Just for the record, I was reviewing (lack of) delivery, not content. But I figure there was never any way anyone would go crazy over every last track.
I'm just spinning Tonight for the first time. Loving the Alien has the bones of a decent track, but those drums.... and the arrangement is just weird. The marimba's sound great, but with a backing of horrid drums it's a bit jarring.
It is great having the Serious Moonlight show, I love it! NLMD drowned in strings is a truly weird thing and not in a good way, not a Bowie record in my book, just a bad remix and hard to listen to, even worse than the original NLMD, I am not a re-revision fan. But now I have Serious Moonlight
Oh - well it works both ways I think! Some of the tracks have been ruined. Glass Spider is great though. Those Italians were right - it sounds like 1.Outside or 21st century Gary Numan in a BAD mood. Kicking ass!
Slated for Saturday delivery and I'm stoked. After the trepidation about this set, hearing the decidedly mixed reviews of the content from people re-evaluating the material validates my decision to take a chance on this box (in which about 98% of the material is new to me anyway). Fun times ahead!
Side 2 of the new NLMD is killer. Even Shining Star and New York's In Love are tight and hard. 87 And Cry - yep. It's floating my boat. I'm loving this side 2. It's let down badly though by Bang Bang orchestral version. Iggy should not have strings applied. He is the antithesis of orchestral arrangements, like matter and anti-matter. Side 1 apart from Zeroes wasn't up to much at all.
This is my first time through Tonight in like..... forever. What a crazy album! It's full of WTF moments. It starts with this over-orchestrated 6+ minute behemoth, and then lapses into a Ska-inflected sing-song. Then it's on to a Beach Boys song that Bowie is trying to sing as though it's a ballad for Young Americans. Neighborhood Threat is a lot of anger all mushed up, and soon Blue Jean is coming along - which is classic Bowie. But wait - Tumble and Twirl is kicking off..... sounds like.... a demo for Black Shirt White Tie. Except it has a section that would have worked great covered by Perry Como A totally mad album this.
How come Bowie didn't leave instructions to fix Tonight? I'm almost lost for words with I Keep Forgetting. What in the world is this? Bowie sounds serious, but the arrangement is all bip-bop-bibberdy-bop. LOL Dancing with the Big Boys.... I have no idea. All these incongruous parts slapped over top of a nice Bowie vocal. Then you get the deep soul voice singing BIG BOYS. It's hilarious. I wonder if you can like this album just because it's so funny and.... strange? It's only 35 minutes. Bonkers.
That's why I think numbers (and especially DR numbers) are irrelevant. They can be a hint, but nothing replaces the ears. For example I find the remastering (and remixing) job done on certain Genesis albums (the 2007 editions) to be very loud and tiring. (Abacab is one of them). Yet the DR numbers are not that telling. But to the ears it's almost unlistenable at a high volume level. And you also have to take into account that the Dynamic Range of a musical piece depends a lot on the content of the piece itself. An album by ACDC would be quite more or less constant in terms of sounds: loud drums, guitars and vocals all along. A CD of classical music would have many very quiet passages and very loud passages. It is just natural that the classical CD would have a wider dynamic range than the ACDC album. That doesn't mean the ACDC album would be brickwalled and not the classical one. It could be the other way around. And you know there are people on this site that takes DR numbers as the bible of all things, without even listening for themselves. (I'm not implying you are such a person ). Well, enough of this.... let's go back to dancing time with David Bowie !
Tonight doesn’t need fixing. Other than the awful Vegas cover of “God Only Knows”, it’s a highly underrated album. “Loving the Alien” is a masterpiece. “Tumble and Twirl” is a damn fun track with a fantastic vocal performance. Let’s Dance is also a great album, aside from the unnecessary re-recording of “Cat People” that robs the original of all its mystique. The NLMD re-recording was necessary though, as this album always sounded awful and the new versions are far more interesting. I didn’t buy this box, only streaming it, but if the re-recording of NLMD is available by itself digitally I will buy it without hesitation. It’s far better than the Lodger remix from the last box.
I remember playing it a lot when it first came out, for a year or two perhaps. So I can't have hated it, although I thought it was a step down from Let's Dance which I'd been playing on repeat. Haven't played it much since though. Some strange choices as you say.
I’ve always liked NLMD more than Tonight but really they are both products of their times and revisionism isn’t necessary.
It was necessary for me, as outside of “Day In Day Out” and “Time Will Crawl”, I found NLMD unlistenable, but I’m actively enjoying the re-recording.
I literally spun Let's Dance 7 times in a row. The CD sounds pretty great. Ultimately only your ears can know. It's certainly very..... what can I call it.... precise. Sometimes when speaking of a movie I'll suggest it was edited with a chainsaw, meaning rough and ready. Let's Dance though is edited with an X-Acto knife; so obviously crafted. It's not an ear-bleeder here, but as you say, there are those that will not like the compression. It helps to keep in mind Rodgers own words, and how lovingly and reverently he has treated the album.
I've only listened to the Lets Dance album so far (via Tidal lossless streaming), and in comparison with the 1999 remaster also streamed via Tidal, it is a sonic revelation. There's much more life and detail to the sound, and the midrange is present unlike the 1999 remaster where some questionable EQ choices have rendered it almost inaudible. I'm looking forward to checking out the other albums in the box. I was disappointed that there was no 'Masters' MQA option for this box on Tidal (yet anyway). All the other boxes are available on Tidal as 'Masters' MQA encodes, so hopefully this will be added in good time.
Goodness, I think every track on NLMD is improved by this re-recording. It’s a miracle this worked as well as it did.
What's with the drum sound on the live Glass Spider show from Montreal? Were they really that loud? Extremely distracting IMO - way up in the mix. A product of the time? "Heroes" barely makes it out alive after being pummeled to within an inch of its' life.
Usual Amazon confirmation that it is dispatched and will be with me “tomorrow”. However, the same with the previous three sets, I haven’t had a single one on release day. The last one took over a week and I even saw the driver try to scan the box outside my house and drive off. Now, you might be wondering why I stick with Amazon, it’s because I find it easy to ask for vouchers for birthday and Xmas instead of risk countless pairs of socks to open! Is there any correlation between when you order or do they pick items at random? I pre ordered early July and my initials are first name A and surname B. Would of thought I’d be top of the list!!! Never mind.
If it’s as good as people say, and it is made with the guidelines that Bowie himself set, and as he said that he wanted to redo it then they should release it as the standard version and have the original only in the box set. But they won’t. Cos they want people to have to buy the lot to get the “superior” version.
