Has it ever happened that a remaster removed the "loudness" out of an album?

I was listening to the wonderful but terribly compressed "Everybody Loves A Happy Ending". The music is beautiful and so layered that it really needs space to breathe, but the album is so loud and the dynamics are so crushed that everything seems to be suffocating at all times.
I was thinking how great would it be if TFF released a remaster with a proper mastering job, i.e. without being brickwalled to death, but it occurred to me that it would be highly improbable, as if they would admit to a mistake. Has it ever happened that a remaster removed the "loudness" out of an album?
This question is specially relevant for post mid-90s albums, obviously.

 

Couple Alanis Morissette/Tom Petty titles received a more dynamic mastering. (Hi-Rez)
That Tears For Fears title would be a god-send if given back it's dynamics.

 

Rush's Vapor Trails was remixed to try to alleviate some of the problems. Unfortunately many were endemic to the recording itself.

 

Time to do some more

 

Metallica's "Death Magnetic"! No, seriously! 2008 release has DR3, while 2015 Mastered for iTunes release has DR7!
Okay, bad joke. But apparently they did remove some "loudness" in that version

 

Donovan „Sunshine Superman“.... EMI’s 2 CD edition has a higher dynamic range as the original CD release.

 

The recent vinyl releases of In Absentia and Deadwing by Porcupine Tree.

 

If you ever get the chance please do the first three Oasis albums Steve. Actually you'd have to do them all.

 

the recording and mix are totally compressed. Even a remix can’t help

 

The "go to" version for DM is the Guitar Hero version that circulates...

 

The 20th anniversary of In Utero gained a bit DR compared with the original.

The 2015 remaster of New Order‘s Singles is way more dynamic than the original 2005 release. Not sure if that one counts since this collection wasn‘t a true „original“ in the first place.

 

Yes, and the interesting thing is that we're now in an age where albums from peak Loudness War era are being remastered to fix what they ruined the first time around, like The Feeling's 'Twelve Stops And Home' from 2006, which received a complete master overhaul last year.

 

All music is at root a complex combination of tonal frequencies expressed at a certain amplitude. Personally, I've found that with the right tonal adjustments (using professional tools, not the controls on your stereo receiver) you can often at least somewhat mitigate the effects of overly aggressive compression - though it's always preferable if the sound hadn't been compromised as such in the first place...

 

Unfortunately they still massacred the earlier singles where a cd single was first issued. Technique and Republic included.

 

Yeah I know. But subject of the thread is remasters, so GH version of DM doesn't really count.

 

Green Day's American Idiot got an HDTracks release that is a lot more dynamic than the original CD.

Same for Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American on 7Digital (at 192kHz).

I'll second the Alanis Morissette hi-res titles mentioned above.

Steven Wilson's Insurgentes remaster from 2016 is better than the original disc, as are all of the Blackfield remastered CDs.

 

It's so great we have you, Sir.

 

What!? Ugh, I need to buy this!

 

Yup, original CD was DR5, HDTracks is DR9 and it sounds great, absolutely no clipping, all the limiting distortion is gone, and there's much better separation between the instruments. My theory is this is the master they used to cut the vinyl, so it's basically the final master before squishing the crap out of it for CD and iTunes.

 

Big Big Train - English Electric

The original albums had DR 8 (part 1) and DR 7 (part 2)

2016 remaster has DR 12

 

The Audio Fidelity and Motown hi-rez Stevie Wonder remasters come to mind.

 

From what I understand [regarding Definitely Maybe and (What's The Story) Morning Glory] the (admittedly not very good sounding) 24 track masters were mixed down to half-inch and DAT simultaneously. Then mixing compression was added (no mastering compression at this point). DAT copies of the half-inch masters were then done as a safety copy.

Then Owen Morris further crushed the hell out of the analog half-inch tapes and copied them to another DAT before sending the DAT to the mastering house. So why not remaster from the original DAT safety copies? They would have to sound better. Even a small improvement would be desperately welcome.

 

Just my guess, the problem might be that the band themselves wished to have that overcompressed sound and neither of the Gallagher brothers is interested returning to the pre-masters.