starting to change with the disappearance of physical media, but there's still a ways to go. It would be great to have the b-sides compiled and given a proper release here, as well as being made available on iTunes/Amazon.

I hope they call it 'Beside' or 'Besides'.