Did you ever buy a re-recorded album? Did you like it?

Saw this by chance and thought it'd be interesting to give it a go, merely to see how close he nails the performances and production of the original Paul McCartney RAM album.

Dave Depper - The Ram Project

All recorded by one guy at home in 30 days. Assuming that's all true, I'm quite curious to find out what it sounds like. I couldn't find samples online so I bought this CD quite cheaply to satisfy my curiosity.

Care to share your experiences with listening to re-recorded albums and whether they were close to nailing it or quite off the mark?

EDIT : This is a thread about re-recording for the purpose of trying to clone an album ; not a re-imagining of it, so to speak. The example of Ryan Adams doing Taylor Swift's album is a good example of what I'm not referring to.

 

Pilot's 'Two's a Crowd'. For reasons unknown to me they (David Paton and Ian Bairnson) re-recorded the whole album some 25 years later and called it 'Blue Yonder'.
While it's not bad at all I prefer the original album - one of my favorite albums of all time (a lost gem IMO).

 

Petra Haden's all vocal re-recording of The Who Sell Out is very impressive and enjoyable.
Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out - Wikipedia

I also liked the Ryan Adams re-do of the Taylor Swift album.

 

I bought Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells 2003 years ago and think this is a great re-recording. Though, of course, the original version from 1973 is better.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. It hadn't occurred to me re-imaginings of albums would be mentioned. I edited the OP to reflect that.

I'll check out that Sell Out album. Curious to see how it sounds.

 

One I enjoy is Berlin's Greatest Hits re-recorded. They captured the essence yet updated the sound.

 

If you want to try-before-you-buy, I believe it is on streaming services. At least it was when I first heard about it.

 

Yes to the first question, No to the second.

I thought you meant rerecorded by the original artists. I had a Grass Roots Greatest Hits which were rerecordings. I couldn't listen to it.

If it's more of a tribute album, like the RAM album, I still usually don't like it because it just makes me want to hear the original (to be fair, I haven't heard the RAM remake).

 

Squeeze re recorded their hits album. I haven't heard it so can't comment on quality.

 

Some tracks are on YouTube, including some live ones. I'll check some out tonight.

 

As long as it tries to emulate/sound like the original, it counts!

More of a curiosity than anything. As in "Can he/they successfully reproduce it?"

 

There's Todd Rundgren's Faithful album, where side A has very lovingly made recreations of classic tracks by Yardbirds, Dylan, The Beatles, Beach Boys and Hendrix. Not exactly what the original poster meant, but Close. It's a great album, but mostly for some really good original songs on side B...

 

A duo I really enjoy, Aztec Two-Step, made a greatest hits of rerecorded songs they had made. They probably did this out of contractual problems with it being on different labels and such. They did all acoustic versions of some of their best songs and it was a really good listen!

This one:

AZTEC TWO STEP - See It Was Like This...an Acou - CD - BRAND NEW/STILL SEALED | eBay

 

Shiny Toy Guns-We Are Pilots, love all three

 

Many years ago, before I knew better, I would purchase a CD re-recording of various 60s bands that I wanted to check out. Grass Roots, Hermans Hermits, etc.

They were all 'orrible.

 

Jon Povey, Wally Waller, Skip Alan & the late Pete Tolson re-recorded 'Parachute' as the xPTs (ex-Pretty Things). A fantastic album which reimagines yet honors the original. And the two bonus tracks are excellent as well, particularly Povey's 'Here We Go Again.'

 

I think there's some confusion as to whether we're talking about re-recordings by the same artist, or another artist covering someone else's entire album.

Not a whole album, but the one obvious winner that comes to mind is Mike & The Mechanics "All I Need Is A Miracle '96," which absolutely tramples the original version in every way. Kinda wish they'd done this with more of their early songs. (The wikipedia page lists a 1996 version of "Silent Running" as well, but I've never found any tangible proof that it exists)

I also enjoyed Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, even if it was a bit redundant (between her Unplugged album and JLP-era b-sides, you could've almost assembled a complete acoustic JLP already).

 

I would have preferred it by Lou Reed. I imagine "Welcome To New York" would have worked very well.

 

When stereo first hit the scene, some labels had their artists re-record their best-selling LPs in stereo. The results are generally not bad at all.

1957:



1959:



1954:



1960:

 

State of the Union-Black City Lights V1/V2 2002-->2005 Enjoy both equally

 

I did end up picking up that re-recorded Rick Wakeman's Journey to the Centre of the Earth which included some restored previously missing music transcripts. It was pretty good, however, I haven't really listened to the original all that much either.

 

I'm also confused by the "re-imagining" exception. There aren't many covers that aren't re-imagined, are there? So I'm not sure what counts. It seems like only side one of Rundgren's Faithful would count.

 

Bands that have re-recorded their hits with more recent lineups

1. Kiss
2. Journey
3. Foreigner
4. Styx
5. Yes (technically it was "live", but they performed/recorded entire albums)
6. Chicago

In each case, I prefer the original versions.

 

The Wedding Presents "George Best 30" is pretty good, not as good as the original mind you which is a classic.

 

From 2016
Train does Led Zeppelin II.
I've only heard them do "Whole Lotta Love" On TV, but I liked it and I am thinking about getting this album.