| Author | Message | ||
     Paul V Unregistered guest |
Picked up "Liberty Belle" and "Tallulah" at the beginning of the week. Lovely packaging with a bunch of pics I havn't seen before, and the sound is generally prettyy good too. Not yet directly compared them, but the original albums sound better than I remember. A mixed bag of stuff on the bonus disks (especially Tallulah) but good to have a lot ofthis stuff on CD at last. Not sure about "Reunion Dinner" though, it's either worth the price of admission on it's own or a rteason for asking for my money back, I haven't worked out which yet! Ayone know the story behind it? | ||
| Peter Azzopardi Member Username: Pete Post Number: 2 Registered: 09-2004 |
No idea, Paul, but thanks for discussing them. Looks like it'll be a while before we see them in stores in Australia so I'm pleased to hear any opinions/information (Bradders, I couldn't access that link - need subscription). Strangely, people have been very quiet about these discs. For other Australians without a credit card: I contacted JB HiFi and they know nothing of the reissues. I asked at Greville Street records too, as they had the last lot in fairly early, and I was told that in 2002 Shock imported a bunch and most stores got theirs through them. I will contact Shock and see what's going this time around. | ||
| Jim Ugly Member Username: Jimugly Post Number: 1 Registered: 08-2004 |
I agree with Paul - great work on these albums. it really can't be overstated how good they are. The packaging is indeed lovely - I bought them earlier this week (call me old-fashioned, but I do like to pick things up from real shops!) and was really impressed. Lots of new pics and it's really interesting to see the alternative shots to the familiar album covers. I played my original 16 Lovers Lane last week, and this new version is definitely better. The other two are pretty damn sparkly too, someone obviously knew what they were doing! Whatever, they sound great. The bonus disks are a great listen too - again, top sound and quite a few tracks I hadn't heard before. Favourite new song at the moment is "I Work in a health spa". Love the jumble of styles on the Tallulah disk. And that single version of Love Goes On is tremendous! I'm very happy to have these disks at last. Gold stars to all involved! Jim U Oh, if you're buying these in London (and you're old-fashioned  ), I got mine from Sister Ray for £12.99. | ||
| ahmet Unregistered guest |
They're good. Very good. They make my old Beggars reissues totally redundnat, they look better, they sound better and they have twice as many tracks! Hurrah! | ||
| Cassiel Unregistered guest |
After two weeks of listening to these albums almost exclusively -- well, apart from the sublime Nick Cave double set -- I can hand on heart say that all three albums have never sounded better. Whether it was the mix, or my crappy old stereo but I can't say I remember the feedbacky stuff -- technical term -- in the background of Apology Accepted before. What was the greatest love song ever now sounds even greater. I know what the grungey stuff Dave Nichols was referring to in the book. All three albums are like this: clear, sharp and the songs benefit from it. Like old coins buffed and polished so they gleam. Still taking the additional stuff in. But really do like the second CD on 16 LL. Some beautiful stuff there (Apples in Bed is a great song.) Tallulah has less new stuff and Robert Christgau's notes pale in comparison to the two Andrew's on the other albums. But Liberty Belle extra disc is a treat: particularly interesting to see how songs like Bow Down and Casanova's Last Words developed over time. To those of you in Oz: I wish two things for you. These reissues soonest; and a new PM to replace that greasy, fat, Bush-licking, specky four-eyed f***er. | ||
| Peter Azzopardi Member Username: Pete Post Number: 4 Registered: 09-2004 |
This message appeared on the Tallulah mailing list yesterday. I hope Bernard MacMahon doesn't mind, but I thought it'd be great for non-Tallulah members to read an authoritative voice on the genesis of the reissues. "Thank you Lawrence for your kind words about the re-issues. An insane amount of work went into compiling them that stretched well over 2 years and with that in mind it's really great to read your thoughtful comments. I think these albums have turned out even better than the first three for a number of reasons. Steve Webbon and Martin Mills at Beggars were amazingly helpful and Steve has kept a fastidious archive over the years, which so rarely happens at labels plus he has a great memory. Jonathan Turner digitized slides and transparencies running into the thousands meaning we could choose the best available images and he was literally tireless in his search for songs we had heard of but couldn't prove their existence until he located them in the weirdest places. Working at a record label, I've always had a warm attitude to archival tape trading. Although I abhor the copying of an artist's new material, when it comes to compiling something like these the fans' obsessive cataloguing of every available concert becomes a positive boon. It would often allow us at least to sequence in a live version of a song until we located a 'lost' studio performance of it. On a number of occasions we'd come across a wonderful gem like their cover of 'You're A Big Girl Now' which had a charm and immediacy that sat comfortably next to more professionally recorded b-sides. One great and unexpected bonus in the hours I and Jonathan spent doing this, was discovering to my surprise, that rather than getting sick to the teeth of hearing go-betweens songs, I admired what the band had achieved even more vehemently. We just didn't come across half finished songs, semi-complete ideas or lame cover versions. There seemed to be so much thought and care put into everything they committed to even a rehearsal tape. Call it the pride of master craftsmen or pure creative professionalism but there just isn't anything out there that we located that isn't fully realized on its own terms. How many bands could you compile three extra albums worth of material and still have a coherent set of lyrics to print in the booklet? Lastly, and I so hope you all get to hear this for yourselves, Bill Inglot has done an astonishing job on mastering these albums. Re-mastering has had a chequered reputation in the CD age and can include a multitude of horrors, from re-mixing the albums from scratch from the multi-tracks (sacrilege with classic albums) to altering the whole dynamic EQ of a song to suit a transient studio fad. This work is often done by highly professional engineers who although they might be well intentioned have no deep understanding of a band's music prior to the label dropping off the master tapes. With Bill this was not the case. His knowledge of the band's music rivals all ours and he has a vast personal collection of their material. When Steve Webbon and Jonathan recommended him we really lucked out. One play of any of the three original albums with which you will all be hugely familiar will amply display his fabulous care and attention to detail. They gel together beautifully and his work is so subtle that it reveals its insight cumulatively as you hit the fourth, fifth and sixth track on the LP. I found myself sitting back and gasping at how fantastic they sound. One friend who inexplicably never liked 'Right Here' called to say that he now loved the song after hearing these masters. Of course this was all there on the tapes Bill just made sure that that Robert and Grants vision was fully illuminated. With regard to the disc labels that Lawrence mentioned, the only reason that the original label designs weren't reproduced was simply that they didn't look very good when we experimented with them. Steve told us that the design was done by an NME reader who won a competition. Needless to say there were probably some fanciful European and American designs but we felt simple was best. So just keep your lint free cloth handy for the fingerprints. Thanks again for everyone's nice words. I'm over the moon that these LPs are turning people on so much. And that is what we all want after all. Long live the Go-Betweens. Bernard MacMahon LO-MAX" | ||
| david nichols Member Username: David Post Number: 14 Registered: 09-2004 |
Bernard is right to praise Steve Webbon for his dedication to the GoBs legacy. He certainly knows his stuff. And Jonathan of course, too, but we all knew that. The comments on CD mastering fads are interesting. Kevin Rowland has some important things to say on this subject on the 'director's cut' version of Dexy's MR's Don't Stand Me Down. How he (KR) was talked into allowing the mastering engineer to apply some fancy new process to the previous reissue of the album and has obviously been angst-ridden ever after. | ||
| Alfie Unregistered guest |
What do you think of the reissues David? | ||
| bradders Unregistered guest |
Considering how much obvious effort has been put into these re-issues, it's kind of disappointing to have a glaring typo on the cover of Liberty Belle - 'Palm Sunday (Or board the SS Within)'. | ||
| jeff whiteaker Unregistered guest |
ouch! | ||
| gareth Unregistered guest |
For me, 'Tallulah' is the real success of the reissues. It's like hearing it for the first time. There's a new layer of sound in the background (mainly percussion and acoustic guitar) that i've never heard before. It really lifts tracks like 'I Just Get Caught Out' and (in particular) 'Spirit of a Vampyre'. To echo what has already been said, congratulations to all who were involved in the remastering. The extra songs are always interesting. 'Apples in Bed' is very good and 'Rock n Rock Friend' has never sounded better. Not too sure about the 'Love Goes On!' mix though. They seem to have succeeded in making the track less commertail than the original! And why no mention of Marion Stout for 'When People Are Dead'? A typo perhaps. Anyway, they sound fantastic. Now, does anyone have anything on the new single?!?!?! | ||
| jeff whiteaker Unregistered guest |
interesting to hear about the improved sound on tallulah. i've only owned it on vinyl, and the two different copies i've had always sounded a bit rough to me, or a little harsh in spots. i always chalked it up to slightly worn vinyl or poor quality pressings, but it sounds like maybe the sound was lackluster at the source? i'm intrigued now, as tallulah was less of a priority for me than the other two. | ||
| thomas dk Unregistered guest |
Just bought a couple of the re-issues. Very nice and certainly superior to the Beggars Banquet cd-releases. Being somewhat of a Robert Forster man myself, I was amazed at the quality of the bonus material written by Grant. There are some real gems here, especially on 16LL. But - and this may be a bit of a heretic opinion - I don't think they beat the old vinyl soundwise. My Tallulah vinyl is very poor but the LB and 16LL sounds great. Not as clear as the cd's and you have to live with the crackle but there's a lot more depth and a sense of a unified sound. For instance, Lindy's drums have always sounded a bit sharp on LB, but on vinyl they blend quite naturally with the guitars. Not so on cd, I think. This it not really a criticism of the job done on these great records. I've had the same experience with the Byrds re-issues which I also bought for the bonus material. Well, I am an old vinyl freak, I admit that. Does anyone else love that old analogue sound? | ||
| Padraig Collins Unregistered guest |
The only GBs vinyl I have is 16LL and it does sound great. I have not heard the latest CD version though. I've bought the album three times already. I'm sure I will get the latest versions too. They have not been released in Australia though! | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 7 Registered: 10-2004 |
*finally* got the reissues here in the US. the packaging is pretty nice, photos galore. i'm wondering if the onslaught of photos is a result of all of us whining about the complete dearth of pictures in the reissues of the 1st three albums. i thought the tallulah packaging/art was particularly nice. kind of enhances the aesthetic of the record in a nice way. they sound great, though i agree with the above sentiment that nothing beats the original vinyl. my vinyl copies of liberty belle and 16LL sound perfect, and trying to improve on the sound of those would be futile. BUT, i do think that tallulah benefitted considerably from the re-mastering. it sounds much clearer, and you can really hear some things in the background of the mix which on the original copies sounded like mud. suddenly that mud is revealed to consist of some pretty cool rhythm guitar parts and whatnot, so it sounds great. as for the bonus discs, i think 16LL seems to have the most interesting and cohesive batch of songs. apples in bed is a cool song, which i had never heard, and it's nice to get mexican postcard and rock and roll friend on cd. as for the other bonus discs, liberty belle's "i work in a health spa" has to be the disappointment of the century. always looked forward to hearing that with the groovy title and all, but the song just sounds kinda goofy. quite oddly, one song on liberty belle, i think it was reunion dinner, sounds like throbbing gristle (!). | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 8 Registered: 10-2004 |
oh, and one strange thing i noticed: on my cds, windows media player on my PC doesn't recognize any of the song titles. it just displays a series of boxes instead. anyone else get this? | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 16 Registered: 08-2004 |
Same here. I think the new cd's info isn't logged anywhere for WMA to find just yet. Maybe it's different on itunes, which is more reliable for track info. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 11 Registered: 10-2004 |
somewhat annoyingly i know, i feel compelled to reiterate how freaking good the new tallulah sounds. the guy that mastered it really brought out a lot of color, cleared out the mud. for the first time in my life, i'm listening to it and thinking that it's really quite pretty. it's never been my favorite album of their's, but the clearer sound is making me incredibly happy and i'm almost kinda listening to tallulah in a new way. because i'm a complete recording/sound-geek, i will say that the new sheen sort of works to the detriment of liberty belle. i mean, it still sounds beautiful - you'd have to work really hard to ruin such an amazing album, and they certainly have *not* ruined it. but the cymbals are a wee bit too sparkly, and the gloss takes a way the slight ruggedness that you hear on the vinyl, but with the noteable exception of "apology accepted," in which the newfound clarity really brings the song (and that droney distorted guitar chord that gradually increases in volume throughout) and its details out in the mix. | ||
| Brandon Dudley Unregistered guest |
Add me to the list of Tallulah converts. I listened to Apology Accepted half a dozen times, wondering how I missed that guitar line! But what is the deal with Reunion Dinner? How bizzare! Didja notice the Art of Noise sample playing in the background during the last half of the song? Were there any other samples? If you may forgive the blasphemy, I thought the song was evocative of Durutti Column's "Vini Reilly" | ||
| Alfred Unregistered guest |
The new found admiration of "Tallulah" warms my heart - it's always been my favorite album. I'm no audiophile, so while I hear slight differences in the mix (an extra guitar in "You Tell Me" and clearer Brown harmonies, for instance), I can attribute some of the revisionist thinking going on here to realizing what fucking brilliant tunes this album has. "Hope Then Strife," "Bye bye Pride" and "Someone Else's Wife" are as good as songwriting gets. Even Robert's throwaways ("Spirit of a Vampyre" and "You Tell Me") have great guitar work. |