Alice Cooper Muscle Of Love Audio Fidelity SACD Is Coming!

Mick Mashbir and Dick Wagner both play on it...although I don't know where.
I'm assuming any leads as in Working Up A Sweat.....that totally sounds like Wagner to me.

 

Listening to this again. "Never Been Sold Before" - the sound of the bass and horns, damn. It might not have the classic status of School's Out or Billion Dollar Babies, but this is a special album and it hasn't ever sounded this good on digital - and I haven't even listened to the surround layer. My recommendation would be to buy it now before it's out of print and you have to deal with inflated prices on Ebay!! If it's anything like the previous Alice releases, if you don't like it, you'll be able to sell it easily.

 

I wish I knew, too.

 

Same here! Just received this and it sounds tremendous, nice low end, great crunchy guitars, nice separation. This actually was a nicely produced lp, and the mastering is excellent on this sacd (2-channel). I do change the song order around on this album as primarily I really feel the title track should've been the lead off.

Love this AF release, going to crank it up one more time...

 

Props to AF for the wonderful, wonderful packaging on this one! The original insert sheet is included, and the non-glossy slipcase almost makes me swear it's corrugated cardboard. Kudos and thanks for releasing one of the touchstone albums of my yute--the quad's just icing on the cake!

 

Got No. 581.

 

Always loved this album. The original packaging was fun, and now I have the Japanese mini LP to enjoy.

Let's face it, they were never going to have the same successs with this as they did with Billion Dollar Babies, not to mention the fact that the band were falling apart at this point. Still, they went in a different direction with this one, and it works great. Teenage Lament 74 was a fine single, and it still gets me every time (the B side, as I recall, was Working Up a Sweat).

It always makes me a little sad they never contnued to develop after this. Tracks such as Crazy Little Child telegraph Welcome to My Nightmare (Some Folks) pretty well. Mind, buy this time Buxton was mostly out of it apparently, so there was nowhere to go for the original band, sadly.

 

Here some more info :

Almost nothing from Glen Buxton on the album.

Big Apple Dreamin
Alice Cooper: Vocals
Michael Bruce: Rhythm Guitar
Dick Wagner: Lead Guitar
Dennis Dunaway: Bass
Neal Smith: Drums

Never Been Sold Before
Alice Cooper: Vocals
Michael Bruce: Rhythm Guitar
Mick Mashbir: Lead Guitar
Dennis Dunaway: Bass
Neal Smith: Drums

Hard Hearted Alice
Alice Cooper: Vocals
Michael Bruce: Rhythm guitar(plus dueling guitar solo with Mick Mashbir)
Mick Mashbir: Lead Guitar (plus dueling guitar solo with Michael Bruce)
Dennis Dunaway: Bass
Neal Smith: Drums
Bob Dolin: Keyboards

Working Up A Sweat
Alice Cooper: Vocals
Michael Bruce: Rhythm Guitar
Dick Wagner: Lead Guitar
Dennis Dunaway: Bass
Neal Smith: Drums
Stanley Behrens: Harmonica
The Pointer Sisters: Backing Vocals

 

That leaves 5 tracks that he could have played on, plus he was co-writer on two of the tracks that you mentioned. Buxton was kind of the Brian Jones of the Alice Cooper group: the only one who could read music, the only one who took music lessons, the true rebel of the group, and a very modest but talented musician. Lots of their hits started as guitar riffs played by Buxton, although on "Muscle of Love" Wagner and Mashbir played his parts on the tracks you listed.

 

I'm almost sure he didn't played on the other tracks. Or very little. Remember he also almost didn't play at all on the B$B album.
He was too sick / bad condition to play, shame as he was a keyplayer for the group.

 

Just got my copy. Man, this sounds great! And I really do like this album. Been revisiting it since the studio album box came out last year, but nice to hear it in such great sound now.

 

I've just gotten around to getting/hearing this. It's beautiful, and it rocks from start to finish. The quad mix on SACD just opens this one up and let's you hear this first rate rock band in all their glory. In fact the stereo mix could be considered congested with everything going on in it - after hearing this 4.0 a couple of times. I found myself getting up and walking around my listening room in an effort to hear a part in a passage that was cool from a particular speaker. And I did not want to sit down. This mix sucks you in and demands that you hear how the recording is played part by part. That is how interesting the production is to me I guess. And the band is rocking here like they just don't do anymore.

In 4.0 with guitars all spread out, and a hot horn section arranged beautiful and sharp, topped with all those first rate backup vocalists, one can really hear the strong groove they got going for this entire album. One would think one could/should hear a road tired group, a less than clean group, with maybe a low gas tank at this era. But here finally is a presentation that does right by this slighted classic, and sounds nothing like a burnt out band. Alice's vocals are excellent as usual. Most of the time a good quad mix is simply another mix however excellent it is, and in now way replaces the stereo one. Muscle of Love in 4.0 is one that makes a case for that quad mix that takes an album to a higher level artistically, or it simply shows off the virtues of the stereo mix more discreetly. I'm not completely sure, but the quad mix does show off the album in full bloom.

One thing I want to do next time I hear this disc. I want to lower the front L&R speakers just slightly and make the rear L&R speakers more prominent than they are when my system is set level. When my system is level I hear all four channels well, but there is just so much fun stuff musically coming out of the rear chans, I want more of it at this time. I'll get to the stereo layer eventually.

This is a 10/10 I think, among the best that AF has issued in 4.0 SACD thus far.

 

where to begin?
o.k. here goes...

this is my fave AC album.
Great varied songwriting and VERY
underrated.

my problem is as good as it sounds
the German Warner Bros.
7599-26226-2 just sounds like it has more life.......fire in it.
More 'bite'to the guitars and to Alice's voice. It doesn't sound strident
or 'digitally too bright' just more 'forward' in the right places. This gives the recording more life and 'fire'. (I hate these cliches sometimes)
Anyway.....the new SACD has the vocals and some instruments sitting too 'politely' in the mix. Sure it all sounds nice and smooth but it doesn't give me the sense that the songs are 'blooming' right in front of me. (like the earlier German pressing)

I'm keeping both versions 'cause I do like them both but they are not the same experience. Thete feels like there is a greater sense of realism with the earlier release.

There I said it.
by the way I'm listening through
a Blue Circle DAR hybrid integrated
a Blue Circle BC507 nb Dac
a NAD MasterSeries M55 universal player and a pair of Blue Circle BM2 speakers (based on the Walsh/Ohm design) and Blue Circle cabling.

total synergy.

 

Hi,

as frequent member on the Alice Cooper fanbased site www.sickthingsuk.co.uk I got this remark.
And as my SACDplayer is still not working I have to ask this on this forum :

Quote : "Well I should have listened to my own advice, but seeing the 4.0 mix I tricked myself into thinking that the Quad version was going to used on this issue. Nope. What we have is, I assume (because I just listened through headphones on the computer) a 4.0 mix of the original stereo version of MoL. Quick A/B comparison to the Metal Blade cd. The AF comes in about 3 db quieter than the Metal Blade version, with a mild hit on the highs over 20k. Since my hearing doesn't detect frequencies that high, I notice no difference. It's a wash with the Metal Blade disc and no Quad mixes to be found. I read the promo release incorrectly - my bad I guess. IMO, an unnecessary purchase if you have the Metal Blade disc. "end quote.

Maybe our host can reply on this as I'm very curious about the answer, many thanks.

 

Strange that no answer is given?? Steve (our host) has the answers!!

 

he probably listened to the stereo layer. Why was he even trying to listen to 4.0 with headphones? Nonsense.

That guy didn't even listen to the SACD 4.0 layer. You can't do that through a computer, especially with headphones. This disc does have a unique 4.0 mix, and the original stereo mix remastered. I own this edition and have played back all three layers of it.

 

Thanks for the answer but there is one question left.
Did Steve used the old and excisting Quadmix or???
In post #75 there is a cover with QUAD mix written on it and I have one with MULTICHANNEL 4.0 and no word on a quad mix.
Why did they changed this?

 

I was gonna say, is there some way that listening to 4.0 through stereo headphones is going to reveal to you whether or not it's a quad mix? Seems doubtful.

I've listed to the multichannel layer of the disk exclusively and it sounds like a genuine 4.0 mix to me. What the other poster seems to be describing - a 4.0 mix created from a stereo source (old Metal Blade stereo remix) is what is typically called an "upmix" and are usually found as bootlegs, and they sound like a stereo mix with some of the ambient sound placed in the surround speakers to create a sort of "enveloping" sound. Well, that's NOT what the AF MOL quad SACD sounds like.

I dunno if it's the original quad mix because I've never heard the quad LP, but I kinda doubt Steve did a brand-new 4.0 remix for this release. I'm no expert, but I believe the jobs of mixing engineer and mastering engineer are pretty distinct, and I don't think a mastering engineer can just up and say, "I'm gonna remix this album because it sounds like fun." It also seems doubtful that someone else would have done a 4.0 remix for AF and not get credited for it.

 

Listened to it the weekend. Fantastic release. Had it cranked up on repeat. Fingers crossed for more Coop.

 

4.0 is quad

 

Ok but still no answer. It's not that difficult!!

I ask our host Steve if he can confirm that he used the original QUAD mix for this (excellent) release???

 

It's the original quad mix, I assure you. I've had a DVD-A conversion of the quad reel for years and know it intimately.

 

Finally listened to the stereo sacd layer. Perfection.

 

It's sounds very good.... my first listening to this album

 

Just ordered. Any talk about future Alice releases??