Tom Waits Reissuing Anti Records Albums (2017), incl. Orphans (2018) Plus Elektra Back Catalogue *

I didn't notice anything else different on first listen, but certainly that trumpet is not there in the original mix.

 

Yes, a trombone was added at the end of “Table Top Joe”.

 

Just compared the two. I like the addition of the trumpet at the end. I think it improves the track. I wonder what other changes were done?

 

I like it too! I would swear that no other changes were made to Alice.

By the way, it seems that Elektra albums are cursed. Remember the 2010 fiasco. Now, the noisy US edition of Closing Time. Not only here, but on Discogs too a lot of buyers are reporting the same.

 

I received the CDs in the mail yesterday, and I'm making my way through them. So far.... Nothing amazing.

I'll say nothing (so far) sounds bad or worse than the previous CDs, but with a few exceptions, there's nothing that really makes me go "wow!" One of those exceptions, though, is "Grapefruit Moon" off of Closing Time, where Mr. Waits' voice is the clearest I've ever heard it.

My take so far is that if you have the originals, there should be no rush to get the new ones. If you're just getting into Tom Waits and haven't bought any of his older albums on CD yet, go with these.

I'd love to hear other peoples' opinions on the CDs or high res files, though.

 

I want to know too

 

I loved the sound of the first two on cd. Didn't have either on cd before, but I thought Closing Time sounded great and was clearer than I remember from vinyl. I had the Rhino, which I guess nobody likes, a German pressing and an original US.

 

Are there any new liner notes, expanded booklets or artwork for the new CDs? What's the packaging like?

 

I like the packaging. It's not deluxe or lavish, but I'd say it's an upgrade from the originals. They're nice digipacks (which I don't mind), the disc artwork is tasteful, and each comes with a little booklet with lyrics (including the ones that didn't before, like Nighthawks at the Diner, Closing Time, Heart of Saturday Night, etc.) and standard liner notes. There are no essays or retrospectives. I'd say it's a definite upgrade from the previous, without going over the top.

 

For those interested in "special" editions, the Asylum Era is released on clear vinyl in the US and on moss green vinyl in Europe: The Official Tom Waits Online Store :: powered by Kings Road Merch

 

Hopefully the issues with the pressings get sorted in time for future releases, the only one I don’t already have is Foreign Affair so it would great to get a quiet pressing of that album

 

Did the EU pressings have issues? I purchased several (actually, all) of the Anti- years LPs from Amazon Germany and they were really good. The US pressings that I had (Alice and Blood Money, anyway) were shabby and loaded with surface noise.

Just wondering, as I'm often on the receiving end of crap pressings and I might have lucked out in this case...

 

I got the EU pressings for the Anti album reissues too and agree that they sound great so was hopeful about these ones but if you check out this thread and Discogs a lot of people are complaining about noise issues with the Closing Time reissue.

 

In like Flynn. I got the first four on red vinyl way back when, and the three albums after are (barring Heartattack which is in good shape) beat up originals. Getting them on green will be a nice touch, but I was expecting blue.

Edit- they are also surprisingly affordable.

 

All that and the fact that it is really limited (500 copies) made it an instant buy! But I dont get why there ist no green Closing time and The heart of.... And whats also great is the fact that the shop announces a regular non RSD Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards!

 

Well, I don't think any of these titles needed remastering - the previous CD's sounded great.

Still, curiosity being what it is... just checked, and it seems most - if not all - of the new "remasters" on CD have been compressed. Not to God-awful levels, but from 12's to 9's or thereabouts.

Easy for me to ignore them, but just for the record....

 

Now that the terrible reviews are in for Closing Time - what's my best bet? The 2010 issue?

 

Seems to split for the standard release as well:Tom Waits-Bawlers-|Acoustic Sounds

Where did you find those terrible reviews?

 

Read back in the thread. Multiple accounts of very noisy pressing. I've also seen the same elsewhere.

 

I bought the EU 2010 pressings of Closing Time (8122 79807 1) and Small Change and both are excellent, quiet flat pressings. No surface noise whatsoever. I also got Nighthawks and Saturday Night on red vinyl (the corrected copies) and they're also excellent. All of them done by Chris Bellman. I highly recommend all 4 if you can find them (got mine for reasonable prices on Discogs)

 

I would not rely on reports about surface noise ... in my experience thats mostly bad luck, its more about the mastering and so far I havent read that the mastering is bad. I only experienced once that there was a problem with surface noise on every single copy I tried and that was with the Back to Black reissues of Dire Straits.

 

Closing.Time actually sounds quite good. It is just a very noisy pressing is the problem.

 

Every single review on the discogs page thus far reports the same

 

I received a very noisy copy - particularly tracks 4 and 5 on side 1 with a consistent pop every revolution - similar to what I've heard others state. I purchased from Kings Road (via the Tom Waits website) and emailed them about the bad copy. They stated:

I'm hoping the clear vinyl has it worked out, and I'll buy the bundle of all the reissues.

 

That doesn’t bode well for the next batch. Is this pressing done somewhere different than the Anti reissues last year? (Because they were all great quality in my experience)