New box set ('Collected Recording:1983-1989') by Lloyd Cole & The Commotions

I'd be interested in seeing your 80s playlist.

Did someone above mention a US release for the set? When?

 

I could email you when I get home. Fair warning: it's a long list.

 

According to an interview at Super Deluxe, Universal has no plans to release this on vinyl. Cole would like a vinyl release and he indicated that if fans have any info on companies that might be willing to license this for vinyl, to reach out to him.

 

There's loads of used original LPs of all three albums around. They sound fine.

 

There is also loads of original CD's - Rattlesnakes original German CD sounds amazingly good for a cd. One of the few cd's I still wish I owned. So not sure of your point.

I have every album that Lloyd has released on vinyl. I was more interested in the "B" sides etc and a really nice analog master of Rattlesnakes would be cool as well.

 

There are companies out there that do this , but I guess is their a large enough market for analog mastered Lloyd Cole reissues on vinyl, as just using the digital files from the CD's would be quite pointless imo

 

The Easy Pieces original CD is relatively scarce.
The B-sides are already available on their respective 7" / 12" singles. Most of them were not previously released on CD.
For a project like this it makes sense for CD to be the default option.
A vinyl box would be nice but pretty costly.
You'd need seven LPs to cover everything.

 

Yes, I haven't seen many CD copies of EP on my travels. I even had to replace my lost 'original' with a budget (Karussell?) reissue. The original vinyl always sounded better but the new box set remaster is much improved over the CDs I've had.

 

Received my box from Amazon.de (despite ordering from Amazon.co.uk) two days ago, and it really does sound amazing. Clear, clean, crankable. Dynamics are good everywhere. And while the occasional missing B-side may upset some, I think this thing is just exactly what I was hoping for. Pete Paphides' book is probably the finest example of the potential that so many box sets skip right over.

Only box that I've appreciated more would have to be Five Guys Walk Into A Bar...

 

I do agree

 

"Mainstream" is pretty good on vinyl.

 

Great set and 'Rattlesnakes" sounds amazingly good. It's a very good recording to begin with so this low level mastering (Acording to Cole) sounds fab. Nice box set.

 

Yes pretty good. I think EP is the worst but then LC said it was not produced so well.

 

Just got the recent solo album 'Standards' on clear vinyl. Now that sounds like an excellent album. Full band, great lyrics. Only £7.30 on Amazon UK too!

 

I have a weird pairing of "easy pieces" + "rattlesnakes" on 1 c.d. on polymorphism that was released in the '90's!I need to dig that out for sound quality.easy pieces was a tough find on c.d.!love lloyd...ordered this box today...70$ u.s.!had to have it!!!;-)

 

Polydor......I meant....polydor!hates spellcheck!

 

Picked up the lossles qobuz download yesterday. I'm satisfied so far, but it took a little time to get used to the noticably darker sound of "Rattlesnakes". The exclusion of "Beautiful City" and the extended version of "Forest Fire" are the only downsides here. So I'll keep my standard and DeLuxe CD of "Rattlesnakes" too.

 

I didn't have any Lloyd Cole so I decided to try this box set. Great music (have been most listening to Rattlesnakes and the B-sides until now - EP and Mainstream next).
Pristine sound - very crankable.

 

Indeed, very crankable! :

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/93965

 

In my box set Mainstream appears to be exactly the same as the original CD - I thought LC said they had boosted the levels a bit but there's no sign of that at all. Easy Pieces a big improvement on the old CD.

Also, playing the new Rattlesnakes, I thought that the drums on Perfect Skin and Patience sounded so different to the two previous releases that I'm wondering if there hasn't been some retrospective tinkering here. Will do some careful comparisons later.

 

OK, did my comparisons to the 2004 version last night. Major EQ changes on all tracks as LC had promised, but there are two tracks which sound so different to the deluxe (and orig CD) that I think there's something very funny going on. "Four Flights Up" and "Patience" appear to now have bucketfuls of reverb which are nowhere to be found on previous versions. In fact they both sound to me like they are being played through a home cinema amp with the "Stadium" sound effect switched on. It's just these two tracks which sound so different - can someone else do some careful listening and tell me if I'm going mad or not ??

 

I don't have the new set - haven't decided if I want to get it yet, but...

I recall reading that Ric Ocasek (Cars) remixed a few of the songs on Rattlesnakes for the US release. Could that be the reason?

EDIT: Just found this on Wikipedia... On the North American version of the album, released on Geffen Records, the tracks "Perfect Skin", "Four Flights Up" and "Patience" were remixed by Ric Ocasek.

 

Thanks for that - I did think Perfect Skin sounded a bit different too, just not as much as the other two tracks. It sounds like the US mixes may have been used in error.

 

Have emailed LC's management to ask the question about the Ocasek mixes, have also asked about Mainstream - LC said before release that they had level-shifted Mainstream compared to the original CD, but the one in the boxset is identical as far as I can see - replay gain numbers are the same.

 

Lloyd used 3 (Perfect Skin, Patience & Four Flights Up) of the Ric Ocasek (Explains Sea of Reverb) mixes on Rattlesnakes LP in the box. The original mixes are on the original CD another reason to keep the Deluxe Edition (or the original CD mixes) besides the obmission of "Beautiful City" See Credits and the mastering on these CD's is excellent.