INXS LP Boxed Set

I have a UK original and it sounds pretty good. TBH, I compared "Taste It" on both it and the reissue and I think the reissue sounds as good if not better! I was expecting the reissue to be louder, but it really wasn't to my ears. There were subtle differences... I think the sax sounds better on the reissue in parts. It's a tad little bit more bass-y as well, but not boomy. Best of all, the seperation between instruments is intact. The guitar just jumps out at you in some places! It really sounds much better than I anticipated and very comparable to the original UK issue.

 

Thanks for sharing your story, FLF. The contents certainly aren't a surprise! MH was a very charismatic man for sure. A real presence on stage. I remember seeing the band here in Australia on the Kick tour when they'd really just made it big on a global level. Unbelieveable confidence.

And I agree with your comment on the separation between instruments on these reissues. It was one of the things that stood out straight away on first listen. That and just the clarity of sound. Overall the complete package sounds as good as, and if not, mostly better than the originals. The nice, flat 180g vinyl, faithful sleeve reproductions and wonderful job by Sean Magee round it all out beautifully.

I'm currently doing round 2 of the set!

 

Thanks for sharing that story. Mental illness is very hard for those who have never witnessed it in a loved one to comprehend. It isn't rational, and rules or norms that the rest of us abide by are meaningless to someone suffering from severe depression or extreme anxiety.

I caught a live radio broadcast of a show in July '97 on KFOG while living in the Bay Area and was stunned when he died just a few months later.

 

Received my replacement box from amazon uk last week. And it has X in in!! The top of the box has a split in it. One thing that I have noticed is once I have put all my plastic inner sleeeves into each lp, the already tight fit is even tighter in the box will all the lp's in it.


X sounds excellent and a bit better than my original Aussie pressing. Better instrumentation detail and a bit more life.


I won't go over old ground but extremely happy with the sonics of this box set and well worth being released. Sean Magee has done a superb job mastering these.


BTW, I have seen INXS live 5-6 times from the very beginning at pubs up to Kick. One thing that has been consistent with Michael Hutchence was his extrovert activities up on stage. He was a real frontman and seemed morf into another person singing live. He consistently seemed to almost hang over the stage on his mic stand without falling into the crowd.
I remember one concert where he jumped into the crowd and did some crowd surfing - much to the agast of the security. Eventually got back on stage and completed a wonderful concert.

Michael is sorely missed.



enjoy

 

Just got my box from Amazon UK. It has the same problem that your box did -- missing 'X', instead having a duplicate copy of 'Full Moon, Dirty Hearts'. Hope the replacement will be complete.

I assume that you held onto the original box until the replacement arrived, in case the replacement would be missing one of the other albums.

 

That is unbelivable, exactly the same issue the packer @ gz vinyl must have been having a really bad day

Yes, I still have my original box. I will be keeping that one and shipping the replacement back. I have a couple of the albums that have a little noise, so will check with the new copies and pick the best ones first.

Elegantly Wasted has a little noise at the start of Searching. Just played both sides of the replacement EW and it is nice and silent. Swapping that lp over.

 

Yes -- a bad day! I wonder how many mis-packed boxes are out there. Oh well -- will spin some of the LPs this weekend.

 

For the price they are asking for this box, is quality control too much to ask?

 

Looks like most of the individual LP's are being released November 4th

 

That will make it easier to get '90s titles if you want to complete your collection. Their '80s output was easy for me to obtain and sounds great on vinyl.

 

Just got the box for Christmas and played the albums I don't already have originals for (so the debut and X onwards). I habe to say I'm extremely impressed. The box was well packed in bubble wrap smd the albums all sound great for digitally sourced though there are a couple of scuffs as they aren't in poly innersleeves. I am placing them in poly lined paper sleeves as I listen and I'm sure by the end it will be a very tight fit!
Despite that the box is highly recommended

 

Superb box isn't it Ash76? For what it's worth, I removed all of mine from their inners and placed them in MoFi sleeves and they fit just fine. Quite snug though! If anything, I worry about long term ringwear.

 

Thought you guys would be the best people to ask.
I ordered my box from Universal when it first came out, but hadn't opened it until Christmas. (very well packaged btw).
A couple of things I noticed right away were the covers for Kick, Full Moon and Elegantly Wasted.
Kick seems washed out, faded blacks, a bad printing error.
Full Moon and Elegantly Wasted look like low resolution copies of the CD covers.
There's pixelating around the words on Full Moon and the photos are soft!
Elegantly Wasted is low resolution too, front and back. Compared to the quality of the other album covers these two look like cheap bootlegs to me.
I have the original Full Moon LP and it's all sharp great quality (different back cover too, incidentally).
I also noticed quite a few finger prints and marks on the vinyl (gone with a clean).

I've emailed Universal asking what happened to quality control (I'm hoping the delay to the individual album releases is maybe to correct this?).
Can anyone else confirm their covers have the same issue?
I'll post some shots to show you if I can.

Steve

 

It amazes me that the labels seem to have lost/discarded the color separations for their LP releases. Did they? Did they really just toss the original reproduction elements once CDs took over? I would have expected they'd remain in folders and file cabinets somewhere...Or maybe they can't be bothered to find them...

 

The seem to have them from the 80s so why not the 90s?
If you don't have the film, contact the photographer and recreate it. Not hard to do in either case.

 

As far as QC of the vinyl, they wete pressed at GZ Vinyl and this is typical of vinyl pressed there

 

Not sure how well these will come out. I think it looks worse in the flesh so to speak, but here goes.

This is the original Lp cover, compare the hairline and jacket behind his head:


This is the new one:


Original:


New:

 

For what it's worth this is my original rear cover vs the new one.
The new one is the shot from the back of the CD booklet with the track list retouched in. (Lazy IMO)
Original Rear:


New:

 

I honestly think with the last two albums they just scanned the CD booklets in, or only had the artwork for the CDs at CD sized resolution.
On the plus side the vinyl sounds fantastic.

 

I'm more concerned about sound quality and as you said ithey sounds fantastic - better than I was expecting.
This is the first time Elegantly Wasted has been on vinyl so you can sort of understand them just using the cd art

 

I can understand that, I was just surprised and being a photographer and designer by profession it lept out at me right away.
Massive thumbs up on the sound though which is what matters in the end.

 

Not sure if it was due to CDs taking over, but when Asbestos Records began reissuing They Might Be Giants' Elektra output, it was explained by the band that the original cover art had been destroyed by the label. I know they said this concerning John Henry and Factory Showroom for sure. Not sure about Flood or Apollo 18. In my opinion, Factory Showroom's art seems to have suffered the most. It reminds me of the advent of DVD, when all of the film companies were scouring their vaults for any type of unused footage, outtakes, etc. But, there was none to find in some cases, due to that sort of thing being viewed as garbage prior to DVD. I wouldn't put it past some smug executive somewhere deeming a band's cover art as trash....

 

Kind of weird, though. Because even if they weren't expecting to ever issue the LP format again, the original separations for the CD artwork would have been kept, and those would be high resolution films that should blow up to LP size pretty well. In any event, there shouldn't be color issues.

 

If your originals are in nice condition you should offer them scans of your cover art. It's possible they don't have anything better to work with (sadly).

 

I agree. Also, I was speaking in terms of image sharpness.