Finally grabbed this set from Amazon in sale. First impressions are great. All the vinyl looks really clean and flat. For the Roses sounds fantastic but I've yet to compare to my original. I have a nice original of Hissing, and on direct comparison of the first verse and chorus from "In France...", the original seems have a more well-rounded sound from the lower end, but on the new remaster, I heard some really nice clarity in the percussion separation, the tambourine particularly in left channel. Of course I will listen closer and more in depth. So far it seems really great. Different but not necessarily better than my OGs. I have to say, I can't wait to dig into Court and Spark. I have a beautiful Canadian original, the Bellman cut and now Grundman. It'll be a three-way shootout here in Queens, NY! Anyone have impressions of C&S for Bellman/Grundman?
Ah but the vinyl is just outside of the packaging, resting behind the flap. It's not half inside. In fact this is a scientifically accurate photo as evidenced by the extra shadow underneath the right side of the front flap.
Amazon sent me a second copy of the CD box. The second set they sent me still has the same problem. I'm not going to go for a third round. Warner needs to get the replacement discs situation taken care of.
Curious what you find out on that also! I was actually considering getting the Bellman cut ordered the new boxset instead. It should be here next week.
I won't be able to compare for a few days on the newest Grundman cut, but I actually like my oldest pressing of Court more than the Bellman (as great as it sounds).. But it's all super subtle nitpicks anyway and I have a very basic setup.
Emailed Joni's website and Rhino a couple weeks back and didn't receive a response from either. Fantastic customer service nowadays...
In my experience, defective sets stay around forever Sending back the set to the retailer is a waste of time when it comes to an error like this. The easiest way to operate a replacement disc programme is to provide an email address for customers. All they need to do is send proof of purchase and their postal address.
Bummer ….. Nice way to balls up a new release. Do we know if anyone, anywhere has received a CD set that isn’t faulty ? Any other review sites mention the issue ?
I don't think the corrected CD exists at all yet. I say "yet" to convey some optimism but I wouldn't rule out the "swept under the rug" approach. We know that they don't care about CD sales. The profit these days is in vinyl. If this had been a problem in the vinyl set you can be sure they would have announced a replacement programme in 24 hours. I am tempted to put this set and the previous ones on eBay and send a big FY to the Joni Mitchell archives. I will stream them if they return to Spotify otherwise it's ok, I have other music to play.
I want to add that at the moment they have shown lack of professionalism in three different ways. 1) this error should have been spotted and it's absolutely pathetic that it wasn't. 2) once they found out they should have recalled the boxset immediately to avoid people the aggravation of buying a faulty product and then seeking around how they will get a new CD. 3) it's more than one month and they still have not acknowledged the problem on any official channel. Whatever happens with this CD replacement I am not going to give them other chances. I will never again buy a CD boxset on release day. The industry doesn't care and so shouldn't we.
The mastering on this set (and the prior one) is excellent, better than the HDCDs. The first album remix was a mistake, but I've still got the HDCD version for the original mix. And the lyrics.
I've stopped buying them on release day anyway. What's the point when Amazon have reduced the price on all of them within days (if not hours)?
Shameful, really. I can't believe they don't have a final QC done on these sets before they're manufactured. And this issue was pretty damned glaring to boot. Failing to set up a replacement program in a timely (maybe never?) manner is the real kicker.
I held off on the first CD set for quite awhile and only picked it up in the last few months, pretty cheap from JPC.de when they had it discounted. I was willing to grab this one upon release but that plan has bit the dust. Unless something official is worked out, I guess I’ll hang back a year and try my luck then. There’s plenty more stuff to drain my wallet.
I need to correct myself. They are also showing a terrible lack of professionalism and respect for their customers in a fourth way: they do not reply to emails.
Received a response from Rhino and they wanted me to send a picture of the "damage" on my defective disc. I wrote back that it's an issue of duplicating a song, so it's really not "damaged" as such, just really shoddy QC. My feeling is that this just isn't going to get fixed at this point. There just doesn't seem to be any push toward getting a replacement program in place--it's just a few of us complaining on a handful of music sites. Not exactly pitchforks at the gates stuff here. But who knows? Maybe they'll go ahead and do the right thing for paying customers.
this is what i wanna know too. i wanna be one and done with these 2 sets. are these the best digital yet, barring the 2 DCC's??
This set was on my short list to buy, but I’ll wait. To buy now signals Rhino that putting out a defective product does not matter.
I'm so glad now that I returned my CD box set to Amazon for a refund. It really does look like they are in denial and won't fix the problem. Really poor from Rhino.
