New Mobile Fidelity titles in latest Music Direct catalog*

I agree, not to mention that many artists they have used have more than one good title.

 

I am real longing for more recent albums of MFSL , but the choice for a band like Train out of the many, many great post-millennium albums begging for a fine remaster job is also puzzling me...

 

Just ordered from Music Direct all the SACD Prereleases of Dire Straits and the Richard Thompson with 20 percent off and free shipping. I think the sale ends today.

 

Has anyone found the S&G albums for pre-sale anywhere? I don't even see them on Music Direct's site and S&G are on the cover of their catalog.

 

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Train?!?!?

I received the Music Direct catalog this afternoon and my eyes bugged out of my head...

Train?!?!?

How about the White Stripes? Wilco? Eels? Elliott Smith?

I don't get it. I just don't get it.

 

Strange choice for sure. Right down there with the Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack.

If Train comes out prior to the Dire Straits titles the thread will be very entertaining.

 

I pre ordered the three Ry Cooder albums a year ago when they were in the last catalogue. It looks like maybe Chicken Skin Music just might finally come out ?

I assume my pre order from a year ago is still good for that one .

 

Excuuuuuuuse me?

 

Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack came out as an SACD and LP on Audio Fidelity, not Mobile Fidelity. (In case that's why you were responding as you did.)

Eddie & The Cruisers :: John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band
Eddie & The Cruisers :: John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band

I believe that @eelkiller thinks Train on Mobile Fidelity would be a similar low.

Craig.

 

Train is mind boggling. What are they thinking???

 

Audiophiles ask for a title that has not been beaten to death. MoFi delivers. Audiophiles ...

 

I almost pre ordered the Dylan mono Freewheelin and first album vinyl a year ago and glad I didn’t. No update at all at this point?

 

Yup. I mean I don't like Train but I also don't like Hall and Oates. Not buying either. But I like 90 percent of what they release.

 

maybe it is hard or expensive to get the rights to do what we want them to do...

 

The problem with mofi (or any audiophile company) issuing newer titles is that modern music has become so fragmented in its delivery to specific audiences. It's been discussed before as to when will we see the next "Beatles" or "Michael Jackson.?" The answer is, more than likely, a very, very long time due to the inability of music to be exposed to large masses via the radio. Therefore, when people say White Stripes, Wilco or Elliot Smith, "many" audiophiles that would purchase remastered titles are saying, "Who?!" That, in turn, translates to Low sales. Low sales means mofi or AP end up sitting on the product and eventually offering it at wholesale prices just to break even. Not a good business model. "You" may like certain groups, but will those titles reach out to the very small audiophile nation and entice them to reach into their pockets for $30 or $40 per pop? Hence, we are then usually left with re-mastered titles from the giants of our past. Now that being said, there are some "giant" titles that I would love to see go through the new "one step" process. Give me Machine Head, Led Zep IV or Jackson Brown's "Running on Empty." And for a real sonic treat, based on my original import vinyl release, a one step vinyl pressing of the Eagles "When Hell freezes Over."

 

Not sure what "not been beaten to death" even means.

Train is just an odd choice is all. They are a bland, mainstream radio pop band. What's next, an Imagine Dragons one-step ultradisc?

 

My pre-orders for the Dire Straits have been cancelled as the items are "out of stock"!!

 

MFSL is doing Sony artists. Pinknik wants:

 

That's maybe for a part the explanation, I'm afraid the owners of the wellknown audiophile labels are also from a certain age, so more familiair with e.g. your Jackson Browne than an Elliot Smith. There is also the funny idea that most master tapes starting from the new wave era are digital (the owner of AF wrote me this back as reason why no remastering of more recent albums). Can be partly true, but I think it's not that difficult to find the many exceptions.

Because of the conservative attitude towards more recent bands (I know, there are also exceptions here like a Rage Against The Machine, however still 25 years old!!!) ), the youngest generations of music lovers are finding their own ways to music which is for them mostly 'for free', so not holding in their hands needed. Audiophile labels have allready maybe lost the battle for younger generations, but even the 80's and 90's alternative generation (maybe the last generation prefering vinyl and cd) is neglected with the label's main choice for jazz, classical rock, prog and MOR instead of new wave, post-punk, grunge and indie .

In the case some owners of audiophile labels are reading this, here some great albums (of not too big names) to digest which are not yet part of audiophile releases, but being able to reach commercial goals:
From the '90's:
Slowdive -Pygmalion or Souvlaki (the band is überhip again), Air - Moon Safari, The La's - s/t, Eels - Beautiful Freak, The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, Jane's Addiction - Ritual de Lo Habitual, Primal Scream - Screamadelica (even honoured by a stamp from British Mail!!), Suede - Dog Man Star, The Stone Roses - s/t, R.E.M. - Automatic for the People, Leftfield - Leftism, Alice in Chains - Dirt, Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club, Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun. Primus - Sailing the Seas of Cheese, Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Portishead - Dummy, Massive Attack - all their first 3 albums, Eliott Smith - XO and Either/Or, Talk Talk - Laughing Stock, 16 Horsepower - Sackcloth 'N' Ashes, Mogwai - Die Young (al, their albums are mastered badly)

From post-Millennium:
Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump, Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid, Amy Winehouse - Back to Black, Johnny Cash - the American recordings (why not?), Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain, The White Stripes - Elephant, Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf, Bryan Ferry - Frantic, Editors - The Back Room, Snow Patrol - The Final Straw (the earlier SACD was lousy), Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man - Out of Season (maybe too tricky comercially?), PJ Harvey - Let England Shake, Tame Impala - Lonerism, Chelsea Wolfe - Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs or Apokalypsis, Goldfrapp - Tales of Us, The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream, The Waterboys - An Appointment with Mr. Yeats, Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, Charlotte Gainsbourg - all her albums.

As you see, enough from different musical genres and the ones lined up last, are mostly the albums with the worst mastering (like a low DR).

 

Cancelled where? I need to check my Music Direct order.

 

My order is still intact and backordered.

 

Are you guys familiar with Intervention Records? The owner posts on this board in a thread he started. Many of these titles simply aren't available to boutique labels. The majors can release them themselves and make more money. They don't want the competition or marketplace confusion.

 

I don't know about that. I searched the IR thread for a few of the artists and only saw Alice In Chains and PJ Harvey being out.

@Echo have you pitched this to Shane in the IR thread? Maybe drop AIC and PJH from your request and see what happens.
I only found one mention in that thread for the Eels and no responses from Shane. I'm going to bump that request again.

 

Ha @Kyhl, I don't like to push possible albums. I offered them here some alternatives which are maybe possible to rerelease and it's up to them to use it or not.

Intervention Records is - alas - also drinking from the same 70's pool as AF, AP and MFSL does, so I dont expect them to do one of my, or other relative new, suggestions (I still like their choice however for some Joe Jackson albums, but that's also from 40 years ago).

There is however also a member here who is starting a new label for releasing audiophile new wave/post-punk albums (forgot his name), so someone who is choosing possible '80s gems is allready somehow hopefull to me.