Bump. Since Craft has acquired R.E.M.'s Warner era recordings, they are also re-releasing (for no apparent reason, anyway ) other catalog titles from the band less ceremoniously. Case in point - Live At The Olympia (2008) is getting a re-release as a 2CD/DVD set on June 30th. It makes me wonder if they are going to include other older Warner DVD releases (that are out of print) as part of the reissue campaign. I'd like to see Tourfilm back in print. I missed out when Warner put it out in (I think 2000).
Apparently this was out of print and is now getting a re-release. Happens all the time. The DVD isn't exclusive to this re-release, but was also part of the original release.
Just wanted to bump the thread to say, if you get chance have a listen to this great 1 hour documentary interview with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills from BBC 6music on the key 1st moments of them and the groups history, there great banter between both of them throughout the interview plus some great music, a really good listen! R.E.M., The First Time With... - BBC Radio 6 Music
Michael Stipe actually does something to improve his appearence. I always thought of him as a naturalist. Whatever happens, happens. Lol
AFTP is an album that I'd like to see done well. Even to the point of analog 4 LP 45RPM set. I'm usually not that big on those type of releases, unless, like this album, it deserves special treatment. I hope it is done with care, I'll probably go back up to a higher end setup if this is done well when it is finally released.
It'd be hard to top the DVD-A release, and in this era highly unlikely. Too much focus on bonus material and not enough on Mastering.
R.E.M. is one of the richest rock bands on the planet. Why are they so cheap about mastering? In fact, it takes less electric to master straight analog...yet R.E.M. brickwalls every thing...since 1994.
My guess is they will transfer the tapes to digital, then the vinyl will be cut at 96/24 by Chris Bellman. Im not bothering with this, as I have the copy with 'alsdorf' stamp in the deadwax. It sounds pretty good. I do think it can be bettered, although I'm not sure it would be if done digitally.
Still haven't bought any of the Out Of Time cd re-issue sets but do have the cd/dvd one from a long time back. The full one with the Mountain Stage show was what I wanted, but not for close to £50 (yes imagine that in USD) which it is still at. Happy with my original vinyl and I feel the exact same way about my original AFTP vinyl which sounds really good considering it is a little long for a single album. I will say that I re-bought Green on vinyl on the new re-issue a couple or so years back and it sounded great so I am sure the vinyl re-issues are good. I have bought all the cd sets too up to Green and they are ok for the added material though the main album remasters are too loud.
Keep an eye on amazon as their prices do fluctuate greatly. I bought the deluxe set there for £21.99 at the end of March. I've seen to many box sets half in price time and again to pay the release price.
They'll butcher it just like they butchered Out of Time. Bad mastering in high resolution is still worse than the real thing in "low" res. Proper 16bit is enough for me.
If this is what they're offering...I'll take the rain... I prefer original 2-bit: L and R channels of my turntable cart.
AFP is where they lost me. Drive was a good first single but Hurts and Sidewinder just really didnt work for me. Sure the production is gorgeous and the craft overall was very good but it just missed the mark for me. 5.1 is probably where its at for this album. Litt did a great job for them.
My advice is to download the bonus tracks as you wish and stick with original CDs and LPs for the best SQ.
Yet another record company cash cow because they can. The original LP and CD SQ ain't broken So didn't need fixing. I got a record company mail a couple of weeks ago about new versions of REM live LP sets going to be rereleased.
In fairness, these are hardly the best (or should that be, worst) examples of a "cash cow". The releases so far have all included decent bonus material (demos/live shows). Plus, from Automatic onwards, these ones are fairly rare to acquire on vinyl. Personally, I'm looking forward to the likes of Monster and New Adventures being reissued.
The original CD (I have the first Japan pressing) has a weak drum sound and is a bit bright. If the mastering was done right, a lot of improvement could be made on the orignal mastering. Of course, that would mean an audiophile remaster. I'd love to hear Shawn Britton's mastering of this great album.
George, You explain your thoughts about whats wrong above. Can i ask what CDP and system you use to come to the above conclusions ?
In support of his new album, Peter Buck recently did an interview with Stereogum. Below are the two excerpts relevant to this anniversary release. The rest is worth reading here. STEREOGUM: So, R.E.M. is doing a release for the 25th anniversary of Automatic For The People. What are you guys looking to put together for the reissue? And how do you feel about the album now, 25 years later? BUCK: I have to listen to it, but I still think it’s a strong record. I just OK-ed an 80-minute CD of, I guess, the demos, but they were just things we were recording, building up to the record. There’s some cool instrumentals. There’s some cool vocals. I think there’s one or two songs that no one has heard. I think it’s a cool package. I think there will be something live on there, too. It’s a record that I really like. I’m glad we made that kind of record at that time. [...] STEREOGUM: You said that Automatic For The People has a few songs that people haven’t heard. How much stuff do you think is out there in the archives that even the superfans haven’t heard before? BUCK: It’s more kind of little pieces here and there. It’s not like Neil Young, where it’s all unreleased records. I don’t think there’s more than a few good songs around, but there’s been alternate versions and some on-the-way-to-versions. But if I like a record, I always want to hear the other stuff. Automatic has a couple songs that aren’t on the record. There’s some interesting stuff.
