Anyone else like the sound of Brave Words by the Chills?

However, it is severely underrated. A pretty solid record really.

Seen it mentioned in interviews he's considered remixing it. Think he once claimed he was gonna call it "Braver Words", but maybe I imagined that.

My thoughts on the 'lost' classic are here. I even plug my new favourite forum!

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/the-chills-brave-words-round-11-toms-selection/

I am listening to it again, I remember feeling let down by it too. But it's just introverted and pastoral compared to the psychedelic early singles.

Martin did, indeed, once plan on rerecording the album as "Braver Words". I think a couple of tracks got the treatment and were released on the Heavenly Pop Hits comp with the bonus disc. They turned out excellently, of course.

the newly done tracks were not excellent. the originals, well the album version was better, the 7" version is also not great. it's a bit like rem when the murkiness was cleared we realized that stipe wasn't so interesting. same with martin phillipps.

Sorry, can't agree at all. "Submarine Bells" and "Soft Bomb" are both outstanding albums which lack the "murk" of the early work. And there alot to love on "Sunburnt" even if the keyboards are mixed waaaay too high.

I too reckon Submarine Bells is a great album...but it is too consistently good to enthrall me in the same way that Brave Words' uneven nature does.

What were the re-worked tracks by the way?

I sort of like the first 2 albums / compilations, but it's hot and miss. Submarine Bells and Soft Bomb (I consider them very much a pair) are just terrific. So consistent, every song is strong.

Submarine Bells must be great because I'll start singing "Between Past and Present" at twice a month like all day.

By which I meant "Part Past Part Fiction," of course.

I loved Brave Words. I had it on cassette though, and the tape snapped. And when the tape snapped by heart broke. It was the US version on Homestead, with House With a Hundred Rooms on it, too.

I first heard the songs seeing them at the Astoria in Leeds, supporting Nico not long before her death. The room must have held a thousand. There weren't even a hundred there. No one within 50 feet of the stage when the Chills played, which must have been immensely disspiriting, but they still played a blinder (I thought). Nico was a long way from Leeds, mentally. Occasionally someone would shout out for something by the VU and she would reply: "You only vant to hear Lou Reed songs. I do not vant to play Lou Reed songs." And then she'd get her harmonium wheezing and intone her way through something else about death.

There was a time I got sad every time I came across "Submarine Bells" and "Soft Bomb" in the cut out bin. I wanted to buy them all up and give them away to loving homes.

I seem to recall seeing the Chills at Lounge Ax here at some point, but it was when Martin was attempting something of a belated comeback at the band wasn't so hot. I know the guy's had more than his share of drug problems. Anyone know how he's doing?

I think he is OK apart from the fact that he can't seem to get around to recording a proper album or release anything on any kind of supportive label. He has just announced a show in AKL with The Puddle. I got around to listening to some of the 'secret box' recently and it had some very promising stuff on it in a kind of demo quality that needed the full treatment.

one of the re-worked tracks was 'wet blanket' which also has a different version on the 7 inch, don't recall which was the other. on the newer versions his vocals are a letdown. he's so PC that it sometimes invades his lyrics and becomes annoying the same way that it can in chris knox tracks. all of the "recent" stuff that i have heard is pretty dire.

He remade 2 tracks:

"Wet Blanket"
"Look For The Good In Others"

And there's this oddity:

"The Oncoming Day (Brave Words version)"

The first two are on the "Heavenly Pop Hits" compilation, the third on the bonus disc that came with it. I haven't done an A/B comparison but I felt they were a nice improvement in clarity.

The remaster is...conflicting? I always loved the gauze, the reverb, the mud of the original. How Justin Harwood's bass stands out in the mix just enough to carry much of the album. The songs are there, obv, but I think the mix is/was a big reason it's my favorite Chills album.

When I heard the remaster on (admittedly, crappy) speakers yesterday, I was, like, "Oh no, this is just flat out wrong". Practically indignant at times. Worst example from that listen: the piano sounded egregiously high in the new mix of "Ghosts."

But today...on headphones, with a little tweaking of the equalizer, this sounds much better. Still, the bass is turned down a *touch too much* on "Wet Blanket" and it practically disappears on "Party in My Heart". "Ghosts" still bugs me, but isn't as nearly distracting on headphones as yesterday' listen. Maybe I'm just getting used to it?

This needs a Tim-like dissection/debate imo.

I like the new mix and think it's generally a welcome improvement, but they also crushed the dynamics. No idea if that's baked into the mix or if a lot of that compression was applied during mastering, but I really wish they backed off of it.

I like the new mix too but unlike 'Tim' I don't think that it renders the old mix redundant.

John in Evanston-This is my fave Chills as well. I kind of have the opposite reaction. I prefer the light touch here, and this truly is one of those records whose original mix led to a lot of head scratching. I find Tim/Stasium to be too revisionist.

Need to listen in the car.

My big takeaway/reminder from overdosing on both versions (original and remastered) over the past few days is that side one is pretty much perfect. Side two isn't far off from it.

Whichever version I listened to last is my favorite version. I love this album.

FWIW, the Replacement's new Tim by Ed Stasium remains the definitive mix for me - I tried going back to the "original" mix and was massively disappointed. And it's not dissimilar to my disappointment in the original mix of Brave Words which apparently is among the Chills' official YouTube uploads for some reason - metallic yet mushy at the same time. The remix doesn't do away with ambience, there's plenty of it, but obviously it needed to be mixed right. Really glad Martin finally got to hear this properly mixed well before his health took an unfortunate turn. (Although there's one EQ adjustment I would apply that works really well for me. Simply reduce 2 decibels at 6k on a parametric.)