Modern albums given good remasters

Since the creation of the concept, audiophile remasters have been the domain of jazz and classic rock. (At least, once they got over their obsession with freight trains and thunderstorms.) While I'm glad that many of these seminal recordings have been so well-cared for, it's also disappointing because these are often the albums that need the least help.

On the other hand, music from my teenage years onwards, beginning in the mid-90s, has been almost wholly neglected, despite being the music in the most dire need of remastering. Many classic albums from this period still exist only in the way they sounded on their original release: massively over-compressed with no mid-range frequencies to speak of. Entire catalogues by multi-platinum artists like the Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Incubus, Killers, and Linkin Park, among hundreds of others, are only available in godawful, atrocious masterings that render them all but unlistenable.

I realize there are many and complicated reasons for this, e.g., my generation tends to listen to music from Spotify through earbuds; the internet fractured and divided genres and did away with the massive-selling album of years past; etc. The bottom line is that audiophile companies see newer music as a risk compared to releasing yet another remaster of Pet Sounds or A Kind of Blue.

That said, I'm seeing a few signs of hope on the horizon. Perhaps the most shocking, for me, was to see MFSL take on Weezer's blue album, a landmark of early modern rock and one of the first I remember experiencing myself when it was new. Or, somewhat older but along the same lines, several Pixies albums. Other long-established artists, like Rush, are seeing their modern era albums get sympathetic remasters.

My hope with this thread is to compile a list of albums from the loudness war era that have been given good remasters. There have to be some signs of life out there!

 

I think it's good that MFSL has done audiophile reissues of some newer albums, but they need to do more of them instead of reissuing a Bread album that is probably really common in the used bin. AP also needs to reissue newer stuff.

Two albums that I would really love to see given the audiophile reissue treatment are "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" and "Blonde," but I think the existing reissue labels would see it as too much of a risk given those are albums from this decade that don't typically appeal to their older audiophile buyers.

 

Green Day - American Idiot (hi-res remaster) is amazing. No limiting, no clipping. The hi-res versions of 21st Century Breakdown and Uno, Dos, Tre are all improvements as well over the original hard limited CDs.

 

The 24bit remasters of Weird Al's entire discography fixes the second half of his catalog (Poodle Hat and on) that was hard limited and clipped. Much more dynamic, no limiting, no clipping.

 

Blackfield's first two albums were remastered in 2017 and, again, were much more dynamic with no clipping when compared to the original CDs.

 

Pretty sure this would require an entirely new mix to have any sort of dynamic range worthy of an audiophile-grade release. Don't get me wrong, it's a great album, but Kanye loves his hard limiters.

 

This is good to know! American Idiot was THE album of my first year in university, it was inescapable.

 

Unfortunately, there aren't many, as you know. The few I could think of off the top of my head are above, I'll add more if I can think of them.

I had to laugh that your first example of a "modern" album (with regards to audiophile reissue labels) is an album from 1994, 25 years ago. That would be like describing Dark Side of the Moon as "modern" in 1998, you know, around the time of Third Eye Blind and the Backstreet Boys. But I get what you mean.

 

It's sad but true! It seems strange to me to think that albums like The Cars or Dark Side of the Moon got audiophile remasters only a couple of years after their original releases, while I've been waiting decades for some of the albums I grew up with to get the same treatment.

 

Kevin Gray's remasters of Sufjan Steven's Illinois is very good. I've compared atleast 3 copies. It's probably Sufjan's album that demands the best mastering as well. I ultimately settled on a non KG master of Michigan however and it ultimately came down to vinyl quality and after comparing 4 copies of Michigan, surface noise was the determining factor.

The blur remasters as superb as well!

 

And really, the standards are so low that just releasing the original mixes UNMASTERED would constitute an audiophile release in comparison. Frustrating that so much great music could be a lot nicer to listen to.

Alice In Chains hi-res The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. It's a joy to listen to.

 

I'll second the Blur remasters. They were my favourite band throughout most of the 90s and I didn't think they could sound much better than they did, but they were a big surprise, in a good way! The clarity on Modern Life Is Rubbish is excellent. I'm still using the same CD player I used in the mid 90s, a reliable old Sony that I won't replace, so the improvement isn't down to having better equipment.

 

The 2012 Bellman cut of Californication is a huge improvement over the original master by Vlado Meller. And Stadium Arcadium never needed a vinyl remaster because Gray and Hoffman did it. The entire catalog does not need remastering. Both of these titles are currently in print.

The MoFi Weezer Blue Album is awful. The original Marino vinyl mastering is far away superior in every way.

Here's my take on MoFi and AP getting the authorization for newer albums. They won't get it. The majors know they hire Bellman, Gray, or Ryan Smith to do it for them. It would be in there catalog and they can repress to meet future demand.

 

Really? I thought it sounded pretty dang good.

 

Katatonia’s “The Great Cold Distance” is a really good remaster. Also the 24 bit versions of “Thirteen” and “Super Collider” from Megadeth sound really good.

 

I do agree that a remix would be the only way to get MBDTF to audiophile quality as the current mix is extremely cluttered and has little room to breathe, even if you did a remaster of that mix. However, a decent remaster of the original mix would be the first step to opening it up and making it sound better.

 

Our host's remasters of the first two Rage Against the Machine albums.

 

Okay, so I've been trying to get a definitive answer on this, but no one can say for sure: Is the Green Day AI HD album the same mastering for both the 192/24 and the 96/24 downloads? Or are they different? Philistine that I am, I'm just going to be converting the files to 320 kbps, anyway. So, as long as the mastering is the same, I don't really need the extra file space for five dollars.

And on that note, a few other questions:

1. How is the International Superhits HD? I noticed that "Maria" and "Poprocks and Coke" are both 44.1/24, which would indicate that the record company either: A) couldn't find the masters, or B) couldn't be bothered (since they'd already remastered all of the other tracks on the individual albums), and so these two tracks are probably just flat transfers of the existing files. Pretty cheesy, but it doesn't really surprise me, knowing record companies.

2. That said, how do their other earlier albums sound on HD (Dookie through Warning)? Are they good enough that something like International Superhits HD (providing it's using the same masters from those releases) would be worth it for someone who doesn't want to buy everything all at once, and just wants good-sounding versions of the singles?

3. And finally, what about God's Favorite Band HD? I noticed that it's 88/24. Why? When then they could have just used the 96/24 files from the existing albums? Or does that mean that this is just a flat transfer of the (highly compressed) commercially available mp3 download? If so, that's really irritating that they would sell that, advertising it as a "hi-res" download. But again, nothing record companies do surprises me anymore.

Anyway, if you could help with any of these questions, it would be greatly appreciated. I'm about ready to pull the trigger as a Father's Day present to myself. But I want to know what I'm getting. Thanks.

 

I can only answer one of your questions, this one. They are the same mastering. I'd be interested in the answers to the rest of your questions though, I only have the five hi-res Green Day albums I mentioned in my first post.

 

That's cool. Thanks for responding so quickly. At least you answered my most pressing question. I love AI, and really want it in better sound than the crappy CD. The other earlier albums aren't that badly mastered to begin with (at least, comparatively speaking). But AI is squashed on the compact disc. And it's not substantially better on vinyl, sadly. So, you answering the mastering question is huge. Will now buy this. Thanks again.

 

Faith No More - Angel Dust - MFSL

 

No problem. Don't expect Pink Floyd level dynamics, Green Day is a punk rock band... but the original CD was DR5 with a ton of clipping, the hi-res is DR9 (almost doubled the dynamics) and no clipping.

 

Me too. It's a huge improvement over the original CD, and it's SACD to boot. I'm not really sure how it could be improved on. I can't comment on vinyl versions of that album since I've never heard any of them, my primary interest (where rock is concerned) is in digital formats.

 

The MFSL Pixies titles are great.

 

Kinks Deluxe CDs and now the recent Mono LP boxset are both outstanding. XTC Steven Wilson remasters are also good.