Is physical graffiti a well recorded album?

Weren't the remastered albums supposed to be have been released in physical formats during 2013, if I remember correctly? I heard from the grapevine the delay until 2014-15 was because of the deluxe hardback books that came with the box sets; Jimmy Page and associates were trawling the archives for that material contained therein.

Personally, I wish he had just released the new John Davis remasterings on CD (in proper mini-LP vinyl replica sleeves, both outer and inner) and digital downloads, cut new AAA masters for the vinyl reissues, included the three 'complete' new tracks featured in the remastering campaign - namely 'Sugar Mama', 'Key to the Highway'/'Trouble in Mind', and 'Friends (Bombay Orchestra)' - on Coda along with the four bonus tracks added to it in 1993, and not bothered with the frankly paltry companion discs or those mega-box sets that seemingly ate up the budget, leading to cheap cardboard packaging and poor resolution on some of the albums, not to mention the standalone CD's coming with no inner sleeve protections whatsoever, and people getting scratched or scuffed discs, alas... but that's just my own personal opinion, and I know the record company insisted on those companion discs, so there's that to consider.

But when you see just how flawless the recent Pink Floyd vinyl reissues were, THAT'S what the Zep reissues should have been...

 

Not even close, mate

Compared to my "cover E" LP, the latest remaster did wonders for the sound of the album, I must admit.

One of their best sounding albums for sure, possibly the best though:

Glyn Johns sorta threw the rule book out the window (at Page's behest) when he recorded Led Zeppelin. Again, some of the panning effects are a bit much at times but other than that it's kinda hard to believe that's a fifty year old recording now.

 

I'm sure it's all on case by case basis, putting the vocals in the mix where they thought they sounded best. Kashmir to me doesn't have buried vocals, and is one of the signature 74 tracks. I would say the same about IMTOD. I think they got what they went for with the vocals in 74.

I would never say PG is not well recorded. Maybe not to audiophile standards, but I think they got what they were going for on the tracks. Maybe Page has some opinions that changed down the road.
Talk in between songs, airplanes and phones in recordings add an uncontrived human factor.

 

The companion-disc thing was the label's one requirement. They let Page fill them with whatever he wanted (and as much or as little as he wanted) - but he had to do them.

 

That's what I stated in my post... do you think Jimmy would still have included those companion discs had it not been a prerequisite from the label?

The Japanese SHM (which do sound better than the normal CD's, I can attest to that!) Definitive Collection box-set remains the definitive Zeppelin on CD, in my opinion; they never were an audiophile recording band, but those albums still sound great, plus the mini-LP vinyl replica sleeves are utterly flawless ... I know it's essentially a remastering of the 1990's Marino remasterings, but dammit, they sound GOOD on that set... I actually prefer them over the Davis remasterings (which are no slouches, it has to be said), they sound a little more 'natural' to these ears, not at all brittle like the individually-released albums released back then that Marino remastered.

When you want it done right, go to the land of the rising sun... those little feckers really do care about quality-control, bless their little cotton socks!

 

I like the Zeppelin SHM mini lp cds as well, great soundstage, lots of instrument separation. Short of high resolution releases, probably the best we will ever get. Pity that the deluxe editions were not released on SHM cd format.

 

Hmmmm.... it's not Bonzo's best drum sound, but it's still pretty good. Maybe find the bootleg of Bonzo's isolated drum tracks, then tell me again. The mix on ITTOD is not perfect, but I got a drum sound like that, I wouldn't be in the slightest disappointed.