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

Wow. Can this get any more confusing?

 

I'm starting to sound like a broken record... But I do think this is all a bit odd. Why would they opt to base the boxed set cd cover art on the U.S. lp art?Complete with allegedly incorrect credits/track information? It's sloppy and misleading at the very least. Given the care that appeared to be lavished on the reissue as a whole it just doesn't make any sense.

 

Just goof by someone at the record company i think. On the subject of the three tracks which i think sound strange, i have bought an original us cd off ebay so i can hear the ocasek remixes and compare to the box set. Will report back when i receive it.

 

Lets not dis Mr Cole. The music is great, who cares about some CD cover art that you need a microscope to read anyway. Buy the first three commotions on Vinyl plus Love songs and Standards, and you have enough great music to keep you going for a long time.

 

I wasn't "dis[sing]" Mr Cole, merely expressing puzzlement and bemusement - as others have done - that an otherwise exemplary boxed set contains such odd apparent anomalies in contents vs description for arguably its best and most famous constituent album. I've been a fan for 30 years - "a long time"? - and have reliably bought all his albums, some a couple of times over, but I still purchased the 'Collected Recordings" CD set on the promise of superior mastering, rarities etc. And I doubt anyone reading or contributing to this thread needs the merits of Cole's and or the Commotions' music pitched to them. But thanks for the advice. Enjoy your vinyl.

 

So grissongs, as you have the boxset too, do you think those three tracks sound wrong, or is it just me?

 

No problem, I will. I was probably reacting to the many pages of gripes on here, sorry if the moan landed in your thread. Great release, great songs.

 

I've done a quick headphone comparison of Perfect Skin on the original Polydor CD, the 2004 Deluxe & the box set disc. They all sound quite different from each other... mostly tonally. (I don't have vinyl UK, US or any other acknowledged US version to compare with.) I have to admit it's difficult to pick up differences in the mixes other than overall levels, tonality (the guitars) and clarity. The original is laid back with janglier guitars and smooth bass, everything is a bit goosed up on the deluxe and the new version seems more spacious - the reverb you allude to? - and clear although the lead guitar is 'darker'. The vocal seems doubled(?) in parts on the recent one too. But it could be on the other discs too but just less noticeable. I thought the female vocals on Patience were more prominent on the new disc too... I'll have a proper listen soon and check in if I notice anything more tangible and specific. Anyway, it's ultimately no big deal; the sound on the box is great overall, the rarities great to have and the package and book well put together.

 

Lloyd has posted the following on his website:

'There was one typo on the Commotions box set –

Somehow or other the US version of Rattlesnakes was used as a reference for sleeve notes. The US (original Geffen, not subsequent Capitol) version contained several Rik Ocasek re-mixes. And the box set sleeve notes have this credit.

To be clear – there are no re-mixes on the re-mastered Rattlesnakes. The original 1/2″ tape from Genetic Studios were used. Transferred flat to digital and the CD was mastered from this. There was no extra mastering compression or EQ, which is why the album sounds bigger and roomier. The mastering done in 1984 made the tracks tighter, and smaller. This is more noticeable on Four Flights Up and Patience. I consulted the band, we all prefer it this way.'

I think this clears up the confusion.

 

I'm certainly looking forward to @Rgfinch's comparison once he gets the US vinyl...

 

Also being discussed at:
http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/lloyd-cole-clarifies-box-set-content/#more-116202

 

I ordered a CD actually, don't have a turntable - will let you know what I hear.

I have enough sources and connections on my amp that be able to play Orig UK CD, 2004 UK remaster, original US CD and 2015 remaster all at the same time, reasonably level-matched, switching between them all on the fly.

Will do it when my wife's out though - she thinks I'm sad enough already.

 

I listened to my original US cd of Rattlesnakes the other day, and was impressed with how good it sounded. I could crank it sky-high, and it still was a very comfortable listen.

 

I went back to the original UK and compared to the 2004 deluxe and have to say I preferred the original, as the deluxe sounded pretty thin and small. When I bought the deluxe I had put the original into storage - big mistake!!

Then I compared the original CD to the new one which sounded terribly murky in comparison. If the new one is a flat transfer from the original master tapes, then it's amazing how much clarity and sparkle the people who mastered the original CD managed to extract to make it sound so different !!

 

Have really been enjoying this set. The b-sides are amazing.

 

My Capitol CD arrived last night, and despite having Ocasek's name on the credits for remixing Perfect Skin, Patience and Four Flights Up, they sounded like the original mixes to me, so I think Lloyd Cole was correct in saying they were only included on the Geffen release, which I think is vinyl only, so if anyone knows where I can find a rip of the Geffen vinyl, I'd love to hear it.

The Capitol disc sounds a little closer to the new one than either of the two previous UK releases, it's pretty muted in comparison to the UK discs, and the bass is quite thin and the soundstage more narrow. The UK original is much more "in the room" than the Capitol or the deluxe.

I still think it's odd that the three people who mastered Rattlesnakes in the past all made it sound so different to the latest release, and that whilst seven tracks clearly sound like the same mixes across all releases (albeit with wildly differing EQ), the three tracks which got remixed once all sound so different (and that's massively different on Patience and Four Flights Up) on the new release. Lloyd swears they aren't the Ocasek remixes, so until I hear the Ocaseks I have to believe him and that the changes are all down to the mastering. In which case it's a shame that he decided to change the sound of them so much that they just don't fit with the other seven tracks. They sound like remixes, like the work of different people, and the coherence of the album is destroyed.

 

I have the US LP of Rattlesnakes - been ages since I listened to it, but I do recall some difference with the Ocasek stuff. Tell you what, I'll go through the tedious hassle of disconnecting my turntable from my stereo, hooking it up to my PC, and needledropping a couple cuts this evening (I HATE doing that!). In the interest of science and all...

 

You're a gentleman - i look forward to hearing the results.

 

Ok, I have wave files - now where's a good place to put them?

Note: I'm not an audiophile, so I NEVER do stuff like this...

 

Ok, I found a site that looks easy enough for a fool like me to handle. The file sizes were a little large as .wav files, so I made them 192kb mp3s. Again, I have no idea how to tweak these files to make them sound better or whatever, so this is just standard needledrop with nothing added. Apologies if it doesn't work - and if it doesn't, just shoot me a PM with your email address and I'll send 'em, or put them on some other 'net location (where I preferably don't have to create an account). cheers!

Let's see if this works:
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc17/6107/four-flights-up-geffen-lp-mp3-3-8-meg
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc17/6105/patience-geffen-lp-mp3-5-1-meg
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc17/6106/perfect-skin-geffen-lp-mp3-4-5-meg

 

WOW!
I didn't know about this until now.
These 3 releases are his imo.
I've been waiting for a better sounding PIECES since labels started remastering.
Christmas is early!

 

'Easy Pieces' is the only album which was not remastered, but is has been, sonically speaking, somehow improved. This is what Lloyd Cole himself wrote about that album:

"All three studio albums (...) are re-mastered, but we did very little to Mainstream other than adjust level. Bob Ludwig’s original work was near perfect and still sounds great almost 30 years later. The original 1/2″ mixdowns of Easy Pieces could not be used as the tape had disintegrated and baking, etc could not save it. We worked from the 1/4″ back up (made the same day as the 1/2″ for this very reason) and to my ears the album is significantly improved."

 

Lloyd Cole's own reviewing of the sonics of the three albums with The Commotions are coming from a reply he did in a discussion about the box set at superdeluxeedition.com. I found it back today by coincidence and I think many more didn't read that reply at all because it dated from mid july, the period many of us are on holidays. And it was also a bit hidden at the end of the line of many other posts (of members of that site). Besides, coincidental, our fellow member @wayneklein almost nobody did react to Cole's post, so it was clearly missed. That why I think it's maybe the best for posting Cole's review here again - so more completely than just that part above about the album 'Easy Pieces'.

Lloyd Cole's post:
"We began work on this in February 2014. It’s been a lot of work. There were two product managers. Joe Howard (son of Dr Robert Howard) initiated the project and then moved on. Lewis Robinson took his place. Lewis and I have exchanged hundreds of emails as we tracked down the original tapes, cassettes, u-matics, and Ian Jones at Abbey Road has done a fabulous job in transferring them to CD.
All three studio albums are included, all three are re-mastered, but we did very little to Mainstream other than adjust level. Bob Ludwig’s original work was near perfect and still sounds great almost 30 years later. The original 1/2″ mixdowns of Easy Pieces could not be used as the tape had disintegrated and baking, etc could not save it. We worked from the 1/4″ back up (made the same day as the 1/2″ for this very reason) and to my ears the album is significantly improved. The big news, to my ears, is Rattlesnakes. We were able to use the original 1/2″ tapes and upon hearing a ‘flat transfer’ I was shocked at how far we had strayed from the original recordings over the years. I sent the files to the band to listen to to be sure I wasn’t imagining things. Is this as great as I think it is? They agreed. We decided to make the new CD as close as possible to the original tapes. The trade off would be volume. If we wanted the album to sound loud, then we would lose the dynamics which were what was making it sound better. We chose the sound over the loudness. You have a volume control on your stereo. You can turn it up if you need to.
The first bonus CD is all our collected b-sides, not including live recordings, unless they were songs we hadn’t recorded in the studio – so the 1986 recordings from New York are there. The only remix included is our own extended mix of My Bag, as we all pretty much agreed it was the only decent dance mix we ever made.
The final CD is rarities, from the unreleased 1983 single Down At The Mission, the 1985 Paul Hardiman recordings, the 1986 Paris recordings with Chris Thomas, demos, etc. Pretty much everything we recorded which wasn’t a complete disaster is here. "

 

It's Mainstream that wasn't remastered as such; Easy Pieces was remastered, just not from the original 1/2" tapes.

 

Oh you're right; stupid me!! I'm always mixing up the titles of these two... Stand corrected!