ive bought about 5 copies of the ist 1978 pressing of this album hoping to get a good wuthering heights. they all had distortion except one mint copy that i scratched!! ive also had a mint 1st pressing japanese pressing that sounded slightly lack luster compared to the uk one. so with 'here we go again' thoughts i bought the remastered copy,hmm not as good dynamically as the 1st pressing i think,what do you guys reckon? im getting to the point of just playing the cd
Best I've ever heard is the 45rpm UK 1st pressing (EMI 2719). They can still be found but of course condition will make all the difference.
You could certainly do worse than the CD. The original EMI disc is excellent, and last year’s remaster is very good too.
45rpm,ive not heard of that. i also may have been a bit hasty,ive just dropped the vta to allow for 180g and it has come to life.
I was talking about the 45rpm single I had which sounded awesome. Still regret selling it. Anyway it appears that you may have solved the problem so that's great.
If anyone wants to know what the new Kick Inside remaster looks like (packaging/labels etc.) I did a video....
I bought both the CD's sets (+ 'Lionheart' on vinyl) and am very happy with them (apart from the odd choice of photos...). I am so happy with the way these albums sound. Real stand-outs for me are 'The Kick Inside', 'Lionheart' and 'The Dreaming'. They are clearer but not at all compressed or loud or harsh. Clear yet warm, which is great!!! 'Never For Ever' is good, although it is less warm than 'The Kick Inside' and 'Lionheart'. The only album I feel skeptical about is 'The Sensual World' where some songs do sound enhanced ('Deeper Understanding', 'The Fog', 'Never Be Mine'..) while others ('The Sensual World', 'Love And Anger') seems to have remained untouched... As for 'The Red Shoes': the 2011 remaster is much better as it shows no sibilance and it far less metallic). 'Director's Cut' 2011 sounded so muddy and ''smothered'', now it's more opened (however, I believe it was recorded and mixed poorly in the first place, so a simple remaster can't actually perform a miracle.....). Even '50 Words For Snows' is now a little brighter: you can hear more clearly the drums and even the bells on 'Wild Man', for instance ... I'll give my impressions on the bonus CD's as soon as I have some time. Bye for now
I'm really bummed that these Remastered sets don't include the versions from the On Stage EP. The version of Them Heavy People is my preferred recording and I have to resort to YouTube to listen to it!
Right-o. I wish that those bonus discs had been available separately at some point. At this point, seems like if I can find a copy of this set for less than $80, I'll be lucky! Ah well.
On the Bonus CDs: they decided to sequence the songs - apparently - at random, without taking into consideration the time/year when they were originally released. I am not criticizing this decision. But there is a problem: while remastering the masters of those old songs (some dated back to the mid-70s, others the 90s), they didn't even try to gel them as a whole and cohesive ''group'': the consequence is that you can immediately hear the difference. You can hear and feel they were recorded at different times and recorded at different studios by different engineers. These bonus CDs are hard to listen to if you like homogeneity in sound..... I give you some examples: we have a song like 'Warm And Soothing' (which is so warm and tender sounding) next to 'Show A Little Devotion' (which sound so digital and trebly....). They just don't go together. I ended up burning my own CDs, respecting the time of the original releases.
I'm home for the week I wanted to share this poster for the Canadian release of The Kick Inside on Harvest: The tagline is "Discover the extraordinary singing poetess from England."
I have a USA original, on the Harvest label, cut by my friend, Ken Perry (KP in the runout). No distortion. Wally Traugott (credited on the jacket, although the earliest cuts were done by Ken) also cut this, using the same Neumann lathe Ken used. I have not heard UK cuts, so can't speak to which is better, but the KP cuts don't have any distortion on the inner cuts.
