I do not really care about the shape of waveforms. Loudness simply isn't the only criterion to judge sound quality by. In my opinion the Nightlife, Release and (especially) Fundamental CD1s of the reissues sound quite a bit better than the originals. For Yes there's not much of a difference (except for the flaws in the FL release) and Elysium sounds slightly worse on the remaster. Don't have much of an opinion when it comes to the b-sides. Would have to make my own compilation of those with original, Format and FL masters with identical track order and listen to those a few dozen times each. Which I simply can't be bothered to do with much of their post-'95 b-side output.
Although what you say about loudness is right, it is also right to affirm that quieter recordings are better and expose more detail to the listener, whereas a remastered louder reissue, even if by some decibels over the top, is indeed worse. But what makes me sad the most is PSB picks on the bonus tracks. "Doomplings, doomplings..." WTF was that? There are also the errors too. But I think the most sad reissue to me was Jarre's Oxygene 3 Trilogy, in which part 8 contains more than 5 or 7 audio glitches, treble collapses, etc. So I think no one should be bothered by reissues really. (Tears For Fears' Songs from the Big Chair-current was quite well done, except for the fact that it got very close to the Western Germa target pressing... which leads to... almost nothing new...)
I’m listening to old PSB singles tonight just for the heck of it: So Hard, Streets and How Can You Expect To Be?
Jeffmo789 they are great singles from a great period in their career. Did you attend the Performance tour, in my mind that will always be the best tour they ever did
Sadly I did not Julian, but I believe @jamesc did! If pushed, Behavior would rank no 1 for me. I prefer the Art side to the Pop side.
I did get to see the Performance show at the Universal Amphitheater (RIP). It was such a nicely done show with excellent song selection and visuals. I got to go back stage afterwards but they weren't there. Axel Rose was though!
I agree the fl remastered cds of Nightlife, Release, and Fundamental are better than the originals and that Yes is very close, though I do slightly prefer the original cd. However, I strongly disagree on Elysium, where to me the fl remastered cd is the biggest improvement over the original cd of any of the 2017 remastered cds.
Particularly to me, Bilingual, Nightlife and Release are the period in which PSB did not exist to me. That last to catch my attention was Very Relentless and after that, the release of "Se a vida é" (or, more accurately, the proper wanted title should have been "Assim a vida é" - which was not corrected after all, maintaining the errors between languages - they could have changed "That's the way life is" for "If life's like this", even so, still with semantic error) and all that Brazilian drumming turned me off completely. Saw years later New York City Boy on MTV but found it completely kinda gay song, which made me step away further. Release I haven't had any knowledge of it, but years later. It was just back with Fundamental that the band started to catch my attention again.
Can you say more about what is better with the remastered Nightlife, Release & Fundamental? I would love to know if there are better sounding/less compressed versions of these titles. Thanks!
The DR's are close for each album. Nightlife for me has always been a tough listen on a few tracks. I found the 2017 a little less fatiguing- Dropbox - Heaven 2017 Sample.wav
This is thirty dollars for the three Further Listening cds? I'm wondering if there are editions of just the original cds without the bonus discs? Seems like an awfully low price. If it's the 2 cds sets it's a steal.
Great price. How's the shipping? I think on the last one's through pledge it was ridiculous. Plus poor Morgan had some serious shipping delays
I just checked and shipping was $10.85 for the CD set. I have the original Further Listening sets but these are supposed to be re-remastered?
Thanks James. I'll wait for an Amazon price drop. No hurry on these as I already have em. Apparently they are- thinking however they will be in line to the recent one's (compression wise) would be neat though if they gave us back the dynamics! Bilingual and Very are on my radar however!
I found funny of how the fan made "Further Listening Series" on post #1056 made the tracklisting. This is for sure NOT the track listing that Neil and Chris would pick. I'm sure they would pick loads of silly demos and more doomplings... LOL But this fan is like me, he has included all the b-sides and a huge load of cool stuff. I was impressed he was even able to include "Brick England", the collaboration with Jean-Michel Jarre in Electronica 2. He failed to remark that on the back cover. Should be "Brick England (with Jean-Michel Jarre, for Electronica 2 project)". Although I think THAT PARTICULAR track could not make these Further Listening Series because of copyright agreements. Brick England is a very FINE song.
There're four new London dates at the Royal Opera House in July for another round of Inner Sanctum. On sale now.
