Scottish trio One Dove found themselves branded with the trip-hop label after releasing their debut Morning Dove White in 1993.  It wasn’t a label undeserved, really, since the group’s expansive, five-minute plus opuses tended to obscure the catchy hooks underneath layers and layers of shuffled beats, foggy synths, and in the case of the original “Guitar Paradise Mix” of the album’s lead single, “White Love,” squealing electric guitar.

Where the “Guitar Paradise Mix” meanders for more than ten minutes, the Stephen Hague radio mix of “White Love” (download) gets right to the point, pushing the melody to the front, beefing up the dancier aspects of the song and putting vocalist Dot Allison in center stage.  The tinkering resulted in a decent-sized modern rock radio hit for the band, a dance floor smash, and a video in regular rotation on MTV, no small feat for a dance act in the age of grunge:

Same deal with Morning Dove White’s second single, “Breakdown” – the original “Cellophane Boat Mix” (download) was a much more dubby affair with a drowsy Allison vocal, while whiz kid Hague’s superior radio mix (download) strips the song down to its hooky essentials, energizing the vocals in the process.  “Breakdown” also has some neat wordplay, as Allison laments a lost love to the moon:

I remember the night you left me
The moon was full, I felt empty
Tides and werewolves may be turned
But you don’t know how to cry (more…)