Joe Jackson "Night and Day" Deluxe edition on the way

I think Erick Labsen has done an outstanding job with past Joe Jackson remasters, including the Night and Day tracks on the 2-CD best-of. I'm greatly looking forward to this reissue.

If there's any specific complaint with the past JJ remasters in this series, let us know. But usually, comments like this just reflect a "newer must be worse" phenomenon. Let's see if this is different. I'll take my chances on Mr. Labsen compared to something made with A-to-Ds from the 1980s, based on his past work. JJ made great music in the 80's, but the converters weren't so hot back then.

Mike's Murder came in between Night and Day and Body and Soul. It was his first soundtrack, but the movie was a commercial disaster - delayed so much that the soundtrack appeared months ahead of the movie. The movie was actually pretty decent, but very little of Joe's music made it to the final cut. The songs on side one which are being included are generally quite good, and the instrumentals on side two aren't bad either. I wish they would release the whole thing but I'll gladly take the 5 songs for now! Anybody else on this board both buy the album and see the movie as soon as they came out?

- Joe

 

Yes, please do tell. I have been holding off buying the remaster (my vinyl is just plain worn out!) and I'm hoping for some comments about it.

Chris

 

I second this.

 

Yes, I bought the album when it came out and still love it. "Laundromat Monday" is such a catchy tune. Only one song "Memphis" has been on CD so far. I gave up hope last year and burned the songs from the LP to a CD. Count me among the folks that will by the N&D deluxe edition for the Mike's Murder tracks. I hope they'll sound even better than my transfer. I like the instumental tracks also. Hope they make it to CD someday.

I did see the movie "Mike's Murder" when it finally arrived in theaters. Well, at least some of it. My girlfriend and I walked out before the movie was half over. What a terrible film. The only reason we stayed so long is that I was hoping to catch some of Joe Jackson's music. We went home, listened to the album and had much more fun.

 

Cosmopolitan and Moonlight are my faves. I didn't think the movie was that bad - it had Debra Winger - but I'll agree the album is better!
Can't wait to finally get half of it at least on CD. I've been procrastinating making the CD-R of it and that might finally have paid off. Erick Labsen will do a much better job than I could!

- Joe

 

Billboard.com reports this is the final tracklist for the Deluxe edition of Night & Day:

Disc one:

"Another World"
"Chinatown"
"T.V. Age"
"Target"
"Steppin' Out"
"Breaking Us in Two"
"Cancer"
"Real Men"
"A Slow Song"

Disc two:

"Steppin' Out" (demo)
"Target" (demo)
"Cancer" (demo)
"Real Men" (demo)
"Breaking Us In Two" (demo)
"Chinatown" (demo)
"Cosmopolitan" (from "Mike's Murder")
"1-2-3 Go (This Town's a Fairground)" (from "Mike's Murder")
"Laundromat Monday" (from "Mike's Murder")
"Memphis" (from "Mike's Murder")
"Moonlight" (from "Mike's Murder")
"On Your Radio" (from "Joe Jackson Live 1980/86")
"Fools In Love" (from "Joe Jackson Live 1980/86")
"Cancer" (from "Joe Jackson Live 1980/86")
"Is She Really Going Out With Him" (a cappella version) (from "Joe Jackson Live 1980/86")
"Look Sharp!" (from "Joe Jackson Live 1980/86")

 

I'm sure this has been said before, but I REALLY don't see the point in including the live tracks from 1980/1986. If you're a Joe Jackson fan, you may buy the deluxe set for the remastering or for the Mike's Murder tracks, but you in all likelihood already HAVE the live tracks from when you bought the 1980/1986 CD in the first place. So, these tracks add nothing. Meanwhile, there are a number of early Joe Jackson tracks that have only appeared on import hits collections if at all, and would be perfect to fill up the space on the second disc is additional tracks were needed. Hell, for that matter, why not just include the instrumental tracks from Mike's Murder?!?

 

....and hell for that matter, why not just release the whole of MM separately?!

 

When ICE reported on this a few months ago, the proposed track line-up included several Spanish-language versions of songs from the album, that were released on a European EP. Those would have made good bonus tracks, but it looks like they didn't make the final cut...

 

I'll go along with that!

 

Briefly...

1) The demos are a nice addition, and will be the main justification for my eventual purchase of this title.
2) Clearly, it would have been better to re-release Mike's Murder in its entirety.
3) Not only are the foreign-language b-sides forgotten, but there's an extended mix of "T.V. Age" that should be here as well.
4) If you're going to include tracks from a widely available (albeit) OOP live album, wouldn't it make sense to include more than one song from Night and Day itself? Particularly "Steppin' Out", which was Jackson's biggest hit and had an alternate arrangement which might justify its inclusion...
5) Big labels still do a crappy job of dealing with stuff like this. No Jackson fan would have come up with this tracklist.

 

Yep, it's a missed opportunity. But Night and Day desperately needs a sonic upgrade on CD, and half of Mike's Murder on CD is better than anything we've had previously. Erick Labsen has done a great job with this series so far, so I'll be getting this right away.

 

Not true of course.

The mofi is incredible........if you're prepared to pay for it!

 

Paying high prices to listen to 80's A-D converter sound isn't my idea of a prudent investment. YMMV of course, but when somebody knows what they're doing, I find that they can get much better sound with today's converter technology.

- Joe

 

Any early reviews on the sound quality, packaging, and bonus tracks from this album yet?

 

I bought both 'Look Sharp' and the 'I'm The Man' Labson remasters, and both hurt to listen to at any decent volume. I went back to my vinyl and ripped them to CDR - much much better (less harsh).

I haven't pulled LS or ITM to look at the waveforms, but I suspect they're squashed. If someone wants to see them, let me know and I'll suck them in and post them.

jeff

 

You said it, Steve!

I'm not one to constantly whine, but what he did to this (and even worse on the Gin Blossoms' "New Miserable Experience" Deluxe Edition) should be considered destroying the artists' creation IMO. There is no need for such drastic maximization on such quality source material.

 

That settles it. I'm sticking with all of my Joe Jackson vinyl on this one (which includes the MOFI Night and Day). I'm tempted by the extra tracks, but why buy something if it is too harsh on the ears? You'll only listen to it a couple of times and then put it on the shelf

Why would Joe let something lilke this happen??

 

So far the only harshness criticism has been leveled at previous Joe Jackson remasters (Look Sharp, I'm the man). So far I haven't heard anything negative about the new "Deluxe" edition of Night & Day.

I'm going to wait for the reviews to trickle in before I shell out thirty bucks.

 

Not to "thread crap", but it seems that a very minimal amount of music would ever be purchased if one were to go on the advice of the folks in this forum. I certainly don't want to create an argument or anything but I'm just amazed at some of the recordings that are either released or re-released that get bashed in here. I, personally, find the Joe Jackson DE not to be "destroyed" at all. It's loud...yes. But no distortion that I can hear. There are also a few very good pieces of software out there that can let you tailor the sound to your taste. I think it would be a shame to miss out on these demos/edits/bonus tracks that appear on the DE's just because of a few comments in here.

 

Is it available?




......hmm, looks like it is!

 

quote:
Originally posted by KBanya
I, personally, find the Joe Jackson DE not to be "destroyed" at all.

I don't either!!

 

Even if it doesn't sound detroyed, is $26 or so worth it to hear the 6 Demo tracks (asuming you already have all of the others on vinyl and/or cd)?

Maybe for some, but not for me.

If the sound is acceptable though, it is of course highly recommended to those that do not have Mike's Murder on vinyl or any of the live tracks.

Well worth it!

 

I have a Mofi "Night and Day" UDII (got it used at a record store 5 years ago). I think it sounds fantastic...but is the sound quality of the UDI much better than a UDII?

###