David Bowie: Five Years 1969-1973 - 2015, 13 Vinyl Box Set

A very small update from Rougvie with a scan of a preliminary track list for Sound + Vision Disc 3:

Bowie Sound + Vision »

 

I skipped the box, but got three albums piecemeal:

1) Re:Call 1, when a shop broke out copies of albums from the box. I had the same issue some people upthread experienced--a skipping, noisy copy toward the end of one side; cleaning the record resolved it. Sounds and plays fine now.

2) The Man Who Sold the World: sounds great, no problems. My only other experience with vinyl of this album was the US cartoon cover, and a counterfeit at that. The new Parlophone is the better of the two and it has really good sound. This was a standalone copy, not harvested from the box.

3) Aladdin Sane: terrible. Borderline unlistenable in places. "Lady Grinning Soul" has so much distortion that I had to check a different pressing to see if it was a sound effect I'd forgotten about. It's not. Sibilance and distortion throughout the track...but strangely it seems to only affect the vocals. The backing track doesn't seem too bad to me! At any rate, overall this copy of the whole album is a little noisy and distorted, but it's worse on certain tracks. I've only got the Ryko CD to compare it to, which is far better than my Parlophone vinyl copy. This was a big disappointment to me as I've never owned Aladdin Sane on vinyl. I'll be looking for an earlier copy. This was also a standalone copy, not harvested from the box.

 

The one to get that has stunning sound is PinUps. IMHO

 

compressed 40th anniversary digital master. bad on CD, a waste of time on vinyl.

 

here we go indeed. Idiots? Nice.

It's the quality of the PVC that matters most these days. The Queen set, along with a lot of the colored vinyl from Germany, is exceptional.

 

Given the choice of the coloured vinyl box set and black vinyl set. Would you actually choose the coloured over the black?

Perhaps buy a single LP of the reissues that are black and see if there is any difference.

 

Man, what a drag. I need to track down an original RCA copy. Thank you for that specific bit of info.

 

That's cool; I'm glad some of these are good. The Man Who Sold the World sounded good to me as well. I have an original Pin Ups so doubt I'll go for a Parlophone, but maybe someday.

 

Weird! Not sure what your turntable/cartridge setup is, but my copy (also standalone, not from the box) definitely does not have the kind of distortion you're talking about on "Lady Grinning Soul" (or anywhere else, for that matter). There is a tiny hint of distortion on the piano at the intro, but when the full arrangement comes in, the instrumentation and vocals all sound fine. My copy is very clean and noise free.

(My Aladdin Sane was a little off-center, so I exchanged it for a copy that turned out to be only ever-so-slightly off center - i.e., not enough to be an audible problem, fortunately).

As for the overall sound quality, I really don't find it to be anywhere near as terrible as some folks here have described it, though I do think the US RCA black label pressing I have is a bit better.

 

Why? I'm not the one who has a problem with colored vinyl (as long as it's high quality).

If I were to buy two of the exact same record to prove what YOU believe then I would be, as you say, an "idiot".

Pass.

 

I picked up the standalone of HD last weekend.Threw it on and was happy with the sound. I didn't hear any noise towards the end of the sides/in the run-outs as people commented from their box set. Vinyl was basically dead silent. I heard maybe a touch of sibilance in Changes, but you would need to listen very closely to notice. Nice flat vinyl. Not bad for $19 - been wanting to upgrade my partied-on 70s copy for years now at a reasonable price.

 

$225 on Amazon.ca

 

Just received my box from Amazon.ca and TMWSTW has a crushed/damaged corner. Anyone else have an issue? Did they replace it?

 

Nope. Mine was quite solidly packaged and did not have a scratch on it. Of course, Music Direct does a bang-up job with their shipping packaging for box sets.

 

bang-up job? hmmm...

 

Outside was fine which was somewhat puzzling. I am guessing it happened as the LP's were put in the box.

 

According to Musictap.net, the Santa Monica show and the Ziggy Stardust Motion Picture Soundtrack are getting individual releases in June:

Parlophone and Rhino Records will reissue Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, the 2LP OMP Soundtrack, on 180g-weight black vinyl. It will be joined by Live Santa Monica ’72, a 2LP vinyl set. It is a break out reissue from the David Bowie Five Years (1969-1973) Box. It is scheduled for June 17.

 

Which of these two is better? I've heard both over the years but am not familiar with either enough to pick one over the other.

 

If I were forced to choose, I'd go with Santa Monica.

 

If you're a fan, they're both essential, however I agree with Ben, if I had to pick JUST one, I'd pick Santa Monica. The Motion Picture Soundtrack is a historic gig, being the Spiders last one, but it's got some performance issues for sure. By the time they get to "White Light/White Heat" Mick Ronson is WAY out of tune, but I believe they've mixed him down pretty low on that tune. In Santa Monica, while raw in parts, they were still "young and hungry" as they say.

Definitely check the reviews in this thread; the dynamics on Santa Monica were crushed on the CD release and I'm not sure how much better the LP fares.

 

the Santa Monica in the box is inferior to the previous standalone issue, notably less dynamic. it's essentially the CD pressed to vinyl. i doubt they'll have fixed this for the latest reissue.

 

The content of the next Golden Years box is due to be revealed in the next fortnight.

 

Why couldn't they stick to the EMI mastering? The 2008 is now fetching daft prices from £60 to over £100 as a result plus Bowie's passing.. They couldn't give this away a couple years ago. The variations in mastering make this box a mess with a few gems (which I have carefully selected). Hope they do better with the second box set !

 

i suspect they simply picked the wrong master, going with the CD instead of the vinyl. it's a very inconsistent set, and there's a distinct lack of quality control.

 

Then way this is written, you look like the idiot. Normally I refrain from calling people names, but hey why bother when you are already throwing the word around.

By the way, do some research, in most cases, the color vinyl is worth more. Like it or not.

So tired of all the vitching about colored vinyl. Lots of it sounds fantastic. And yes, I have black and color copies if many albums. In most cases the color sounds just as good. In some cases it sounds better, hmmm imagine that. The tri-colored vinyl etc is known to have sound issues. I have some white vinyl that smokes my black copy.