Jellyfish- 2 CD Deluxe Editions on the way...

The robot thing is a joke. It's as if there was a meeting somewhere and it was determined that DR9 is the level to do these "last remasters" of everything at....I'm sorry if that offended someone's sensibilities....thing is--this is OOP, right? You can still get the original for iTunes, I guess....at least for the first record. That will likely change as someone notices and removes it in favor of these remasters....so, now in perpetuity, Jellyfish is represented to the future in a way that neither then band nor Puig would have or did sign off on.

I just find this sad. I'm no huge fan of the band, it's just that it's that the majority of the era has or is going through this. I just had an original mid 80s CD that was obviously a flat transfer from the masters....spank the vinyl up and down because it was MORE dynamic--you used to have to limit the vinyl MORE than CD....and that continued though the early 90s when we got our low end back due to vinyl's technical limitations being backburnered for retirement....and before the dreaded "cassette listeners" started switching to CD and peeing in the swimming pool, so to speak.

This makes me wonder about how the licensing on streaming sites work. That's enough for another thread.

 

I have my copies of the 2CDs bought from HMV for £12.99 each.

Maybe in the UK/Europe we are OK but my copy definitely has the "Presents" in the little box.

Regarding the "I Wanna Stay Home" issue. My copy is also 3:52 not 4:06 as per the original. I wonder if they (Jellyfish/Omnivore) have just gone and done a KateBush/Morrissey and replaced the original album version with the 1991 UK#59 single mix which was the same sub 4 minute edit?

As for the music

 

I love the remasters, apart from some low-end sequences (all is forgiven is one). But overall imo better than original EU pressings i have. And after all these years both are 10/10 when it comes to the music.

 

How do you know the new remasters are DR9? Is that a per-album average, or for only certain tracks (I could certainly see 'All Is Forgiven' off "Spilt Milk" reaching DR9)? I'm no fan of squashing the life out of anything by look-ahead limiting, but this cannot be stressed enough: listening with one's eyes is strongly discouraged.

How do you know that the band and/or Puig didn't sign off on the remasters? Clearly - at a minimum - the band members worked w/Omnivore.

Also, don't forget that there are demos, live performances, etc. that accompany the actual album tracks per-CD from the "Fan Club" compilation, which rates DR9 & DR10 here:

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=jellyfish&album=

The Fan Club tracks may be skewing your average(s).

 

The whole thing is baffling. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that here we are in 2015 and we're getting nice new delixe editions of their albums...so I am grateful for that. But, the little mistakes and mis-steps kind of take the pleasant glow off a little bit.

 

I'm returning my remasters to amazon right now. I have the return label printed.

Omnivore laid an egg on these 2. They use an edit for I Wanna Stay Home (Bellybutton) and then they omit the word 'Presents' from the Spilt Milk cover. And the other gripe is that they didn't include the full foldout on the Bellybutton cover. I thought Omnivore was trying to do justice to this band. Really bad execution for a seemingly professional label.

 

Oh my god, "presents" is missing from the cover????

How can I go on with my life?

 

It's not that - it's the principle of it. But you can laugh and make jokes.

I work hard for my money. And my expectations of a label like Omnivore is to release quality product if they ask me to pay close to $20 for it. If they aren't into providing quality in their presentation and using correct tracks then they shouldn't charge so much. They should charge $5 with the caveat of 'maybe this is correct or maybe there's some stuff wrong with it'.

 

Have to agree that that is poor quality control. And I was holding off on these (pending further discussion) due to some of Omnivore's mastering history, which includes louder-than-necessary remasters of The Posies' Failure and Bob Mould's Workbook recently. They're not crushed to death, but definitely too loud just the same. Given the superb mastering of at least one of the original Jellyfish CDs, if not both, I've been skeptical Omnivore could serve up a worthy product....

 

No need to pay that much to iTunes... you can buy the original, excellent sounding CDs (which are better than Omnivore's vinyl reissues) for next to nothing.

 

You guys better be careful. Omnivore is going to come here and yell at you all.

 

Why would Omnivore not include the complete gatefold picture to Bellybutton? Here it is the remastered deluxe version and an incomplete front cover!

Why hasn't Captain Lee (Omnivore rep) been heard of again in this thread to address these shortcomings? They haven't addressed the issues people have brought up on their facebook page either (concerning these remasters).

 

"We can afford no retreads, or nothing will change." - Sarah Palin

 

Why should they yell at us? We bought their product with full faith and it turns into buyers remorse with 2 issues on Bellybutton (wrong track, no gatefold cover), Spilt Milk - missing 'Presents' and the overall cover isn't as sharp as the original.

 

Rhett, I was kidding. You're not going to see the Captain back here anytime soon.

 

I know but others may not pick up on that. I was merely adding the exclamation point.

 

What the four whole people who had issues? And based on the comments, it's some of the very same people here. Personally, while I get where you are coming from, I think you are overreacting a bit. Is it really that much of an issue that the word "presents" is missing from the cover of Spilt Milk? And as for wanting the original style fold out cover for Bellybutton, that wasn't exactly going to work with the digipack style packaging they went with. Could they have done the inner booklet that way? Yes. But again, they went with a another approach.

There is no specific ruling that anytime anybody does a re-issue of an album, that they have to do the packaging exactly as it was before. Unless they specifically said before hand that they were going to include all of the original releases elements, which btw, they didn't, then any complaints about it are your own hang up. My thoughts on it are that since they know most of the people shelling out $$ for these already own original pressings, why do it exactly the same, when you could instead offer up something different? Especially as an incentive to intice double dipping on these titles. I thought it was more cool that the included the Ken Sharp essays, band comments and rare photos, myself. What you gain far outweighs any perceived loss. As for the cover on Split Milk not being "as sharp", ok, but it's not like it's truly terrible. I have seen far, far worse when it comes to re-issues.

Now as for the music, to my ears, it sounds great. It's not like these are brick walled by any means. Ok, so somehow they got the single edit on "I Wanna Stay Home" on there instead of the album version. That's a legitimate concern, but still, not a huge issue. We're talking about a whole 10 seconds, after all, that doesn't majorly effect the greatness of the overall song. I can live with it. As for the mix on Spilt Milk, that I did notice, but in a good way. It was like hearing the album in a new light. As I recall, when the vinyl version came out, this was a topic of discussion then, too. However, I also seem to recall most folks being favorable to it, and not having any real complaints about it. Pretty sure an alternate mix of the album was given to Ominore by whomever presented them with the master tapes. That is what they used, because more than likely, that is what they were given to work with.

Lastly, price. Don't know where you got yours, but I paid less than $15 for each of these, which was less than I paid for them when they originally came out. Plus I got tons of bonus tracks I didn't get with them then. True, I have all of these already on the Fan Club, but these are a boon for the folks who were never lucky enough to get that set before it went out of print.

Ultimately, I feel like there are going to be far more people who are happy with these than are not. Personally, I don't feel I got shafted in any way for spending money on these albums yet again. In my book, I got more than enough, and different from the originals, that made the re-investment worth it. Plus, I still have the originals, too. It's unfortunate that you and others may not feel the same, but you are entitled to your own opinion. If you are truly that unhappy with them, then by all means, try and get a refund if that's how strongly you feel about it.

 

I generally agree w/the sentiment of your post; $14.99/each for either of the reissues is a great bargain, and worth it (also, I don't own a physical copy of "Fan Club"). However, the use of an edit, etc. for 'I Wanna Stay Home' is a huge issue to me. I hope that Omnivore will at least publicly recognize that it's either a mistake, or that it was intentional vs. tape lineage.

Unless it's what Sturmer, Manning, Galuten et al. wanted for the reissues, it's revisionism that deserves to be addressed; to say that - at the time of creation - they went to great lengths to get everything precisely how they wanted it to be is an understatement.

 

The Live at Bogart's cd is missing some of the inbetween song banter and at least one song, plus they didn't credit Nico Wenner as the guitarist - he was filling in for an injured Jason Falkner.

 

Can anyone comment on the artwork for the LPs? How did they look compared to these reissues?

 

What song was missing? Didn't know Falkner wasn't there, although I haven't listened to that LP super closely yet, picked it up when it came out but just got distracted by other things.

 

The reissue LPs that Ominvore did had so so cover art. I just figured that the art was created for CD and not ready for LP size. So perhaps it turns out they just don't have the negatives.

The fold out cover probably wasn't worth the cost to them but it does seem like it could have been easily handled.

 

Fair enough. I know that it was often standard practice by the labels to replace album versions of songs with single versions on later pressings. Could be that's what happened here. I'm certain that if it was a mistake on Omnivire's part, they will correct it. Guess we'll just have to wait and find out.

 

I am a fan from the month Bellybutton came out and must have listened to that record hundreds of times. It took me 20 years to fully comprehend Spilt Milk, just like Pet Sounds did. I liked it, but I didn't get the depth of it's mastery until I got smart enough.

I am just getting in to digesting these 2 DE's and need to do some analytical comparison. The originals always sounded great to me. The remasters are louder and brighter, but seemingly tasteful by today's standards. I'm hearing more detail along with more treble, as well as some tape wear here and there.

I couldn't afford the Fan Club box set when it was available and have kicked myself and tried to find an affordable copy every since, so these are very welcome to me. These records must remain in print for new and future fans - these are all-time great classic albums that stand alongside the best of the best.

It is clear looking at these that they are truly a labor of real love. I'm making no excuses for mistakes, but as someone who works in a production environment, I can tell you that they do happen. You and a team can review things ad-Nauseum and mistakes still slip through. Happens every day regardless of how much care is devoted.

Does it stink that they're not perfect, sure, but that does nothing to make the songs any less perfect, or me any less happy to have new Jellyfish to listen to. I'd rather have them than not. To me Omnivore clearly put a lot of love and resources in to these, and I am sure that they are super bummed (more than us) that they came out anything less than perfect.

If I had it to do again, I would still buy the new DE's warts and all. If you don't care about the bonus material, and just want to hear some of the most blissful, smart, sophisticated pop ever, by all means buy the original pressings today. I am thankful that these got put out at all!

 

My old cassette copy that I got back in the mid 90s, but IIRC, "Jet" was played and possibly "Go Your Own Way."

If Omnivore keeps going back to the live Jellyfish well, I hope they can release the show from the Hard Rock Cafe in San Francisco in 1991. It was broadcast at least locally and the version of "Jet" is on the box set, the Jellyfish Comes Alive EP, and I'm assuming the recent reissue of Bellybutton.