The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead Super Deluxe Edition 3CD+DVD

Id rather have more cymbals than cowbell, How Soon is Now has lots of crashes too, crashes are integral to smiths songs.

 

Hmmmm, so DVD set or LP set w concert?

 

Finally got the chance to open up my LP box set and check things out. Overall, this is a nice set! I haven't had time to listen to the whole thing yet, but here are my initial impressions:

First off, I have to say, replacing that iconic band photo (and lyrics) on the inside of the main album's gatefold sleeve was an incredibly lame move. I mean, the image they replaced it with is groovy and all, but that Salford Lads Club photo is like the textbook definition of a truly iconic band photo! I'm really not into Morrissey's revisionist cover art meddling anyway, but I guess Morrissey's seething hatred of Mike Joyce runs so deep that we can expect any band photos with Joyce to be nixed, so long as it's Morrissey who is overseeing the project. (That probably means that if they ever get around to doing a similar package for the debut, those individual band member shots on the inner sleeve will be gone!)

Fortunately, the LPs are all centered and flat, and the few songs I had a chance to play seemed quiet, for the most part, but with one notable exception: the second LP for the live set is quite off center and a little dished. But the thing is, after playing a few songs from the live album, let's just say that I really don't see myself listening to it very much, so it's probably not worth returning the whole box set for a disc that I'll rarely play. Still, that's kind of annoying, and if it had been the main album or one of the "additional recordings" LPs, I'd be pissed. (I love the Jack Kerouac photo for the live set's cover art, though!)

I had a chance to listen to a few of the demos. "Cemetry Gates" sounds so empty without the electric guitar part. But that stripped-down version of "Some Girls..." is great!

As for the sound of the main album, I'll be able to comment more on that later when I've had time to listen all the way through. So far, I played the title track and "Big Mouth...", and the eq did seem a tad smiley faced, with prominent bass and an upper frequency brightness, but it wasn't egregious or anything.

A book would've been nice, but again, I suspect that if there were a book, it'd have to have band photos (it would be weird if it didn't), and Morrissey probably wouldn't want to go there because of the whole Joyce conundrum.

At any rate, more soon...

 

Anyone who misses a booklet for this set, check out Songs that Saved Your Life, a very in depth song by song analysis of everything the band recorded

https://www.amazon.com/Songs-That-Saved-Your-Revised/dp/1781162581

 

That's an excellent book, and ultimately, probably even more worthwhile than either of the biographies (though those are good too).

 

Since you bring that up, what does it say about “Asleep”, or more importantly about the “Rubber Ring” segue?

 

Sometimes our memories can play tricks on us, so I had a fresh listen to the 2011 remaster of QID. Sadly, it was as I remembered: I find the 2011, flawed though it is, to be better-sounding than the new remaster. The bass is a bit more prominent and a bit better-defined, and the treble is nicely tamed. I agree with thoutah about the smiley faced EQ, at least as far as the treble is concerned (and the bass too, if we're comparing it to the original UK Rough Trade mastering). The cymbals on the new remaster are a bit over the top, and the sibilance on Morrissey's voice is just way over the top in places. To be fair, I don't find the sibilance on the 2017 to sound distorted. It's clean - but it's still really prominent, and IMHO unnecessarily so. The 2011 is an example of how a remastering can sound "modern" and (for better or worse) meatier and more compressed than the original, and still not have jacked-up treble sibilance.

Listened to Disc 2 again, though, and still really liking it. Among its many positives, it's possibly got the best mastering there is of Money Changes Everything.

 

I did notice some vocal sibilance on the 24/96 as well

 

I was finally able to sit down and listen to all of the main album and the "Additional Recordings." I did not get a chance to a/b the album with the UK RT CD or the 2011 remaster (nor my original Sire LP, for that matter), but I will try to do that soon.

So, the album's eq is definitely on the smiley-faced side, but I still haven't made up my mind about how I feel about that. It's crystal clear and very detailed, and Johnny Marr's guitars sound quite lush at certain points. You really hear everything with this remaster - every tiny detail. However, I haven't decided if the brightness is akin to, say, the David Bowie Ryko CDs, which are known (or infamous) for their brightness and resultantly glassy sound. (If anything, this QID remaster is beefier from the boost in the lower frequencies.) Midway through, when I flipped the LP over, I turned the treble knob on my Marantz 2235b receiver down one notch, and that made things a little better.

I do want to point out that the pressing of the main LP is almost freakishly good! It's dead quiet, flat, and centered. Why can't all LPs be pressed like this???

The demos and outtakes from "Additional Recordings" aren't really revelatory, per se, but most of them are fun. That trumpet on "Never Had No One Ever" is interesting, but ultimately I think scrapping it was the right call. The version of "Frankly, Mr. Shankly" was fun to hear, as was "Bigmouth Strikes Again." And like I mentioned in a previous post, the demo for "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" is great, in part because even when stripped of all the layers of guitars, and with just the one guitar track, it's still totally magical.

The "Additional Recordings" LPs had a little bit of surface noise here and there, but nothing egregious. I did notice that "Unloveable" has sibilance on some of Morrissey's S's. I have an AT440MLa cart, so I rarely encounter sibilance. If there is sibilance, that means it's most likely the pressing and not due to mis-tracking.

One last note (or gripe) about the cover art: the images on the insides of the gatefold covers of "Additional Recordings" and the live album were a wasted opportunity. Were those really the coolest, most interesting images Morrissey could come up with? Also, I wish they had kept the light pink color of the lettering from the original cover art.

 

Yes, me too. But it was obviously a Morrissey-driven reissue (unlike the 2011s, which were Marr-driven), which means: something had to be changed. Let's be glad that the original track listing remained intact.

 

Can you post some pics please?
Here in Italy the record shops don't use to give away little presents like those ones, sadly.

If the poster is too big, just let us see how the badges and pillowcase look like!!

 

I bought the 3CD/DVD - decided that I don't want the Live album nor DVD so will just get the 2CD

 

Amazon has given me a delivery date of the 27th for the vinyl box. not on prime, but this is a poor, poor show indeed

 

Here's the relevant chunk for the segue.

 

As others have said, he is definitely there - and on all the other live tracks they released on Spotify in the run up to the re-issue (except for Some Girls - he had left by that point)

What is weird is the source of all these live recordings. Grant Showbiz must have taped pretty much every Smiths show he did the sound for, and he's listed in the credits of the reissue as being responsible for the mix. So does that mean, he did the original live mix and that is what we have here in two track stereo, or did he record it to multitrack and has remixed it since?

I was pretty convinced it was the former, as the mix does seem very "soundboard-y" - high vocals and Gannon's rhythm guitar pretty much buried in the background (to the point where the poster above couldn;t even tell he was there!)

However - once I realised that the Live In Boston set was missing half the songs, I went back to my "So This Is America" bootleg and did a compare. The bootleg is a very audience heavy recording from some way back in the crowd I suspect, but there are definite guitar notes, tuning etc between songs that have been edited out on the Live In Boston set. Which makes me think it must have been multitrack, as you can't mute these things in isolation. In which case the de-Gannonisation may have been more deliberate than we think?

By the way - does anyone know if the full Boston show is available in better quality than the bootleg I reference above? I've heard a few people claim there is a decent quality recording of the full show out there

 

They were blasting it in store at Newbury Comics I visited on Sat as well.

 

Two comments.

On the comparison to the 2011 masters, the EQ seems too similar to my ears to have a preference BUT there's a slight general dullness in the 2011 versions which I think is to do with the transfer rather than the EQ. It may not be obvious if you are not listening to the two versions simultaneously, but if you pick a song, synch the two versions in an audio editor and flick between them as it plays, the difference is pretty obvious in the scheme of things. So, from that pov, I think the 2017 version is the undisputed winner.

Also, I happen to know that Showbiz recorded Smiths gigs to C90 cassettes from the soundboard, so they are not multitracked. He also seems not to have always had turning over the tape at the top of his priorities, and he would often start the evening by just pressing record on a tape still in the machine from the previous gig, rather than taking the cellophane off a new one each night. So that may explain some or all of the missing songs from this concert. Certainly, the stretch from "Never Had No-one Ever" to "The Queen is Dead" seems to be about 45 minutes on the audience bootleg, which would be consistent with that.

 

Thank you for posting that. I did not remember the wind noise being personally performed by Morrissey in a similar fashion to the way Daniel Miller recorded the “whip” noises for “Master And Servant”.

I thought maybe there was a stated reason why “Asleep” needed to be mono for the “Rubber Ring” crossfade. The mystery remains.

 

I saw the pillowcase.

I touched the pillowcase.

I decided I didn't need the pillowcase.

The buttons are cool, though.

 

Well in a public setting with people and possibly all strangers to one another, that one guy or gal saying aloud 'man that sounds like crap' (not saying these do) is probably not going to happen.
I did it once at a shop many moons ago, it's no fun being 'that guy'

 

How would you say this new 2017 Remaster holds up against the 2006 Japan Mini LP?
I wasn't too thrilled with the 2011 Collection so I'm wondering if I should just get the 2006 Mini LPs. I just have no idea how all of them sound except Hatful of Hollow Mini LP which I thought was "fair" enough.

 

Hey man, I was just the messenger!

I prefer to drool on a Joy Division pillow case myself....

 

One of my locals just gave me this poster on card stock. Bought the LP box last Friday.

 

I don't have any of the Japanese LPs, but I think they are the same masters as used for the 2008 Sound of the Smiths compilation, which have quite a lot of clipping (in the CD version, at least). I wouldn't bet my life on it, but I think these are basically the same as the 2011 remasters, but louder.

 

Pillowcases?