Frankly, I've never been impressed with any of the Tower pressings of the first 3 releases. I'd suspect the situation is about on par with the Beatles Capitol vs. EMI releases of the time. That is to say, I'd bet the UK's all smoke the US versions, and I bet these reissues will too.
I know packaging isn't the end all be all.. but what the heck is up with the flipbacks that aren't flipbacks? I mean.. let's make them look like the original UK versions, but lets skimp on it and just give people the seemingly visual idea they are flipbacks.. It's not like the printing presses don't have the ability to do this.. even if you skip that other big British band... a few of the Parlophone RSD releases have the flipbacks.
And all of those Parlophone RSD releases were manufactured in the UK. It's possible only the US pressings of the Floyd catalogue won't have the real flipbacks.
That would be such a boneheaded move. Can you imagine the gnashing of teeth on this forum if that's the case? (Myself included - I ordered from Deep Discount!)
I agree, it's silly, considering all those recent Parlophone flipbacks and the Beatles monos. But it's not a dealbeaker for me.
Thanks Ben, thats good to know. So summary right now: 1. Aussie Nice Pair uses UK stampers sent to Australia for local pressing of Piper and Saucerful. The original pressing runs would have been pretty small I imagine and stampers were still in good condition for the Nice Pair re-issue. If you have this one you are set. 2. US Nice Pair is compiled from different tapes held by Capitol. Anecdotally, sound quality is not the best. An upgrade is warranted. 3. UK version. TBC. Were the original stampers used or were fresh lacquers cut? If so, did they use the original stereo tapes? Does anyone have info on this?
I guess I'm in the minority... but I just hope the US pressings are flat, scratch free, and sound great...
I'm not saying they're bad but the Towers just seem kind of uninspired to me-- better than the later Harvest/Capitol reissues, sure, but not as good as the UK's that I've heard. In the end, it just comes down to the right synergy between the source material and the mastering. On those counts, it should be real interesting to compare them to these new issues.
I think the reissues should just follow the way it was done originally in the country they were released. If the US versions are replicas of the original US versions, i have zero issues with that personally.
Even the Mini cd lp jackets had the real flipbacks.Well at least the first wave that came out in the 90s did not sure about the 1000 reissues.
"See Emily Play" is an excellent song, but so is "Astronomy Domine". Hard to justify seeing the latter being replaced on the US version.
I have a 3rd pressing Piper and a second pressing Saucer, both brown label Towers. I love them, but am kind of looking forward to retiring them with the new ones.
Michael Fremer has a review up. "The Piper at The Gates of Dawn" From Sony——First Time On Vinyl in Two Decades But From Tape? »
Can anyone please tell me if The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall and The Division Bell are included in this campaign? It drives me mad not knowing that.
The promotional video posted earlier in this thread (which is now gone), taken from the Pink Floyd Facebook page, showed all of the studio albums as part of this reissue campaign.
