I visited Best Buy today after work to look at the new Who set; the package looked so good that the $19.99 sticker made me reach for my wallet. Got it home, slapped it in; my review is summed up in one word: brittle.... The stereo is reeeeeaaaaallllyyyy narrow, and My Generation lacks it's bite without those guitar overdubs. My fave tune, I Can't Explain sounds a little better, but it's soooooooo thin sounding. All the vocals sound like they've been chopped off in the warm midrange zone - they don't sound full enough. If I had a good equalizer I'd play around in the 500 - 600 hz zone and boost things up for an octave or two. My Generation in mono is pretty good, but needs some tube warmth desperately. If you're a Who fan you'll get it regardless of my new Who review - if you're casual I'd listen before I bought. The booklet is nice, and the Brunswick and Decca graphics on the discs are swell...
I agree, although I didn't think the sound was really that brittle. Still a wonderful set, and yes, lacking convciction in the bottom end. The guitar parts were missing, totally, in the title track. Supposedly the mono tapes were MIA since weeks after the mix was 1st done. The MONO mixes of My Generation on the end of D2 were really horrible. Heck, the early MCA discs have a better sound of the old mono mix.
Hmmmm, that mono mix was ok on the new set, better than the stereo mix, but I'll stick with the warmer, more lifelike Meaty, Beaty version...
Although if you listen closely to the Meaty Beaty version, you will hear a "ghost" of another track. The mono version on the second disc of the reissue lacks some of the high end clarity and low end "oomph" of other versions, but I would also say that the handclaps sound more like actual handclaps than most other versions I have heard. It sound like OK mastering of a tape that is somewhat the worse for wear to me. I'm a little bit cheesed off that they did not give us the whole mono version of the album. The stereo and mono mixes combined would be just under 80 minutes of content. they still would have had room for 70 minutes of bonus tracks between the two discs. Regards,
Am I being churlish if I say I might've been able to live without the a capella version of Anytime You Want Me???? I'd have rather had a certain mono track with a french horn overdub in its place....
Surprisingly enough, the french horn IS on the multitrack - they didn't add it during a mono mixdown or something. Why they didn't use it here isn't clear...
I think the a capella version of "Anytime You Want Me" was offered up as a penance for the opening harmonies of "Much too Much". It's like "Yippee! We figured out how to sing in harmony over the course of a year!" Regards,
