Help me with this punk albums - Original vs Remastered

Hello, I'm new here. I see lot of people does know if a remaster is an improve over the original or ruins it. I need help with this punk albums. Tell me briefly (I don't know anything about db and stuff) your opinion of the remaster and if improves the original.

Bad Religion 2004 remasters: How Could Hell Be Any Worse, Suffer, No Control, Against the Grain, Generator
Dead Kennedys japanese SHM remasters: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, Plastic Surgery Disasters, Frankenchrist, Bedtime For Democracy
Descendents Everything Sucks 20th remaster
Offspring Ignition & Smash 20h remaster
Face To Face first 3 albums FAT remasters
Sex Pistols 40th anniversary set
The Queers - asian man remasters
Screeching Weasel - asian man remasters

 

The Pistols Back on Black vinyl reissue is excellent. Brings the drums and vocals out some and overall, has more power than my original US pressing. It's not revelatory, but certainly a step up.

Not sure about the Everything Sucks reissue but if Bill Stevenson was involved with it I'm sure it will sound great.

 

I forgot to say that I'm refering to digital/CD audio, not vinyl. Thanks for the reply.

Agree about the Pistols not having a huge difference in sound, but it sounds better I think.

 

The Sex Pistols first in the SHM CD format is quite good.

Also, you should have this thread moved to the Music Forum where it belongs.

 

Well, punk tends to be a Do-It-Yourself kind on music. Outside of Malcolm McLauren and the Sex Pistols, the bands and close friends are pretty much are responsible for everything. This goes from learning how to play their instruments, opening clubs to playing their music, creating fanzines, and recording the music. This tends to give the music a less polished sound. Which is fine, because it adds a bit of grit to the music. The music doesn't usually get more polished because these bands tend to form their own labels and recruit other punk bands. Example of these labels are SST started by Greg Ginn of Black Flag and Epitaph started by Bad Religion's Brett Gurewitz. The only polish you get is from somebody like Steve Albini who isn't really a producer. Albini is more of a recording engineer that has a punk sound.

The thing is that Punk albums don't really sell that well. So the issues tend to be limited. Self financing of the pressing weather on CD or vinyl has a big influence on this. If I was looking for "the best pressings" of punk band, I would go for the original pressings, but to be honest, I don't think it matter much. It's not like these albums sound all that ever going to audiophile quality, even with a great remaster. To me it's punk, the grittier the better.

 

Buy the Sex Pistols' 40th set with confidence. The mastering is the same as the earlier 35th anniversary reissues and it's probably the best it's gonna sound on CD.

 

The truest-sounding punk music is on the cassette you dubbed from a borrowed cassette. Played on a cheap boombox.

 

Definitely agree in spirit, at least.