Album You'd Most Like To See Remastered

i nominate johnny thunders & the heartbreakers l.a.m.f.

others:

The Rolling Stones - all the pre-Sticky Fingers stuff. The much-ballyhooed 2003 discs are a significant improvement over what used to be available, but they've been remixed. And a true stereo version of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is still unavailable (except on bootleg).

Beatles - everything

Disco Inferno - D.I. Go Pop! and the Five EPs. Why is it so friggin' hard to find Disco Inferno records? I can't find 'em on Ebay, I can't find 'em on amazon, I can't find 'em ANYWHERE! So thank God for mp3s!

The Who - The Who Sings "My Generation". Much like the recent Stones reissues, this one was remixed into stereo. If you ask me, a straight-up mono version would have been a better idea.

The Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed. There have been at least three different CD remastering jobs on this one, and they've all been awful. Get this one on vinyl.

Buckner and Garcia - Pac Man Fever. Because Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia don't own the rights to the greatest novelty album ever made, they've been forced to re-record the whole thing.

? and the Mysterians - 96 Tears. This one has something to do with the fact that ? recorded for Cameo/Parkway, who is now owned by everyone's favorite human scum, the greedy Allen Klein, and Klein for some reason refuses to release any Cameo/Parkway recordings (This also includes Dee Dee Sharp's "Mashed Potato Time", Chubby Checker's "The Twist", and a lot others I can't think of right now.). Tosser.

The only thing I hate about that record is that anyone who doesn't know anything about hip hop always nominates it as their all time favorite rap record. It's to the 90s what The Roots is to the 'oughts

There would have been place for both, instead of all those pointless R&B covers. I always prefer stereo, but as the album was originally only available in mono, I can understand why mono fans are in rage.

My offer to burn a CDR with the five EPs for anyone who asks still stands.

Actually - yeah what is the story w/ this? Ever since I've owned it I've wondered if I bought a "clean" version, because there are definitely censored words on it... but there are also some swears. I never bothered to ask around about it - what's the deal?

Triple ditto on Riot.

REmastering takes records that were done poorly - or with limited technology - and 'cleans them up' - for better or worse.

A lot of times, it's like a comfortable spot in your attic where you like to sit, and one day, someone puts in a higher wattage light bulb and you notice all the dead bugs and decaying wood. You don't like to sit there as much any more, lights or no lights.

The best suggestion I have for you, or ANYBODY interested in ANY aspect of music-making, recording or otherwise, is get a subscription to Tape Op (it's FREE)- it's the most valuable resource I can think of

Are you saying this because you haven't heard / aren't aware of L.A.M.F. Revisited or because you don't rate it? I always suspected that there was a great album lurking somewhere beneath the awful mixing / mastering even of the original vinyl; but .... Revisited was still a revelation.

i say ultramagnetic mcs - funk your head up

"The Lost '77 Mixes" essentially recreates the original album using the best of these "alternate takes" and is quite stunning; if L.A.M.F. had sounded like this when it first came out I think a lot of things things would have been very different....

I haven't heard "L.A.M.F. Revisited" but I understand it's simply a re-mastered version of the original album and inferior to "The Lost '77 Mixes".

The expanded CD soundtrack for the re-release of "Yellow Submarine" features digitally-remastered tracks. But some liken this to copy-editing Shakespeare.

My favorite recent revelation in this dept. is Iggy's "Raw Power."

I vote for the SST catalog, especially anything produced by Spot.

maybe Throwing Muses - The Real Ramona?

Nevermind remastering, they should re-record it with a different producer and set those songs free.

Nevermind remastering, they should re-record it with a different producer and set those songs free.

i said maybe, because i wasn't ultimately sure what an improvement a simple remaster would make. i'm a Muses fan in spite of hearing Real Ramona first, and wincing at the shitty sound. the songs are DAMN good, though..

i'd love it if american music club's remaster of California came out; it's been done for a few years but there's some contractual problem.

yeah, well what you'd get there would be the same top-heavy, tinny sound, but with the quiet bits just as loud as the loud bits.

Yay, they'll cost more!

I was so excited about the cocteau twins remasters, and then I heard them. Drums and guitars louder and brighter, smashing the vocals into the trebly background... 'blue bell knoll' in particular, just unlistenable.

Excellent point. And the songs are definitely "different" in ways that change the listening experience, although not as extremely as the Frank Zappa/Ozzy Osbourne approach of substituting brand-new bass and drum tracks.

>About 2/3 of Dylan's catalog is about to come out in remastered hybrid-SACD format.
>Yay, they'll cost more!

The Stones remasters didn't ($13.49 for "Let It Bleed" at Amazon). And even the DVD Audio/5.1 versions sell for likewise (for example, $13.99 for Deep Purple's "Machine Head").

There was a bit of a debate on the audio lists a while back about the 1999 HDCD Roxy Music reissues and how much better they supposedly sounded than the late-'80s EG Editions CDs. Someone shoved a track off the new version of Avalon into CoolEdit and, sure enough, the transients were squashed to buggery and the average level pulled 6-7dB up from the original CD release.

HDCD supposedly allows something called Peak Extend (where 20bit data is unpacked on playback and transients restored), but I tried a comparison of a digital rip of "Do The Strand" off the new For Your Pleasure and an analogue recording of HDCD playback of same, and I couldn't see much evidence of that limiting being relaxed. Anyway, how many people have HDCD?

It's surprising how good weedy reggae CDs from the early-90s sound if you just soft-limit them to full-scale a wee bit. If that's all there is to it, then...

The funny thing is I mean "Hunkpapa" not "The Real Ramona." But now that you mention it, the sound on Real Ramona is a bit weak, isn't it? Remastering should be fine for that, Hunkpapa though was badly produced.

I also second the Pixies - their first three albums need it bad, especially Doolittle and Bossanova.

I put "My Philosophy" in a mix CD not long ago and it was noticibly quieter than the songs around it. Very little thud to it at all.

You're Living All Over Me (CD) was my top contender, but it's been redone. I need to spend more time with it. Mascis certainly cleaned up "Little Fury Things."

the moog freakout in the film is far better than the one on the soundtrack.

The mid 80s is a period that seems to be very much ignored by people doing remasters.

Out of my personal Top 20 albums from 1984, the following are either not available on CD at all today, or only available in obsolete and unremastered original 80s versions:
Alphaville: Forever Young
Thompson Twins: Into The Gap
The Blue Nile: A Walk Across The Rooftops
Thomas Dolby: The Flat Earth
Howard Jones: Human's Lib
Prince: Purple Rain
Everything But The Girl: Eden
The Cars: Heartbeat City
Prefab Sprout: Swoon
OMD: Junk Culture

Sopwith Camel - The Miraculous Hump Returns from the Moon
Strawberry Alarm Clock - Wake Up, It's Tomorrow

ugh yeah Prince needs some decent remasters stat

David Byrne - Catherine Wheel
Tom Tom Club - s/t and Close to the Bone
Sonic Youth - Sister (at least the SST version is pretty dim — dunno about the DGC)
The Fall on Beggars Banquet
New Order's '80s albums
Neil Young's '70s albums

I was about to second the Performance soundtrack, then looked it up and low and behold, it has been remastered.

I've been confused for a while about whether the Kraftwerk catalog got remastered or not — seems there was another thread here where people were talking about how much improved they were, but it seems as though they never actually came out — maybe it was the mid-nineties versions that were being talked about?

The Kraftwerk remasters will come out at some stage, I guess. Only, it seems, with remasters as with new stuff, you often see a delay. I mean, the Depeche Mode reissues took about a year longer than originally scheduled, and the second batch of the Genesis remasters were also just released, at least 1 month delayed.

'Relayer' by Yes, in such a way that it doesn't sound like it was recorded in JON'S PROTOFANTASY KITCHEN.

see also

What CD in your collection most needs remastering?

No mention of a-ha yet. Those first two albums would really need the treatment.

I wonder how remasters of Iggy Pop's The Idiot and Lust for Life would sound — The Idiot has always sounded really murky to me, but maybe it's supposed to? I've never heard the vinyl.

The remastered "Heroes" sounds great, so I guess there would be hope for "The Idiot" too.

i think most of the new order albums sound fine as they are and don't need any remastering, except for maybe low life which sounds weird. walk across the rooftops (blue nile) doesn't need remastering either, it's an almost perfect sounding cd!

Black Flag - My War

Have any of the Grace Jones albums been remastered? I haven't heard it on vinyl, but Slave to the Rhythm especially sounds like it's missing something in the low end. And her last two albums should be reissued simply because they're very hard to find. I've only managed to find an used copy of Bulletproof Heart, which is great (and actually sounds very good for an '89 CD, so no remastering needed there).

i think most of the new order albums sound fine as they are and don't need any remastering

Agree. And no wonder considering they were all 24 bit remastered just a few years ago.

walk across the rooftops (blue nile) doesn't need remastering either

It sure needs some compression to turn up the volume.

'spirit of eden'

i want a sound that really fucking punches you in the solar plexus.

"Spirit Of Eden" has already been remastered.

Bulletproof Heart by Grace Jones is great? Tell me more Tuomas. What other late-period stuff by her is good?

Other than "Bad Girls" (excellent package!), Donna Summer's 70s catalogue is either outdated old editions or - as in the case of "I Remember Yesterday", one of her best albums - not available at all. Universal should really go ahead and do a proper reissue/remaster job on everything from "Love To Love You Baby" through "Once Upon a Time".

Anyone know what the holdup is on the Disintegration remaster?

'Shazam'

Wait, apparently it was already remastered.
Dunno if it was any good though.

You mean "Shazam" by The Move?

Has been remastered several times, I think. I haven't heard the recent one, but the recent one of "The Move" is ace.

Anyone know what the holdup is on the Disintegration remaster?

According to this thread the last batch ("Disintegration", "Mixed Up" and "Wish") will be released sometime in 2008. Hopefully in not too long then.

The first two TASTE albums.

heh. some of blue oyster cult's lost classics, such as mirrors and cultosaurus erectus and club ninja...plus has anyone ever heard imaginos? how is it?

New Day Rising

>>plus has anyone ever heard imaginos? how is it?

It has it's moments. First side is fairly strong. Ya takes yer chances the rest of the way. "The Seige and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria" works because of the over-the-top guest vocal by Joey Cerisano who had a considerably better voice than Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom. He was big in Jersey bar bands and is on a Silver Condor record I have, a not bad but not great slice of mid-Eighties guitar rock. "Del Rio's Song" is another thing from that sounds akin to many of the poppier things BOC liked to do.

I have a CD copy of it but they seem rare. Or were the last time I looked. I actually interviewed Buck Dharma for CREEM magazine at the time of the release of Imaginos. It wasn't a bad record but no one, including the record label, was very enthusiastic about it. It was a different time, BOC were old hat. When I was at Columbia for the interview they were pumping Britny Fox and a said to be upcoming just-signed artist from my neck of the woods in PA, Tommy Conwell, hard. So that was the zeitgeist.

Bobby Darin - That's All

Apparently the current CD version has terrible sound.

the rest of the Dylan catalogue, particularly New Morning, Self-Portrait, Before The Flood and The Basement Tapes

So whatever happened to that Union Carbide Productions box that was supposed to come out?

Lots and lots of Warner titles. Warner Music are way behind the others as far as remastering goes.

I was just noticing that the Squeeze box set sounds awful.

Guess it will be a while before they remaster that.

All of the über-dB remasters of recent years need to be redone.

It isn't about being the loudest disc in the carousel anymore, is it.

The album I would most like to see remastered is the one some guy is just finishing as I write this.

"Argybargy" was just released in a deluxe edition, although I haven't heard it.

I think the main problem about the Squeeze albums is they were badly mixed, so for them to sound better one would need new mixes, not just new remasters. Elvis Costello's production on "East Side Story" is worst of all - grainy, way too much bass (just listen to "Labelled With Love") and with the vocals mixed way too low in the mix.

All of the über-dB remasters of recent years need to be redone.

Before that happens, though, producers of mp3 players and portable CDs have to realize that you cannot protect people's hearing from THE LOUDEST ALBUMS EVER MADE, as then it is impossible to turn the volume of more reasonably mastered albums up loud enough.

For instance, I understand very well why Donald Fagen and Gary Katz didn't want the new remaster of "The Nightfly" to be any louder than the original (those guys know a thing or two about audio and hi-fi). But I still regret not being able to turn it up loud enough on my portable.

I never understood why Warner stopped with "Tusk" when they remastered the Fleetwood Mac catalogue. At least they should have given the job to "Mirage" and the excellent "Tango In The Night" too. The latter is easily my favourite album by them.

We've discussed it on a Prince thread but yeah, all pre-90s Prince should be remastered. It's a shame such great albums sound so bad. I thought it was due to legal issues between prince and warner but as someone rightly said (I think it was Tuomas), some of his tracks have been remastered on the ultimate compilation, so...
and about the beatles, following the remastering work done on "love" (not talking about the remixing part), I'd definitely buy all the albums again should they be remastered the same way.

Some unexplainable questions:
Why they they remaster only "Secret Of Association" and "Wonderland" by Paul Young while his oldest, "NO Parlez", remains unremastered?

Why did they remaster every single Jackson Browne album from the 70s or 80s apart from his second album, "For Everyman"?

Ashlee Simpson - Autobiography

some dope songs but it's louderized to death

speaking of such things, the uk double cd deluxe version of amy winehouse's 'back in black' has the brickwall loudness FIXED (on the album proper, but not on the bonus tracks on the second disc). it might be a mistake but it sounds 100 times better than the normal release.

It is called "Back To Black" though. :)

oh right, i just call it the 'amy winehouse album'.

boredoms "wow2" is way too quiet. needs to be louderized.

also, metal box/second edt. i think it's already been remastered, but i still can't feel the bass like i should be able to.

do you have the UK or US version of metal box? I have the one in the metal box and it sounds pretty good, better than the US version I used to have

i have mp3's

Albums that need to be re-mastered in the worst way

Thinking of what I didn't already mention in the thread above. Ooh, I know, all the Tim Buckley albums! Also 80s R.E.M. Early U2 and Metallica remasters are due soon I think. The vinyl Metallica are out now. Are the Joy Division remasters different from the box set? I never got around to the Nick Drake remasters, as the originals sound fine to me. Anyone compare them?

Weren't Beatles remasters/reissues supposed to come out over a year ago? And Public Enemy? Anyone know what happened with that? How about Astral Weeks & Moondance?

Who's been remastered the most? I'd say the early Elvis Costello albums are on their fifth life.

Bowie probably gives Elvis Costello a run for that. At least pretty close to:

80s: RCA releases back catalogue unremastered on CD for the first time
1990: EMI America with first batch of remasters
1993?: New batch of remasters as Rykodisc takes over the rights to his back catalogue for a while
1999: Back on EMI America. New remasters that - it must be added - sound remarkably better than the previous ones
Oughties: Various of his 70s albums re-released (and remastered) in new 2CD deluxe editions. (Limited Edition, I believe, as most of them are not available anymore by now)

the joy division remasters are completely different from the box set. they actually sound radically different; they're louder on the whole. I know some people really hate them; I think they're good, but a few tracks on still sound wrong to me. I kept the box set, anyway.

I've never bothered with nick drake remasters either, the hannibal/rykos sound fine. in fact I've heard the sacd/remixes sound bad.

The loudness may sometimes be exaggerated, but I kind of like recent remasters for one thing: The late 80s/early 90s trend of narrow stereo is gone, and those classic albums are now again in truly wide stereo, as they were usually released back in the 60s or 70s.

Don't know why my link to the alternate thread didn't work.
Albums that need to be re-mastered in the worst way

Also, Reissues Thread 2008
Reissues Thread 2008

I'd like the see the (Natalie-era) 10,000 Maniacs albums remastered... the band is in that (sizable) tranche of CD-era acts whose albums have always remained in print, yet aren't popular enough to justify deluxe reissues (and I suppose never will at this point). Sadly, CDs from that era don't sound very good to me now.

I'm surprised the first few Strokes albums never got expanded anniversary reissues (e.g., The Modern Age + Is This It? in a single, remastered package).

The first Elastica album is one more that I never thought sounded very good to begin with (even though the songs are great), and which may benefit from a remaster.

Ocean Rain, possibly remixed even, because it is a dog's fucking breakfast.

morris, we should talk maniacs sometime. i have thoughts about robert buck's guitar playing.

(also i will defend natalie's first few albums and yeah- remaster the old stuff dammit!)

also maybe this is more appropriate for a proper maniacs topic, the rem revive lately got me thinking-- joe boyd produced their fables album and the manics' wishing chair the same year. ts?

(can you imagine a really good remaster job on "tension makes a tangle"? let the robert buck reappraisal begin!)

I didn’t realize Boyd produced The Wishing Chair… that’s interesting!

everyone go revisit wishing chair. it's really good.

(and it sounds nothing like fables. i see you, haters.)

(in terms of production. of course they're both jangle bands, so i mean. wishing chair is iridescent in comparison. remaster it!)

also morris-
i didn’t know this existed until right now. 2004 remastering, huh.

Classic old thread: LAY OFF NATALIE MERCHANT (Do Not Read If U Hate Old ILX)

xp That is interesting! I’ve read about that comp, but didn’t realize the album tracks were remastered. Maybe I’ll check it out, even if it doesn’t quite “get all the way there.” Great find, thx

oh yes, grisso. i've aired my grievances, while still defending her. i know it's not "cool" music and she's... ugh, nah i'm not gonna do this here. but i can't argue with my heart and she's got some jams.

anyway.

(gonna fall asleep to motherland tonight. what a nice album.)