Vinyl Reissues To Avoid

In that case there is not much to choose from. But as far as reissues (the topic of this thread), I'm not happy with any that I got from them.

 

Four Men With Beards

would more appropriately be called

For Suckers With Money

 

Capitol Vaults (The Beach Boys Today!, The Beach Boys Summer Days and Summer Nights!).
To me these two sounded like very dull mastered CDs pressed to vinyl. Waste of money. Got rid of them. I'm looking forward to the Kevin Gray treatments we should be getting pretty soon.

Yep Rock (Nick Lowe Jesus of Cool, Labour of Lust). To be fair, these weren't sonic masterpieces to begin with, but they are 70s poprock classics and deserved
better than to be treated with harsh, trebly digital vinyl treatments. Bought them, brought them home and instantly regretted it. Both US and UK originals sound
seriously better.

Akarma -- A tune I'd been searching for for ages (The Sonics cover of Frank Zappa's Any Way The Wind Blows) showed up on an Akarma reissue of Sonics rarities. Again, waste of money.

Simply Vinyl -- The Beach Boys Wild Honey. I didn't buy it, but listened to an open copy at a record store and found it to be glassy, brittle and bad. To be fair, I did own a Simply Vinyl reissue
of The Byrds Sweetheart of The Rodeo for a time and didn't think it was bad. An easy to obtain 70s UK or US copy will still sound better, though.

 

The Roxy Music Capital reissues of the first 4 albums got a bad review from Michael Fremer.
Even the new box set review was mixed, plus the packaging wasn't great. The Island pink rim
UK copies still seem to be the go to versions.

 

Disagree on The Monkees, my copy is Amazing on red vinyl.

 

The Soft Boys, Underwater Moonlight, YepRoc pressing: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...rwater-moonlight-vinyl-reissue-a-mess.239699/

 

Yet their reissue if Television's 1992 self titled LP is very nice.

 

Music On Vinyl hasn't failed me yet!

 

I'm digging this up for more info on Polysom releases. Specifically the Jorge Ben releases. They were some of their first releases. I've heard things about being from the original tapes. Anyone care to comment?

 

Back in the day (mainly 1970s), when noisy recycled vinyl was frequently used, colored vinyl (other than black, which is a color also) would readily disclose any impurities that plagued recycled vinyl (just by holding it up to the light), while black vinyl would mask such impurities. Thus colored vinyl tended to be non-recycled, meaning less surface noise. Actually, I'm not sure that it is even possible to recycle black vinyl into a different color anyway. How, after all, would one get the black OUT of the vinyl during recycling, and why spend money on THAT process (if there was one) after trying to save money by recycling in the first place?

It was for that reason that colored vinyl during the 1970s was favored for reasons other than mere collectability. Japanese pressings during that era were also favored precisely because of the use of clean vinyl, more than any other reason. Noisy recycled vinyl was a much bigger issue at that time than it is today.

Other than that, clean black vinyl is not inherently superior (nor inferior) to vinyl of any other color. And clean black vinyl (not recycled) should sound just as good as clean vinyl of other colors. Bad sounding specimens of either type are likely the result of some cause other than the color.

And you are spot on about picture discs, which are made of a different material (other than vinyl used for pressing records), to say nothing of a different pressing process. Perhaps "colored" got unfairly tarred with the same brush by people unaware of the distinction between the two.

 

Scorpio

I got their 180gr pressing of Trout Mask Replica, it sucked since all of the low end has been rolled off. Tinny and trebly describes it.
Ditto for their reissue of Gris Gris that was hard and brittle since it sounded too much like the 1991 CD, the old yellow Atco harp labels looked cool.

 

Since I posted that I acquired an original WLP of this title. A comparison between the original "Television" and the FMWB reissue had me finding that the reissue was very close to the original, FMWB, well done!

 

Of the reissues I have bought in the last 5 years by far the worst is the Black To Black of 10cc's 'Original Soundtrack'.
Not sure if it's just my pressing but it is unlistenable - ear splitting highs which make things like the hi hat on 'One Nuit' futz as though there is some digital distortion.I'm guessing it's from digital files and has been mastered way too hot...

It's crap.

 

Pity as the Original is marvellous sounding. Also have a Japanese 200 gram reissue that sounds rather digital. Original 10cc albums used to be obtainable for a pound or two each.

 

I think you mean Yep Roc - see The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight below (another album that deserved better treatment than it got).

 

Really? I was planning on getting the Akarma reissues of some Area albums. The originals are way over my budget.

 

Yes I wanna know too. Been eyeing those Jorge Ben reissues. Btw if you're looking for Brazilian reissues I highly recommend Mr Bongo. I got Arthur Verocai's self titled album and Acabou Chorare by Os Novos Baianos and they sound fantastic. Taken from the original tapes.

 

The Back to Black reissue of Ennio Morricone's The Good, The Bad & The Ugly soundtrack is the worst sounding record in my collection. It takes real talent to botch the reissue of a record that sounds as sonically brilliant as that. Sounds like it was recorded on a phone.

 

I bought two used 4 Men With Beards LP's before I found this forum because they were around $12,seemed like a bargain. One,Dusty In Memphis,is roundly criticized. I don't love it but I've had trouble finding a nice original copy outside of eBay. So, I look at it as a filler copy til an original comes my way. I've discovered that using the loudness button on my Marantz receiver rolls of the harsh high end and fills the bottom and emptiness to really make it more listenable. The other is The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads. This one sounded better than the DIM but I've never heard an original which might not be that great itself but I'd like to hear from anybody who has compared both an original Otis and 4MWB.

 

I had Country Life from that series of releases and I can confirm it sounded abominable.

Another one to avoid is the Friday Music Deep Purple Made In Japan. I like a lot of the FM releases (particularly the Elvis Presley albums) but this one is bad with a capital B! Dead as a doornail sound.