Fleetwood Mac Rumours 180gm vinyl reissue?

Just noticed this at redtrumpet:


Label: Warner / Elektra / Atlantic
Catalog Number: 27313
Features: 180 Gram
Import from GERMANY
180-gram reissue from Germany of Fleetwood Mac's huge hit from 1977.

Anyone heard of WEA re-releases? I'm curious if it's from the original master tape?

 

Haven't heard Rumours on the German 180 grammer. I've been told some of those Warner Brothers releases over there are hit and miss.
The one I have got is Donald Fagen's Nightfly. Highly recommended.

 

The Rumours LP should come from a German LP master tape. It's assumption by experience, but I'd say stick with a clean US pressing. The Japanese LP sounds fairly incredible.

 

WEA 180gm imports

FWIW, I've read that these records are cut from the same digital masters as regular CDs, NOT the analog originals.

 

German Fleetwood Mac Rumours LP

I have it and I do not recommend it. I was extremely disappointed. The sound is amusical. Highs are cutoff. Drum sound is like beating an oatmeal box.

Maybe if Simply Vinyl releases a version, they may do a better job.

Otherwise pass on this one.

 

I have some of the German 180 reissues and overall have been happy with the sound quality (Police, Soundgarden, Cat Stevens, etc.). I did have to return a high percentage of them due to imperfections which was of some concern. I have not heard the Rumors lp on this label. I do own the Nautilus half speed version and highly recommend it. It usually can be had for about $30 on ebay and would recommend picking up a copy if you find one.

 

That's good to know about Rumours.

I don't want to knock all the recent German re-issues as I am pleased with the overall effort. That is the main reason I was quite disappointed with the WEA pressing of Rumours.

I mention Simply Vinyl because they have had some good pressings (I especially like their work with Nick Drake) and some so so pressings.

 

If it's the one that came out five years ago or so it's junk. Look for a good English or Japanese original; they'r both cut by Ken Perry right here in the states!

 

Hit and Miss

All records are hit and miss!

The Nightfly is the best version ever. Others in that series are worse than the worse CD you ever heard.

 

Which Cat Stevens? Mona Bone? That was a disaster.

The Police album is quite good, I recommended it.

 

Ronald, you need to get yourself some real English pressings of Nick Drake. The SV versions are very digital sounding and are surely made from digital tapes or actual CDs, which is not unusual by the way.

 

Unfortunately for me, those are the only vinyl versions I have been able to find. Ever since the VW Cabriolet commercial with "Pink Moon", I can't find any vinyl.

If you have any, let me know. I imagine domestic pressings are good, but not as good as the British Island(?) LPs.

 

Yes, the doode would have to knock out his wallet for ruined US Islands or UK Pink Islands and pay dearly for them.

Unless someone else does them, the SV's, IMHO are best to go. I have to say they did a fair enough job on them. Definately room for improvement, and I don't necessarilly like SV, but most of the Island stuff was done well.

Nick had a 3 LP set out in the US I believe, on Island, and it collected all three of his poiynant works in package. Problem is, sonically, it was terrible (Capitol pressings, and were engineered poorly) and that package didn't sell well nor did they make many of them.

I'd love to complain about SV prices too, but... look for yourself.....

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1515001926

 

I have all three Simply Vinyl Drake titles, and I'm happy enough with them.

They allow me to sink into and enjoy the music. That's the bottom line ... I can't be bothered with kicking myself because original UKs might be better. Life is short, and money (not to mention TIME for the hunt) doesn't grow on trees ...

 

$76.00 ? One can buy the three SV's new. Youch!

 

Sorry, but those SV records don't sound good, and I'm guessing the CDs are better. I recommend you try at least one to see. I'm not a big enough fan to bother but I know a bad sounding record when I hear one.

 

In your opinion, I'm sure you meant to add.

I have all the CDs as well, two different editions. I enjoy the Simply Vinyl LPs more.

 

I know some of the SVs are not the ultimate versions, but they are accessable and are easy to find, as some of the originals were'nt that great in the inner grooves anyway.

 

I would never say the Drake ones are the ultimate versions ... and I'm sure the original UK pressings are better!

But by the time you've located clean originals, and eaten nothing but peanut butter for a month to save up enough dough to pay for them ... you could have already bought and been enjoying the SV versions (clean as a whistle!). The Drake titles didn't exactly shift millions in their day; there aren't as many of 'em around as there are of, say, UK Beatles originals.

Not every record in my collection has to be the "ultimate" version. Ya gotta choose your battles ... And if I had found the Drake CDs (either edition) to be better, I would have turned around and resold the Drake SV LPs a long time ago.

 

Jeff, that's EXACTLY what I was trying to say!

 

Me too! Mee tooo!

 

When one has children to feed and education bills to pay, in my eyes it is okay to make compromises on other things. Sure it would be nice to have the ultimate issue of everything, but I'll be happy with anything I can get. I am not hard to please.

Of course I would like to have a $63,000 six speed BMW 540i, but I can afford a nicer home by getting a $25000 VW Passat instead. I agree the VW has nowhere the "ooh aah" pleasure factor as the Bimmer, but the VW possesses as much passenger room and cargo space as that Ultimate Driving Machine and the VW is still somewhat satisfying to drive.

 

Re: German Fleetwood Mac Rumours LP

Don't bet your house on it. Simply Vinyl does NOT remaster records. It just let the various licensing labels do the works for it. I have proof:

Van Morrison: Moondance
Copy 1: WEA Germany
Catalog #: 7599-27326-1
Side 1 matrix #: WMME Alsdort 759 927326-1-A
Side 2 matrix #: WMME Alsdort 759 927326-1-B

Copy 2: Simply Vinyl
Catalog #: 7599-27326-1
Side 1 matrix #: WMME Alsdort 759 927326-1-A
Side 2 matrix #: WMME Alsdort 759 927326-1-B

The only differences are cosmetic. The WEA has a serial number (1937) printed on the low right corner of the front cover and the SV has it blank; they have different catalog inserts; the WEA was shrink wrapped and the SV came in the notorious thick sharp-edged plastic outer sleeve with the SV silver seal.

Other SV WEA titles are the same and you can't tell it from WEA without the outer sleeves and inserts. Titles licensed from other labels may or may not (most do) have SV catalog numbers printed on the covers and the labels.

If SV releases Rumors, it will still be done by WEA in Germany, and probably with the same stampers unless it is re-remastered, by WEA. Better sounding? It depends who's remastering it at the label.

 

Re: Re: German Fleetwood Mac Rumours LP

Paul, you are partly right. Here's the full story.

SV did have their own versions of Moondance and Rumours which I reviewed and recommended in my catalog. They had SVLP stampers.

Months afterwards people started telling me the sound was mediocre and I said "No way". Someone returned one of the records to me and it had the mediocre German WEA 180 gram LP inside the SV sleeve.

I believe this is what happened. They sold through the first run, and when they went back to the label, the label said something like: "we have plenty of records already pressed, use these."

And they did.

And nobody knew the difference. Except me. Not Music Direct, not Acoustic Sounds, not Elusive Disc, none of them. Do you know why? Because they never played the records in the first place, so how would they know if they sounded different?

I returned all the rest of my stock on those two titles and stopped recommending them.

Things like this do happen. There are 7 different versions of Crime of the Century on MOFI, 7!, all mastered by SR, all sounding different.

How about this one, even better. Two versions of Sgt. Pepper on MOFI, one by Jack Hunt, one by Stan Ricker. One sounds way better than the other. Which one do you have?

So Simply Vinyl can't be trusted you say?

NO LABEL CAN BE TRUSTED. (Present company excluded of course.)

I can be trusted, but there's a simple reason for that. It's not that I care, or I love my job, or anything else like that. It's that I can't afford to sell you a bad record and lose you as a customer. My customers are looking for the best. That's what they want from me. I can't sell anything less. (No SV Nick Drake, that's for damn sure.) If it's not the best, and not every record I sell can be, I have to make sure they understand there are shortcomings. Then they can decide for themselves if they want it, and I can sleep well at night.

So I have to stay on my best behavior, recommendation wise anyway.

 

Re: Re: Re: German Fleetwood Mac Rumours LP

Tom,

Thanks for the rest of the story. You said SV "went back to the label", which means the first run of those two titles were pressed by WEA too, right?

I wasn't partly right. I just missed the first part.