a Siamese Dream dream

This image - apparently the track list, or track list in progress, for the second discs of the forthcoming Smashing Pumpkins 'Gish' and 'Siamese Dream' reissues - leaked yesterday. In easier-to-read terms, it looks like this:

Gish:
01 Starla (2011 Mix)
02 Siva (Peel Session)
03 Honeyspider (Reel Time Demo / 2011 Mix)
04 Hippy Trippy (Crush Music Box Demo)
05 Snail (Live Radio Performance)
06 Plume (2011 Mix)
07 Bury Me (Reel Time Demo / 2011 Mix)
08 Daydream (Old House Demo)
09 Tristessa (Sub Pop Single / 2011 Mix)
10 Girl Named Sandoz (Peel Session)
11 Jesus Is The Sun (Basement Demo)
12 Blue (Gish Sessions Demo)
13 Smiley (Gish Sessions Demo)
14 I Am One (Reel Time Demo / 2011 Mix)
15 (Something that looks like Suffer / Apartment Demo)
16 La Dolly Vita (2011 Mix)
17 Pulseczar (Gish Sessions Demo)
18 Drown (Alternate Guitar Solo)

Siamese Dream:
01 Pissant (Siamese Sessions Rough Mix)
02 Siamese Dream (Broadway Rehearsals Demo)
03 STP (Rehearsal Demo)
04 Frail and Bedazzled (Soundworks Demo)
05 Luna (Apartment Demo)
06 Quiet (BBC Session / BC Mix)
07 Moleasskiss (Soundworks Demo)
08 Hello Kitty Kat (Soundworks Demo)
09 Today (Broadway Rehearsal Demo)
10 Never Let Me Down Again (BBC Session)
11 Apathy's Last Kiss (Siamese Sessions Rough Mix)
12 Ache (Silverfuck / Rehearsal Demo)
13 U.S.A. (Soundworks Demo)
14 U.S.S.R. (Soundworks Demo)
15 Spaceboy (Acoustic Mix)
16 Rocket (Rehearsal Demo)
17 Disarm (Acoustic Mix)
18 Soma (Instrumental Mix)

If these are in fact real, this is officially Very Exciting. It would have been *SO* easy to just throw a bunch of b-sides and previously bootlegged demos out there and called it done, but a lot of this looks like it hasn't previously escaped out. By my count, there are only three tracks amongst the 36 that have been available in this form before - the two Peel Sessions on the 'Gish' disc and 'Never Let Me Down Again' on 'Siamese Dream' - but that leaves very little room to complain.

I wonder if the first disc will have bonus tracks as well. And we're apparently getting DVDs as well! Huzzah! November is shaping up very, very nicely.

(Sorry, Suede, but your re-issues MIGHT have just been outclassed.)

an unsolvable puzzle: 'Head Music'

Excerpts from an e-mail discussion about 'Head Music':

"I've given 'Head Music' two re-listens now ... with another pass at the b-sides for good measure. I'm still not entirely sure I get the disappointment - but, of course, I don't have the intense love to be massively let down either. There's plenty to pick on the album for - it's overlong, not sure what it wants to be, paced strangely, the peaks aren't as high and there aren't as many, etc. - but the constant bitching from people about how it's lazy - especially the lyrics - are just annoying. How are the lyrics to "Elephant Man" or the old standby dog to kick while they're down "Savoir Faire" any more banal than "Trash" or "Beautiful Ones", and no one picks on them ... people wanted them to fail so they did."

"The temptation to make it a better album through editing and sequencing - though I'm still convinced they got the first five tracks right if you're assembling a 10-track album out of the material - is still there, but after spending more time with it as a whole era, part of the point is that it is too long for its own good and kind of falls apart at the end. Dare I say it - I feel about it how I perceive others to feel about 'Dog Man Star'. There, I said it. I feel better. Love the flaws...although even I don't think I could bring myself to call it anything close to a "masterpiece" as fans claim about the sophomore album ... Even with re-sequencing and perhaps exchanging some album tracks for b-sides, I don't think they stuck to one style enough to make even a consistently amazing 10-track album that doesn't feel jumbled together. A riddle to be cracked, but like an inept mystery writer - or, perhaps, one too out of his mind on crack to know what's going on - we weren't given all the pieces."

"They got the singles right, I'll give them that. I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to pick a fifth single out of the remainders, though "Savoir Faire" would have been a ballsy - and hilarious - "fuck you", especially at the end of the campaign when everyone was seemingly sick of them ... Actually, I take that back - "Asbestos" would have sounded AMAZING on the radio in the middle of a hot summer as a bit of a counter to what everyone else (including the band at the time with "She's In Fashion") would be releasing at the time. Of course, it would have sunk the album even faster as a second single, but in an alternate universe where that doesn't matter it would have been incredible. "

"The whole era has a certain feel to it that I can't put my finger on, but there's something about each and every song that very clearly and immediately attaches it to the project. I have no idea what it is - or even if it's a good or bad thing - but the album puts me in a completely different head space while it's on ... I suppose it's good since I love it so much, but I have to admit it does make me a bit uncomfortable as well. A good discomfort?"

"I saw the connection between "She" and "Killer" (for the first time) last night. I'm not sure how I missed it, but it made me appreciate the band a bit more, that they had been able to sneak that one past me for so long."

""Crackhead", "Leaving" and "Let Go" are Brett's pick for best b-sides from the era, and "Dolly" and "Painted People" are apparently his examples to explain that the b-sides weren't always all amazing prior to formatting. Good man."

""Electricity" is still fucking. thrilling. and remains my favorite thing they ever did."

A write up as disjointed, confused and unsure of itself as the album itself. Perfect.

pop perfection: 'Coming Up'

'Coming Up' is perfect. It's where Brett realizes that, at heart, Suede are really just a big dumb pop band and sets out to make their big dumb pop album. It's ten tracks long, which is the perfect length for a pop album, fact. As Mat Osman is quoted as saying in the new liner notes, it is their "album to do your hair to", and that's really about as high a compliment I can think for it.

The album has a certain sound to it, which I will admit took me a bit to come around to. It's produced within an inch of it's life - a bit treble-y, perhaps - and Brett's vocals in particular have so many effects on them that it hardly sounds like him at all. In the grand scheme of things, though, it all works - if you're going for pop perfection, all the flaws have to go. It's a bit like the porn star image version of Suede, if you will, all tarted up and ready to go.

Song-wise, this is the only time that they got the track list exactly right; every song is where it needs to be for maximum impact. There are some amazing songs hidden away on the b-sides, to be sure, but none of them would add to the overall effectiveness of the album if included. Lyrically things get a bit - ahem - lazy, but that also avoids the over-reach that marred the first two albums. This is POP people, we want to hear about filmstars propping up the bar and being the litter on the breeze and shaking our meat to the beat and all that. At the risk of repeating myself - too late - BIG and DUMB and POP are the words of the day and 'Coming Up' delivers in spades...even the "heartfelt" moments compare true love to drug classes and watching car crashes while eating sandwiches.

This is, ultimately, the essence of Suede in 10 easy to digest song-lets. Brett states in the 'Dog Man Star' booklet that if he could only be remembered for one musical document it would be that, but he's a fool - 'Coming Up' is surely the one to be proudest of.

Bonus material time! Seven demos follow the album, and as far as demos go they're an interesting listen. The "Saturday Night" demo is the same as on the original single and I'm fairly certain the "Filmstar" demo is the one from the 7" but I'd have to dig that out to double check, but the others are getting their first release here as far as I can tell. (Actually, "Lazy" and/or "She" may have been released on the flips of some of the cassette singles of the era, but not having them I can't compare. Anyone? Also: CASSETTE singles. Big. dumb. pop.)

Following them are the three left-over b-sides from the 'Dog Man Star' campaign. They're all fantastic - "Asda Town" is a hidden gem as it was left off of 'Sci-Fi Lullabies' and was impossible to track down for a very long time - but they don't belong here. We've gone over that, though... (Side note: "Asda Town" is one of the tracks that was edited down for space constraints and features a very early fade out compared to the original.)

Disc two collects sixteen of the seventeen(!) new studio tracks that were released on the CDs for the five singles from the album - Neil's solo track "Digging A Hole" is missing, but you're not really missing much there. Most of these you probably already have on 'Sci-Fi Lullabies' so you know that many of them are as good as what made the album. (They just don't fit on the album, right? Right.) "Europe Is Our Playground" is the original b-side version not the re-recording from the compilation - I've never really been able to tell the difference but I've also never compared them side by side - and both "W.S.D." and "Feel" get edits for space. "W.S.D." is a real shame as it's a decidedly non-Suede song, a really great groove-based track - that gets a bit lost with the last two minutes of instrumental freak-out getting chopped off, not to mention you miss out on Brett literally going barking mad - while "Feel" is still too long at almost half of its original length.

My vote for best b-side - and, possibly, best overall track - of the era? "Money", no question. Yesterday I commented to a friend how it sounds like 'Too Fast For Love' if the Sunset Strip was located in London, and even though I'm not entirely sure I can tell you what I mean by that, it's meant as a compliment. (UK hair metal maybe? I don't know.) Anyways, that it wasn't chosen as one of the encore b-sides on the recent album gigs is a crime as it would go down a total storm live. (Have they ever done it?)

We only get one extra track this time, a rehearsal room recording of an unreleased song called "Motown". It's a total racket and not much of a song - not that that really stopped them at this point, "Young Men" or "These Are The Sad Songs" anyone? - but it's refreshing to listen to as an un-produced demo after the complete overproduction of the album and b-sides, and it's a nice reminder that this was a band that was re-discovering the joy of playing together again. Like the disc one demos, probably not something you'll listen to repeatedly but it's nice to have.

The DVD gives us the five promo videos and they're all perfect for the album if a bit boring to actually sit down and watch. The best bit is watching Neil in the "Beautiful Ones" video stare at the camera with an "I don't give a fuck" look while holding down one key for an extended period of time. Perfection. There are also extra videos for "Europe Is Our Playground" and "Shipbuilding" - neither are terribly exciting - plus the now standard bonus concerts: the professionally shot gig that the live tracks from the "Filmstar" single came from featuring Neil Tennant, and yet another bootleg quality show, this time from the 'Dog Man Star' tour featuring the live debut of Richard Oakes. Again, it doesn't belong here and the quality on this one is the worst of the shows so far, so that's a bit of a miss even if it does have historical significance.

'Coming Up' is the only perfect Suede album and even though much of the material on this set was already available, this has been my favorite of the remasters so far.

oveerreach: 'Dog Man Star'

After years of not being able to articulate what exactly it is that bothers me about 'Dog Man Star', it hit me this morning: it takes too long to say what it has to say and, in the process, dilutes its effectiveness.

"But that's the point!", you cry. "It's not the relatively simple pop album the debut was, it's supposed to be big and epic and long and full and all those generally-accepted signs of a 'masterpiece'." Fair enough - but the band, while very talented and full of potentially good ideas, aren't able to pull it off.

The problems start right at the beginning. At its core, "Introducing The Band" is a complete non-song, and dressing it up as a Middle Eastern-inspired tone poem does it no favors, especially since the band clearly as little-to-no experience with or adeptness at said style. Instead of making the listener perk up from the get-go and say: "here is the start of something different and great", it causes me to perk up and say: "good lord, this is ridiculous in all the wrong ways." Remember, Suede are at their best when they're ridiculous - it's what makes their best songs so great, right? - but there's a good and a bad ridiculous and this nonsense is firmly in the bad camp.

It starts the proceedings off on the totally wrong foot and it takes the album a bit to recover. I used to think I did not like "We Are The Pigs" - empty chest-puffing and fake hardness! - but it's actually that I don't like "We Are The Pigs" in context. It's like a sponge, I guess, absorbing everything around it. On it's own, it's actually a pretty snappy little single - a bit of a rougher "So Young", if you will. So, score one for the re-examination.

Finally, things get truly started with the one/two/three punch of "Heroine", "The Wild Ones and "Daddy's Speeding". The latter is the only moment on the entire album where I feel the band steps outside of their comfort zone and is able to pull it off. It sounds like the aftermath of a car crash, daring you to keep listening even though you know something awful has happened. I have no idea how they pulled it off when they screwed everything else up so badly, but well played.

"The Power" is a nice palette-cleanser but is a bit fluffy and very out of place on the album. Seeing that it's the only one that wasn't totally completed with Bernard, I have no problem nixing it. It would have made a lovely non-album single, bridging the gap a bit between Suedes MK1 and MK2, but it wasn't to be.

"New Generation" and "This Hollywood Life" are fantastic stormers that I've always liked, so yay. Then they fuck it all up again with the brick wall of the album, the point I was almost never able to make it past before. First you've got "The 2 Of Us", which could be beautiful except it goes on for way. too. long. Bernard may be a whiz with the guitar but he's - at best - a passable keyboardist so we don't need him banging out basic chords while Brett repeats the same three lines over and over for five minutes. There's a nice break in the song about 2/3 of the way through that would have made a fine stopping point, but again they pushed it too far and ruined it. Way to go. If you can make it through that, you've got "Black Or Blue" to contend with, which is just awful. Again, Brett is a fine vocalist but it's not like he has the greatest voice in the world, so we don't need him pretending he's auditioning for the lead it some opera, singing in a clearly uncomfortable falsetto and trying to hit every note ever discovered all at once. Ugh.

Finally, you're rewarded with something listenable. "The Asphalt World" was hidden from me for years because I could never make it to it. My listening method with these reissues so far has been to tackle the bonus disc first, to give me a little insight behind the albums before I approach them again, and this one on its own was a revelation. While I think "The Wild Ones" is my favorite on the album, I can actually agree with people for once and say that this is the cornerstone.

Of course, they then botch the ending with "Still Life", itself a fantastic song once you strip away the zillion piece orchestra auditioning to score the next blockbuster. On the bonus disc there's an instrumental/orchestral version that works fine as a piece of incidental music - or, perhaps, soundtracking man's exploration into space or something - but as the overblown finale at a patchy attempt at greatness it's just another miss.

Clearly I still don't find this album to be the masterpiece everyone says it is. I don't understand how you can look past all of its glaring faults and find greatness. The band had it in them - there are flashes here just as there were flashes in the first album material - but their reach far exceeds their grasp and they fall flat on their face just as much as they succeed, if not more often.

As far as bonus material, the set delivers a lot but not nearly as much of interest as the first set. (I imagine my view of the album clouds my judgment on that, but there you have it.) There are 5 demos on the main disc, all of which are worth a listen but I doubt you'll find yourself returning to. (Fun fact: some of the original lyrics to "Introducing The Band" were recycled for "WSD".) Disc two - which is actually full this time, so that's nice - collects "Stay Together" and its b-sides as well as five additional b-sides from the album's singles. A few gripes - "Stay Together" is advertised as being the "long version" but is inexplicably has the last minute totally chopped off. (The true full length version would have fit.) Also, did "Eno's Introducing The Band" really need to be included? Yes, it's part of the story and a track that was released, but surely it falls under the "not a full band recording" line that was used to explain the omissions of "Digging A Hole" and "Weight Of The World" on the 'Coming Up' and 'Head Music' sets. That's 16 minutes of bonus disc that could have been put to better use. Finally, the moving of "Asda Town" and the two "New Generation" b-sides to the 'Coming Up' disc to preserve the original band line-up on the set is just nonsense - it's totally rewriting history and does not give the full overview of the album these sets are attempting to give. It was explained as an imperfect solution but that's a total cop-out - they belong here, not with 'Coming Up'.

Following those we've got six additional bonus tracks, ranging from slight - the barely one-minute long French version of "The Power" and the aforementioned orchestral version of "Still Life" - to genuinely interesting - a true outtake in "We Believe In Showbiz" - to the two pieces that have hardcores salivating: original unedited versions of "The Wild Ones" and "The Asphalt World". (Except Brett has said that "The Asphalt World" was edited down from 18 minutes of rehearsal tapes, so the naming is a bit deceptive.)

On the DVD, we've got the much maligned "Stay Together" video (I don't get the big deal, it's clearly better than some of the first album videos), the 'Dog Man Star' tour films (they claimed they were previously unreleased on DVD but weren't they an extra on the 'Introducing The Band' DVD?), plus a pair of fan-shot bootleg videos. The first comes from a show at the end of the first-album tour and features early versions of "This Hollywood Life", "We Are The Pigs", "New Generation" and set-closer "Stay Together". Like the video on the first set, there are cuts between songs and the audio is not great, and in this one you can tell that songs are clearly cut as you get the last 10 seconds or so of "She's Not Dead" before they begin "So Young". Perhaps the footage was unusable? A little clarification would have been nice. The other set is a four-song acoustic in store from earlier the same day - the highlight of which is Brett getting visibly pissed off and screaming at the crowd to "FUCK OFF!" to constant requests for "I Want Your Sex". Fantastic.

It's often wondered what could have been if the band had been able to hold it together and the Anderson/Butler partnership had expanded past these two albums, but I've never once cared: if they had, it's very doubtful we would have ever gotten their true masterpiece, which is coming up next. (HA!)

I think I get it: 'Suede'

One of the features on the DVD portion of the 'Suede' Deluxe Edition is a live performance from the week after "Animal Nitrate" was released as a single and, therefore, about a month before the album itself was unveiled. The recording itself is a bit of a disaster - captured from presumably the back of the club by a hand-held video camera, it continually zooms in and out on the stage. Sometimes it focuses in on one individual band member - usually Brett, prancing around the stage initially in a lacy white woman's blouse until the audience rips all but a sleeve off, which he finally removes himself and throws to the screaming throng, itself unintentionally hilarious and worth the price of admission alone - and sometimes capturing the heads of the crowd frantically bobbing up and down excitedly to the band giving it their all. Despite not being what you'd expect from a professionally produced product - the audio is quite muffled and clearly not even remotely touched up in the studio, there are sharp cuts between songs presumably to save battery and/or tape space, the video itself ends halfway through "To The Birds" leaving the band in a permanently unfinished performance - for me it is the best part of the package. Watching the video, the excitement of the band at the time finally sunk it, I finally understood why they mattered. Even watching on a television screen while sitting on a couch 18 years after the fact, the energy of the band was captivating and I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Even more important than that, the promise of the band was there - they had, at the time, released three incredible singles backed with six impossibly strong b-sides, and almost all of the "new" material played during the set suggested they were going to carry it through to the full length.

Except, of course, they didn't. Another feature on the DVD is a modern interview with Brett and Bernard about the album and its creation, and one thing they mention is the important of the singles and particularly b-sides at the time and how that tied their hands a bit when it came to assembling the album. While it certainly wouldn't have been unheard of to re-use one or two of the b-sides from the first two singles on the album, they wanted the singles to stand on their own and were now faced with writing songs as good as "My Insatiable One", "To The Birds" (both called out as songs Brett wishes he could have put on the album) and "He's Dead". Everyone involved seems to think they were able to, but the continual mention of "I wish such-and-such had been put on in place of this or that instead of relegated to b-side status" suggests that they weren't quite as successful as they'd like to think.

Here's the thing, though: I now also understand that the imperfection of the album is part of what people love about it. You're not supposed to get everything right the first time out - even a band wish the promise, talent and vision they clearly had at the time are bound to fuck something up.

This package gives you the whole picture. The admission that they had painted themselves into a corner and this was how they chose to get out opened my eyes a bit to the album, and I can see it how they and others have seen it for years. It's a bit like Smashing Pumpkins' 'Gish' in a way - far from perfect with obviously lower quality material being put on in place of stronger, previously released material, but an incredibly honest picture of a young and talented band. It's never going to be my favorite Suede album and I still don't understand the strong emotional connection people seem to have with it - it's a series of over-the-top glammed-up pop songs about sex and drugs when you boil it down - but I can appreciate it in a whole new way after spending more time with the era.

Bring on 'Dog Man Star'.

and we're off!

Dear Customer,

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First of all, that works out to about $18.75 a set - they could have easily charged double that and we still would have lined up.

Second of all, I'm already watching the mailbox.

Third of all, I realize the font in the logo isn't the proper Suede font for the first four albums but I couldn't find it. So I cheated and went with the "Attitude" and 'Singles' font - which, in a way, conceptually brings together Suede old and new. Or something like that.

beat deluxe

And just like that, 'Beauty and the Beat' is 30 years old. To celebrate, we are getting a 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition on May 17th, featuring the original album - remastered for the first time since its 1986 debut! we're told - on disc one and a 17-song live set recorded in Boston in 1981 on disc two. While I'm no great Go-Go's historian, I imagine there has to be some kind of previously unreleased material or period rarities lying around to boost that first disc a bit. But whatever - it looks like a lovely set and I'm more than happy to have it.

Even better - we're also getting a pink vinyl reissue. Yes, pink. Lovely.

If "We Got The Beat" doesn't make you smile, check your pulse because you're probably dead:



(Like I needed to include a video of that one. Side note: why does pretty much every cover version of that song totally suck?)

My pick for best track, though, is non-single "How Much More":



See? There's more stuff they could add. Oh well.

For whatever reason, nothing any of these five ladies did after this album - together or on their own - even came close. Except, of course, Jane Wiedlin's appearance in the greatest movie of all time:

in for the overkill

The machine has kicked into overdrive and there is yet another version of the La Roux album is coming our way.

I suppose that's not entirely fair as the album itself hasn't been re-packaged and re-sold to us numerous times, just the singles. (How many "In For The Kill" and/or "Bulletproof" remix packages are there?) According to the official site, February 8th will bring is the digital-only release of the Gold Edition - to tie in (a bit late) to the Gold Tour, I imagine. While they get points for not making us buy the album again for the bonus material, they lose points for attempting to re-sell us a number of tracks we've bought numerous times before. The track list will be:

01 In For The Kill (featuring Kanye West) [I really hoped this was one going to disappear...]
02 Finally My Saviour [aka "Saviour", which we had to re-buy the album on iTunes to get, grumble grumble]
03 Under My Thumb [which we bought the 'Sidetracked' compilation for, and it's not even that great in the first place]
04 I'm Not Your Toy (Jack Beats Remix) [possibly not released in the US before, I forget, but we've still got it a few times over]
05 In For The Kill (Skream's Let's Get Ravey Remix) [STOP! IT! WITH! THIS! REMIX!]
06 Quicksand (Boy 8-Bit Remix) [also possibly not released in the US before, but it was the only reason we bought the re-release of the single]
07 Bulletproof (Zinc Remix) [while not as bad as the Skream "In For The Kill", we've bought this one many times over already]
08 Tigerlily (Demo) [THANK YOU! Something genuinely new.]
09 Bulletproof (Intimate Session at Abbey Road, Acoustic) [this could be nice - it works surprisingly well acoustic]
10 In For The Kill (Vevo Lounge Version) [this is really nice as well]

I understand that there is a limited amount of material to work with AND I would also much rather see them flogging the same old same old in an attempt to get a bigger market share than to completely disappear into oblivion, however it really is kind of insane how many times they've re-packaged some of these mixes. I'm not really sure who this is aimed at either - those who obsessed over each and every single as they were coming out (raises hand) are going to be pissed they have to buy this all again for a few new treats, those who came later to the game and want to go obsessive can still very easily track down most of these on their original homes, and those who thought the Kanye West version was a good idea don't care about the rest of this.

Ahh, well. As long as there's the option to pick what you want rather than having to download the whole thing, I guess it would be worse. They really need to go away and start working on LP2, though.

That Vevo Lounge Version of "In For The Kill":



Surprisingly lovely, yes?

five re-issues from 2010 that tickled my fancy

It is becoming increasingly more common for album re-issues to be as exciting - if not more so - than new album releases. 2010 was no exception and delivered a number of highly anticipated, long-overdue album remasters (sometimes for the worse) and expansions (always for the better). Here are the five I enjoyed the most in 2010, listed alphabetically by artist:


a-ha - Hunting High And Low (Remastered and Expanded)

First off, Rhino takes the remaster crown of 2010 for delivering three of the five packages on this list - and a number of others I had interest in but not the cash to support. (Rhino Handmade ain't cheap, folks.) First up is a gorgeous sounding 2-disc expansion of a-ha's fantastic debut. Disc one contains a lush-sounding subtle remaster of the album proper followed by a period remix of each of the 4 singles, some making their CD debut. (The ones that aren't were previously available on tricky to track down Japanese EPs, so essentially they're all making their easy-to-obtain CD debut.) The second disc starts out with a demo version of each of the album's tracks in the original running order, followed by the period b-sides and a selection of never further-developed demo tracks. (Most of the b-sides were from that batch so it all goes together well.) It's understandable why the band is viewed as a one hit wonder in the US, but this really is a spectacular debut - "Take On Me" really is one of the weakest tracks on it - and should be in the collection of anyone that is a fan of the period. Thanks to Rhino, you now have the definitive version of the album as a one-stop go-to. (Follow-up 'Scoundrel Days' got a similarly structured expansion, but I've never been as big a fan of that one outside of "Cry Wolf". It didn't stop me from purchasing it, of course...)


The Cure - Disintegration (Deluxe Edition)

Rhino contribution #2. To be honest, 'Disintegration' is far from my favorite Cure album - I can rarely make it through the entire thing in one listen, it's just. so. heavy. - and the bonus material on these Cure reissues hasn't exactly been anything you need to listen to more than once. That said, this thing is jam-packed with pretty much all the 'Disintegration' you are ever going to need. The set itself contains a disc for the album, a bonus disc with the now-standard home and studio demos with a few obligatory never-fleshed-out demo ideas and a third disc with the 'Entreat' live album expanded to cover all of the album's tracks. Thanks to the wonder of the internet, we also got another pair of virtual bonus discs in an alternate set of demos and rarities that streamed from the official site and another live run through of the album captured in Dallas on the album's tour. A lot of overlap - and, perhaps, more than a touch of overkill - but you can't say they skimped on extras for this one. Now give us 'Mixed Up' and I can stop buying these stupid things. ;)


Duran Duran - 'Duran Duran', 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger', 'Notorious' and 'Big Thing' Deluxe Editions

We've talked about these before, but I think it's safe to say that 2010 was the year of the return of Duran Duran. (Well, I suppose it started in late 2009 with the 'Rio' reissue.) Anyways, these were obviously going to be here so we'll move on.


The Monkees - The Birds, The Bees and The Monkees (Rhino Handmade Edition)

Rhino delivers again with another long-awaited expansion. (Technically this came out before the a-ha reissues, but as far as this list is concerned they fall after.) Anyways, Rhino did 2-disc deluxe editions of the first four Monkees albums - containing even more newly unearthed rarities as well as the mono mixes of the LPs - a few years back, but the campaign totally died leading up to the important one. Long the holy grail of Monkees collectors, the mono mix of their fifth LP was the last to be produced - and in very small numbers - so not many had heard it. It also featured some pretty substantial differences from the stereo mix that were in danger of being lost to time. Apparently the hold up was a mix of soft sales for the first four - it was far from the first time they had been reissued and they weren't exactly cheap, to be fair - and the missing master tapes for the mono mix. In swoops the Handmade division with a minty copy of the LP to do a vinyl transfer of the missing tracks, more period rarities than you can shake a stick at and a lavish lenticular box to throw 3-discs worth of late-1967/early 1968 period Monkees in. Probably not as overkill as the Cure set but you also will never need another version of "Lady's Baby" as long as you live. (Later in the year, Rhino Handmade delivered a 3-disc expansion of 'Head' - which sounded and looked great at the time. However, stretching six songs worth of alternate material over the course of 3-discs proved to be a better idea in theory that execution - and that is even after filling the third disc with a period radio interview. They did a bang-up job on the box, though, replicating the reflective mylar cover for the first time since the original Colgems LP. They definitely get an "A" for effort.)


R.E.M. - Fables of the Reconstruction (Deluxe Edition)

The R.E.M. remaster campaign continues with a fresh look at their third LP. I'm no R.E.M. expert by any means so I'll leave the commentary to others, but this set is both an improvement, a no-change and a step back from the first two. Improvement: the second disc contains a demo run-through of the album plus three - two songs that eventually found homes on later albums and one genuinely unreleased song. No-change: the mastering still kind of sucks and this doesn't sound very good. Step back: the packaging! Yes, it's nice, but it doesn't match the previous two and that's annoying.

And that, as they say, is that. I'm finally ready to fully embrace 2011 - and only eleven days late!

Duran Duran Duran Duran Duranduran

Going on thirty years ago, if someone had told you that not only would Duran Duran still be around but that EMI would be issuing lavishly packaged (and fittingly period-appropriate) deluxe editions of their first five albums - first five! they survive past the first? - there's no way you'd believe them.

However, here we are in October 2010 and that's exactly what has happened. Rolled out in waves over the course of the past year, we have now been treated to multi-disc and -format editions of the five albums that Duran Duran - and, later, Duranduran - put out during the 1980's. In a very pleasant surprise, they were - for the most part - put together by someone who clearly did their research and offer plenty of bang for your buck...especially when you take the digitally available supplementary material. That's right - 2 CDs and a DVD a piece can't hold all the Duran-ness. Nerd alert!

The first to show its face was a 2-disc set of 'Rio' last Fall, which I've been over before. Pretty much everything about the set was perfect and gave high hopes for the rest.

Unfortunately, it was a bit of two steps forward, one step back from then on out. The first self-titled LP and 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' joined us in the Spring and the cracks were already starting to show. First, the bad: the sound quality on these things is pretty wretched. Now, I'm no hardcore audiophile, though I am less than pleased with the so-called "loudness wars" and these things suffer big time. Forget taking it to 11 - this is taking it to about 15. And on top of that, there's the small matter of an audio glitch at the beginning of "Girls on Film" that causes a very noticeable stutter and false start to the track - something that would've taken about 15 seconds for QC to trim off with an audio editor. (Hell, I did it myself.) Even worse is EMI's knowledge of the error and refusal to fix it as it isn't part of the music or something like that. I beg to differ.

Anyways, if you're looking solely for an audio upgrade of these two, save your money. If you're looking for bonus material, boy are you in luck...for the first album, anyways. Disc one collects the period b-sides - all excellent, all readily available on the 'Singles 81-85' box and/or 3CD set, but all nice to have in one place. CD2 collections two sets of pre-album demos - no previously unreleased songs, but the demo of "Tel Aviv" is very, very different from the moody instrumental that we know and love - a BBC Radio Session with an early version of "Like An Angel" as a highlight, and a pair of extended mixes a piece for the album's two biggest singles. If you spring for the 3-disc edition, you also get a DVD with - *deepbreath* - the album's videos (including DVD debuts for "Careless Memories" - SO DATED - and "Night Boat"), a fluff day in the life featurette, and - best of all - a whole slew of period TV performances. Seriously, the Top of the Pops performance of "Planet Earth" makes the whole set worth it. The hair! The miming! Did I mention the hair! I mean, really, Simon has one little strand of his bangs crimped - amazing. It has to be seen to be believed. (I can say with all honesty that despite the pretty terrible sound and completely unforgivable audio glitch, that one performance made the whole purchase worth it.) On top of all of that, the whole thing comes packaged with five 5x5 postcards - one for each band member, obviously - and a replica of the poster that apparently came with the original Japanese LP, all packaged in a nice lift top box.

I really, really wish I could lavish similar praise upon 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger', my favorite Duran Duran album. (Yeah, what of it?) While there are no obvious audio glitches on the main album, it still suffers from insane brickwalling so an audio upgrade is out. It doesn't, however, have the bonus material to make it a must-have. There's a second disc, of course, but it is made up almost entirely of tracks available in the previously mentioned singles box - the only new to CD material are a pair of live tracks from the US "Reflex" 12". No demos, no newly unearthed alternate mixes, nothing previously unreleased at all. Rumors of a set of demos for this album have floated around for years and this would have been the perfect time to roll some of those out. Boo!

The DVD is also not nearly as exciting. Similar to the first DVD, it contains the album's videos (all of which were on 'Greatest') and a pair of Top of the Pops performances for "Is There Something I Should Know" and "The Reflex". By this point, though, the fame machine has obviously taken its toll on the boys and these performances are nowhere nearly as fun to watch - you can very clearly see they're just going through the motion because they've made the charts yet again. Rounding out the DVD is the digital debut of 'As The Lights Go Down', the concert-only version of the "Arena" movie. I'm personally not a big fan of watching concert films so my enjoyment of this one was limited - I watched it for a bit before ripping the audio and adding it as a third disc to the playlist on my iPod. It does come in a similarly nice box to the first album, so that's a plus, but I can't really recommend this one.

Both of the sets are supplemented in the digital world with a period concert. Sadly, the 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger'-era choice was merely an audio version of 'As The Lights Go Down'. However, I would highly recommend the BBC concert chosen to represent the debut - "Late Bar" and "Khanada" both get airings, as well as an early version of "Last Chance On The Stairway". Well worth the $10 for the download.

If 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' is my favorite Duran Duran album, 'Notorious' is a close second and it received the deluxe treatment a few weeks ago. It was rumored a few years back for its 20th anniversary, so we've - or, I've - been waiting for this one for a while. Similar to the 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' set, the audio portion of the release offers nothing in the way of previously unavailable material. It does, however, provide the CD release of the main mixes from the "Mastermixes" 12", which is nice to have. (The dubs are available digitally - more on that later.) DVD-wise, there's the period videos (DVD debut for "Meet El Presidente"), a TOTP performance of the title track (which is more fun than the 'Seven'-era performances but still not up to those around the debut) and the 'Working For The Skin Trade' concert film. A pair of group shots replace the departed Taylors on the postcards in the box - thank you for some level of consistency, even if everything doesn't match up - and you've got a very nice package for an underrated album.

There is a bit of a bright spot - and I mean a bit. The sound quality has been fixed...kind of. They're still brickwalled, but the kind folks at EMI have very nicely dropped the maximum level a few dBs so they're not as loud. Well, it's a start, though still not a worthwhile audio upgrade.

Finally, 'Big Thing' joined the group along with 'Notorious'. I can't lie - I love this record as well. It's a total mess and doesn't really accomplish what the band set out to do - to be taken more seriously, I suppose - but it's all the better for it. Also, they've restored the original version of "Drug" to the running order, however it was apparently always available as a bonus track on most previous CD editions as the Marshall Jefferson Mix. I think. The wording on exactly what they did here - included in a personal note from John Taylor on one of the sets post cards - is a bit confusing and I'm not entirely sure I got that right.

The bonus material is a bit hit and miss. The good: a new-to-us 7" and 12" mix of "Big Thing" (which, it seems, was going to be a single at one point) and a 6+ minute version of the sole original b-side for the period, the lovely "I Believe / All I Need To Know". The not so good: the tracks that aren't extended mixes of the singles are just edits of album tracks and/or terrible spoken word pieces used in the tour, and they were all in the second singles box. Not a 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger'-esque failure and, to be fair, they were merely collecting what was released at the time, but it is kind of disappointing to be reminded of these things.

The DVD once again collects the videos (DVD debut for "Do you believe in shame?", which was the wrong third single choice if ever there was one) and a new to home video live concert filmed in Milan.

On the digital side, there are once again period concerts available - fortunately, neither of them duplicate what's on the DVD this time. Even better, each contains at least one song from at least one of the side projects done Duran-style - the 'Notorious'-era show features Arcadia's "Election Day" and Power Station's "Some Like It Hot" and 'Big Thing' rolls out the latter's cover of "Bang A Gong (Get It On)". Also available this time are remix EPs to collect the mixes that didn't fit on the physical sets. The 'Notorious' EP gets an alternate mix or dub for each of the three singles as well as "American Science" and "Vertigo (Do The Demolition)", while the 'Big Thing' EP collects the dub of "I Don't Want Your Love' (why, why, WHY wasn't this called "I Don't Want Your Dub"?) and a trio of "All She Wants Is" dubs. They're both borderline overkill - OK, three dub mixes of "All She Wants Is" is totally overkill - but they're nice to have available if you want them.

(It's worth noting that Arcadia's "So Red The Rose" received a similar 2CD/1DVD reissue after the first three but before the last two - chronological correctness! - but it was packaged in a standard fat-boy case rather than a lavish box. Regardless, it collects pretty much everything you could want related to the Arcadia project - I'm not entirely sure there's anything not included but I'm sure someone could prove me wrong - and is worth tracking down as well.)

So overall, a far nicer treatment of the Duran Duran back catalog than could have been reasonably expected and - despite a few issues - a very lovingly and well-put-together set of reissues. I highly recommend all but 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' - if you're even thinking you want them, you probably do - though can you really have that gap in the middle where it should be? (They're starting to pop up second hand, so that might be your best bet for that one.)

I don't normally say this, but please stop the campaign now. I really don't want to feel pressured into buying a 3-disc set for 'Liberty'.

you need to give me more substance

Of all the bands that are no longer with us, I would have to say I miss Catherine Wheel the most. [Yeah, I've gone on about this before...no wait, come back!] Similarly, with all this reissue/repackage madness going on the past few years, the one band I would love a thorough catalogue overhaul of is - you guessed it - Catherine Wheel.

So imagine my excitement last fall when I get a text from my friend Joe that Cherry Red is working on a re-issue of 'Ferment'. "Hooray!", I think, even though I know the finished product will certainly fall far short of the ideal package I've created in my head. [Imagine it: disc one is a DualDisc with the original album on one side and a sparkling new 5.1 mix on the other. Yeah, I know, that's so totally 2006, but imagine a well done one, something along the lines of the 5.1 mix of 'Black Celebration' - specifically "Fly on the Windscreen - Final". Amazing. Throw the period promo videos on there while you're at it. Anyways, disc two could go a few ways. You can't fit all the b-sides onto one disc, so you can either stick some at the end of CD1 and put the rest on CD2, but that doesn't leave much room for unreleased material. You could cherry pick the best, but then you aren't really getting a complete picture AND without a doubt you're going to miss someone's favorite, however this leaves more room so it's probably the best bet. There are confirmed to be unreleased masters sitting in the vaults, so let's dig those out, and there's probably more demos where those on the second "I Want To Touch You" 12" came from so unearth them as well. Actually, scratch that - let's make it a THREE disc set with all of the b-sides at the end of disc one and taking up disc two and dedicate disc three to demos and live stuff and "new to us" material. See how out of hand this can get, and fast?]

Anyways, so I've been waiting quite impatiently for some info to come out. And then, all of a sudden, there's a track listing. And what are we getting? A one disc set - boo! - with six bonus tracks: "Balloon" [not a bonus to us in the US, folks], "Intravenous", and the whole of the "30 Century Man" EP.

Weak.

Not only are both of the EPs those bonus tracks are sourced from relatively easy to track down in this day and age - two "30 Century Man"'s recently sold for under $10 each on eBay, I had no idea it had gotten that inexpensive - but anyone who is interested in buying this re-issue more likely than not already has them, perhaps multiple times over. [Hello "Balloon" CDS/12"/7", nice to see you.] The promise of "extensive liner notes" doesn't a worthwhile re-issue make.

Perhaps those who needed to be involved weren't playing nice - watching from a far as a fan, it wouldn't totally surprise me - but if you're going to put together a [relatively] niche re-issue, you really need to make it worthwhile for those it's aimed at to purchase again. If there was a vinyl edition coming out, I'd be a little more forgiving - good luck tracking an original down for less than $50. But there's not, so I'm not. Talk about a crushing disappointment.

*sigh*

the dream factory

It's been a long time coming but Rhino is finally ready to release a deluxe edition of The Monkees' fifth LP - 'The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees' - to go along with the first four they gave us a few years back. Perhaps to make up for the wait - or, perhaps, so they could justify the expense - it's coming out on the Rhino Handmade imprint, which means it is really, really nice. Excessively nice, you could say.

The sessions for the album famously went on for ages and provided the group with the beginnings of many songs that would be used to fill up albums throughout the rest of their career. I'm no great Monkee historian but looking at the 88-strong track listing spread over the three discs of this thing, it appears they've covered pretty much everything worthwhile from the sessions. More importantly, we are also finally getting the long-elusive mono mix of the album - we've been told for years that it is noticeably different from the stereo mix and now we get to hear for ourselves. [Judging by the 30-second sample on the Rhino Handmade website, "Auntie's Municipal Court" - supposedly the song with the biggest differences in the mix - features more prominent percussion throughout.] You can check out the full track list there - there's a ton of good stuff. Acoustic versions of "Magnolia Simms" and "Tapioca Tundra"? A Mike vocal version of "Auntie's Municipal Court"? The 1968 versions of "Through The Looking Glass" and "Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again" so we can re-create the initial proposed running order?

I can't wait to dig into this one.

mono mystery tour

So long story short, yesterday I ended up with a copy of Mono Masters thanks to a broken street date and a stroke of luck. [Though apparently there were some to be had in stores this morning for a bit cheaper than I ended up paying, but with that being unknown until doors opened this morning I basically paid for insurance.]

They are definitely not numbered. Boo! They are, however, gorgeous. Are they worth it? Absolutely - the packaging alone is beautiful and you really feel like you're holding something special in your hands rather than just something that was thrown together. [That said, they really could have numbered the sleeve of the White Album like the original run, but that's a minor, minor complaint.]

Comparison shopping - do you need both mono and stereo versions? Let's deep dive into 'Magical Mystery Tour', shall we? [I should note that I'm on my 7th listen to the album in 48 hours as I type and it's still exciting. Make of that what you will - perhaps I'm just easily amused.]

Song by song breakdown:

[01] Magical Mystery Tour - Honestly, I don't notice much difference between the mono and stereo mixes. Maybe this isn't necessary...

[02] The Fool On The Hill - I described before how bright and full this one is on the new stereo master. It still sound better than ever in mono however it doesn't "pop" as much, track cluttering and all that. Score one for stereo.

[03] Flying - To my ears the instrumentation is slightly different in mono, particularly the ending loops, but neither stereo or mono has the edge.

[04] Blue Jay Way - In terms of clarity stereo is the clear winner here. [See what I did there?] However, that's not really the point of "Blue Jay Way". In mono it still sounds nice and spruced up thanks to the remaster but retains more of its haze and mystery. It's all tied up now.

[05] Your Mother Should Know - This is a toughie. Even more than "The Fool On The Hill", "Your Mother Should Know" positively shines in the new stereo master and if you were judging each song individually, this would win hands down. However, in mono there are lots of neat little effects and piles of reverb near the end that aren't present in the stereo mix. While it might not fit the song as well, it ties it in nicely with the rest of the album and is very appropriate for it as a whole. I kind of doubt you're ever going to say to yourself: "You know what song I really want to listen to right now? "Your Mother Should Know". If you were, the stereo mix would be the one to go to as its pretty much perfection. In the grand scheme of 'Magical Mystery Tour', however, mono wins.

[06] I Am The Walrus - Another six-of-one-half-dozen-of-the-other instance. I voiced my complaints about the stereo mix yesterday and those issues are not present here. No sudden aural snaps, no obnoxious constant left/right panning in the fade out, no terrible stereo separation distracting from the song. That said, the mono mix is very clearly derived from a different take than the stereo mix. There are two very, very obvious differences: Ringo's drum fill before the second half of the first verse is totally gone and the backing track all but drops out about 1:20 into the song before John's first extended "I'm cryyyyyyying" leaving only vocal and strings. Not really huge differences, but if you grew up on the stereo mix you're going to notice it and it might be distracting. Neither mix is perfect - unless, of course, you're used to the mono mix - so you kind of need both here.

[07] Hello Goodbye - I didn't notice any big differences.

[08] Strawberry Fields Forever - HUGE improvement in mono. Every part plays nicely together and the genius of the song is back on display here. Not even a contest, mono wins. That said, the first fade out/in is much quicker in mono and the second fade out starts much earlier though the song lasts the same amount of time. Not as dramatic as the "Walrus" changes, but noticeable.

[09] Penny Lane - Not as definitive a victory for stereo as mono's win on "Strawberry Fields Forever" but it is still the hands down winner. The mono mix just sounds flat. If you hadn't listened to the stereo remaster yet you probably wouldn't know what you were missing. However, this track is one of the shining examples of what a good remastering job can do on the stereo disc.

[10] Baby You're A Rich Man - Mono wins again for the same reasons it won on "Strawberry Fields Forever".

[11] All You Need Is Love - Slight fidelity differences and different instruments higher in the mix between the two versions and an earlier fade, but nothing major. [No "She Loves You" at the end though? Or did I just miss it?] Not one of my favorites to begin with so I'm not particularly bothered either way.

So make of that what you will. In a few month's time when the shine of the new has worn off I honestly don't know what version of this album I'll reach for. On headphones it will be the mono mix no question - the stereo separation is way too distracting that close up. On a good set of speakers, though, the slight differences in the mono mix would probably be enough to draw me back to the comfort of the stereo mix.

On a similar note, the mono mix of 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' is also considerably different from the stereo mix and, in my opinion, stronger for it. I haven't listened to the new stereo master yet but I almost don't want to - my appreciation for the album grew immensely after listening to the mono and I will certainly use that as my go-to 'Pepper' in the future.

For the record, the first five albums are just fine in mono - 'Help!' being the only one that was in stereo on the original CD issue anyways if I'm remembering correctly - so these will work for me. [I can't tell you the last time I listened to, say, 'Please Please Me' prior to the box yesterday and I can tell you I'm not in any hurry to put it on again.] 'Rubber Soul' and 'Revolver' have me torn - they both sound great in mono, however I just know that they're going to be bigger and better in stereo. However I don't believe there are any major mix differences between the two - please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm also undecided on the Past Masters set - everything bar three tracks is on Mono Masters so dropping another $17 seems silly. However, two of those missing tracks are the a- and b-sides of one of my favorite Beatles singles, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" and "Old Brown Shoe". Since I've already spent well over $300 on this project I think I'll be holding off for now. Christmas is coming, after all...

roll up for the mystery tour

I thought I didn't care about the Beatles remasters. The soon-to-be-not-current CD issues always sounded fine to me [a bit quiet in this modern age, sure, but that's nothing the volume knob can't fix], they were being presented in kind of terrible tri-fold digipaks which I loathe, and there is little to nothing in the way of new material to be had in the set. The only thing I was marginally interested in - the mono mixes - are only available in an expensive box set that is a bit out of my price range for something I'm only slightly curious about. And really, I don't listen to the Beatles often enough to upgrade 7 or so albums at $12 a pop. [I really have little to no interest in early Beatles - I can get all the fix I need on the Past Masters set thank you very much - so I'd only be getting 'Rubber Soul' on up through 'Abbey Road' plus Past Masters, really. 'Let It Be'? Eh, no thanks.]

This all changed last week when I listened to the Beatles version of "Blackbird" back to back with the Dandy Warhols slaughter of it. [I appreciate the story behind it - applaud it, even - but it's shit.] Wow, the Beatles version sounds pretty terrible doesn't it? Maybe these do need a clean up...

There was no shortage of hyperbole-filled reviews to be found on the internet - of the individual albums, of mono-vs-stereo, of do you need to upgrade?, of is the mono box worth it...you name it, it was out there. I'll admit, I totally got caught up in the hype - plus, who doesn't love a good reissue campaign. So I got myself on board for it...after the mono boxes were long gone, of course, but apparently we'll be getting more, non-numbered editions later in the year so I can wait.

Thursday at work we got our copies of 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band', 'Abbey Road, 'Rubber Soul' and, er, 'Help!' in. Copies I could hold in my hand but couldn't have. Them being that close yet so far away only made me want them more, of course...

On the way home from work Monday, I stopped by an indie notorious for breaking street dates and there they were - all of the remastered albums ready for me to purchase. Slightly more expensive than they would be in a few days, but I needed something to hold me over. The double albums - the ones I want most, of course - were considerably more expensive than the rest so those weren't an option. The albums I could get even cheaper at work come Wendesday were also out, which left me with the choice of 'Revolver' or 'Magical Mystery Tour'. I chose the latter for sentimental reasons and - let's be honest - because I enjoy it way more than the kind of overrated 'Revolver'. [It's inconsistent folks, come on. 'Rubber Soul' might not reach the heights but it's a more solid listen over all and you know it.]

I got in the car and put it on, expecting to be blown away. Aaaaand, I wasn't. Sure, it sounded a little better but was it a total revelation like some reviews wanted me to believe? No. Of course, we're on a relatively crappy car stereo system here, maybe it'll be better at home. Except as the album went on, it started to get more and more impressive. The title track is still covered in a layer of haze - part of its charm, really - but "The Fool on the Hill" is crystal clear and sounds better than it ever has. "Flying" packs far more of a punch than I ever knew it had. "Blue Jay Way" goes back to the haze, but "Your Mother Should Know" was truly a revelation. Always kind of a non-event for me, it has a real zing on this new reissue that almost makes it a whole new song. The bass really does pop, as cliched as that is to say.

At home, I put it on a stereo with good if not great Sony speakers. Now it made sense - the album sounds amazing. The haze still hangs over the album - or, at least, half of the album - because it's supposed to be there. You take that away and you totally kill the songs.

A third listen to the album on iPod headphones - again, good but not great - revealed a bit of a mixed bag and the argument for mono vs stereo totally made sense. The stereo separation on tracks like "I Am The Walrus" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" reveals the inner workings of the tracks and take away from their magic - on this new remaster on headphones, the separation is striking to the point of distracting and almost ruin the songs, particularly "Strawberry Fields Forever". It takes away and punch it has and makes it sound like a bunch of unrelated parts playing together at the same time to make a bit of an unholy racket rather than one of the greatest psychodelic-pop songs of all time. Ditto for "Baby You're A Rich Man". I imagine cluttering them all back together on a single mono-track will benefit them greatly as it will retain their mystique, though I have to wait on that one until the production lines can churn out some more sets.

On the flip side, the slick Paul McCartney numbers sound even more amazing on headphones. "Penny Lane" is MASSIVE as every element gets breathing room and you can hear each crystal clear, yet they come together to raise the song to a new level - something I think the mono version will miss out on. [Again, wait and see...follow up post to come!]

"I Am The Walrus" on headphones - that was the key track and the best way to gauge your interest in the mono/stereo debate. According to the liner notes - which themselves are interesting if a bit slight, but then again how much more can be written about the Beatles output? [Yes, I get it.] - they couldn't reproduce the radio fade ins/outs for the stereo mix so they created a "false stereo" mix by double tracking the mono mix halfway through the song. You can totally hear it - halfway through when the first King Lear line pops up there is an audible change in fidelity and the whole sound of the song changes. Prior to that you've got the "Strawberry Fields Forever" dilemma I described above going on. At that moment, everything snaps together and the masterpiece that is the song reveals itself as everything is firing together. Amazing. That then changes again near the end of the song as they decided - for some reason - to then snap back out of fake stereo and just fade the mono track back and forth between the two channels, giving you an odd bouncing effect.

Those two-ish mono-minutes in "I Am The Walrus" are what you need to decide how dedicated to the whole project you are. Myself, I was on eBay checking out box set prices. A bit more than I want to pay - I guess discovering new sounds via the stereo mixes will have to tide me over - not entirely a bad thing.

I'm fifteen all over again

File under "too good to be true": the original line-up of Sunny Day Real Estate is reforming. For a tour.

I got to see the boys a couple of times back in "the day", but sadly only after the split/reformation without Nate. I also got to meet Dan & Jeremy on one of 'The Rising Tide' dates and have a picture of my 20-year old self with them smiling like an idiot next to my computer. It still makes me happy thinking about it. Then, in the Fire Theft days, I got to meet Will & Nate as well. So I've seen em all, just not all at once. [I always wished I asked them to sign my copy of LP2 that Jeremy and Will signed when I met them, but it didn't feel right. I did get to go grocery shopping with them, however, so I suppose that makes up for it.]

Until September, that is. I haven't figured out how yet, but I will be there. Oh yes, I will.

The dates from the new website:

September 17th - Vancouver, BC/Commodore Ballroom
September 18th - Portland/Crystal Ballroom (Musicfest NW)
September 20th - Salt Lake City/Murray Theater
September 21st - Denver/Ogden Theater
September 23rd - Minneapolis/First Avenue
September 24th - Chicago/Metro
September 25th - Detroit/St Andrews Hall
September 27th - New York/Terminal 5
September 28th - Boston/House of Blues
September 30th - Washington DC/930 Club
October 1st - Philadelphia/Trocadero
October 3rd - Atlanta/CW Center Stage
October 5th - Dallas/Granada Theater
October 6th - Houston/Warehouse Live
October 7th - Austin/La Zona Rosa
October 9th - Tempe/Marquee Theatre
October 10th - Anaheim/House of Blues
October 11th - Los Angeles/Henry Fonda Theater
October 13th - San Francisco/Fillmore
October 15th - Spokane/Knitting Factory
October 16th - Seattle/Paramount Theatre

Oh, and they're reissuing 'Diary' and 'LP2' as well - with bonus discs and liner notes and all that jazz. See you at the stores September 15th for those.

a reissue I can get behind

FINALLY - the US remix of 'Rio' is getting an official CD release.

Posted on Duran Duran's myspace - and I'm sure other places:

Mining the DD catalogue, EMI will be releasing two gems on June 29th (UK)/June 30th (US): The DVD/CD DURAN DURAN – LIVE HAMMERSMITH ‘82! and DURAN DURAN: RIO (2 CD SPECIAL EDITION).


LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH 82! is a much anticipated release among followers of the band. Filmed and recorded in the latter part of 1982 as Duranmania was sweeping England, the performance at London’s Hammersmith Odeon includes “Rio,” “Hungry like the Wolf,” “Girls on Film,” fan favorite “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” and more. The release also includes “Rio” era videos and two “Top of the Pops” performances.


The RIO 2 CD SPECIAL EDITION is made up of the UK release of the “Rio” album, the original US Harvest album remixes (enabling US listens to programme their CD to be able to listen to the original version), Manchester Square demos, B-Sides, remixes and other surprises.


Full track listing for both releases below.
Keep checking back to Duranduran.com for more information!

DVD/CD: Duran Duran – Live Hammersmith '82!
DVD:
Live at Hammersmith ’82:-
Rio
Hungry Like The Wolf
Night Boat
New Religion
Save A Prayer
Planet Earth
Friends Of Mine
Careless Memories
Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)
Girls On Film
Rio era videos:-
My Own Way
Hungry Like The Wolf
Save A Prayer
Lonely In Your Nightmare
Rio
The Chauffeur
Top Of The Pops Performances:-
Hungry Like The Wolf (May 13th, 1982)
Rio (November 18th, 1982)

Duran Duran: Rio (2 CD Special Edition)
CD 1:
Original UK album
1/ Rio
2/ My Own Way
3/ Lonely In Your Nightmare
4/ Hungry Like The Wolf
5/ Hold Back The Rain
6/ New Religion
7/ Last Chance On The Stairway
8/ Save A Prayer
9/ The Chauffeur
Original US album mixes released on Harvest/Capitol ST-12211 released November 1982
10/Rio (US album remix)
11/My Own Way (Carnival remix)
12/Lonely In Your Nightmare (US album remix)
13/Hungry Like The Wolf (US album remix)
14/Hold Back The Rain (US album remix)

This enables the US listener to programme their CD to play the original US version of the album.


CD 2:
The Manchester Square demos (recorded 28th August 1981):
1/ Last Chance On The Stairway
2/ My Own Way
3/ New Religion
4/ Like An Angel
Non album singles and B-Sides:
5/ My Own Way (original 7” version) (3.39)
6/ Like An Angel
UK single B side
7/ Careless Memories (live)
UK single B side
8/ The Chauffeur (Blue Silver) (early version)
UK single B side
Versions & Mixes:
9/ My Own Way (Night version)
UK 12" single
10/Hungry Like The Wolf (Night version)
UK 12" single
11/ Rio (Night version)
Dutch 12" Carnival E.P
12/New Religion (Carnival remix)
Japanese 12" Carnival E.P.

13/Hold Back The Rain (Carnival remix)
US 12" Carnival E.P.


Digital only extras:
14/My Own Way (Instrumental version) (6.32)
15/Hold Back The Rain (Alternate remix) (6.38)

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Digital only extras? Boo! I'll wait for a price point to make a call on the live package but I need the 2-disc 'Rio' in my hands yesterday. Maybe they'll follow these up with sets for 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' and 'Notorious'. Please?