I'm that guy who has three different vinyl pressings of "Heyday", and still couldn't buy an Intervention Records pressing of it quickly enough.
I've come to the realization that Heyday is actually one of my least favorite Church albums. I was surprised to learn this the other day when I found much of side two to drag. That said, I'd still eat ramen for a month to fund my purchase of two copies of an Intervention SACD.
I would buy three copies of an IR pressing of Heyday. 2 for my brothers and one for myself. That and Seance are my two favorite Church albums.
I will buy two copies of every Church SACD released by Intervention. Or Rubellan, if that happens (CD rather than SACD in that case). I put in my pre-order for two Starfish SACDs today. Were it not for the fact that I'm losing my job, I probably would have ordered three! I still think Seance will be a better seller than Heyday from Intervention. Maybe I'm wrong. I think that it would be the better choice for the market, because Heyday is common and cheap while Seance is rare and expensive, and if the Starfish reissue gets people interested in the band, I think it would be better for the harder to find album to come out next. Also, there has been a very rocky history between the Church and reissue labels. Part of me worries that the plug could potentially get pulled again, and just in case that happens, I want a dynamic, well-mastered, error-free digital mastering of Seance as soon as possible!
Totally unrelated, but we were discussing Untitled #23 some time ago, and randomly, "Happenstance" just hit me. Totally bowled me over. I'm not even listening to it - it just randomly started playing in my head. I had always thought of this as a lesser track on the album, but whatever wasn't connecting with me before just did. Wow!
It’s a much better album than folks give it credit for. They were on a roll with Marty, Pete & Tim with this one.
Saying it's one of my least favorite Church albums is no insult! The first three tracks are perfect, and I love "As You Will" too. But I never quite dug "Happy Hunting Ground" or "Youth Worshipper", I've never made heads or tails of "Roman", and the studio version of "Tantalized" just totally pales compared to the amazing live version from A Psychedelic Symphony. I played all the albums in chronological order the other day, and I found myself growing antsy during this one and Gold Afternoon Fix. Still a 7/10 at minimum, probably an 8. But considering how many 9's and 10's the Church have, it's lower on my list!
The songs are amazing of course, but I had them on Remote Luxury already. As an EP you're right, one of the strongest collection of songs even without the great cover.
Spun all the EPs today. Sing-Songs is a bit of a dud. "A Different Man" is nice, the rest sounds totally stilted to me. Not bad, but not very good. Remote Luxury is better. I love "Into My Hands" and "A Month Of Sundays". But "Maybe These Boys" is a bit annoying, and "Remote Luxury" doesn't do much for me; it comes out a little ahead of Sing-Songs, but not a ton. Persia, on the other hand, is great. Honestly, I think it's second to The Blurred Crusade in their pre-Starfish discography. It would be my #1 if the two songs I mentioned from Remote Luxury replaced "Volumes" and "Violet Town". (Yeah, I know, no Marty songs - "Ten Thousand Miles" is my #6 on the Remote Luxury album, don't worry.) If Intervention is able to do the entire pre-Starfish catalog, how should the EPs be handled? Both Blurred Crusade and Seance are very light on bonus tracks; you could put Sing-Songs as a bonus to one of them, alongside a remastered version of the Remote Luxury album. Or, do all three EPs in one package, a la the 2001 CD (but with good sound) and have the two bonus tracks from each of the previous albums on a 10" or something.
My preference would be for Seance to be the next release and include Sing-Songs as bonus tracks. Mainly because with the Death Of Physical Media™ I keep hearing about, I worry there won't be enough support to get them all out (i.e. licenses won't be given out, corners will be cut, IR's attention to detail won't be deemed necessary by license owners, etc.), and I want an error-free Seance and a well-mastered Sing-Songs ASAP!
There's also the matter of previous Church reissues going up in flames. Hell, there was supposed to be a box set of rare SK solo stuff last year, and that vanished without a trace. I want the two that need good digital editions done right away!!
As much as I dislike the mastering on the 2001 EMI release, I think combining the 3 EPs was the right move. Since the Remote Luxury 'album' was already a combination of 2 EPs, adding Sing-Songs to it made sense. It would probably have to be a double LP though for the vinyl release.
I tried to EQ-match the 2001 CD to the Hindsight version of "The Night Is Very Soft" to use in my remastering, and it sounds like a completely different mix. Which almost makes me wonder if it is, considering there actually is an alternate mix of that song - but I'm fairly certain it's the same and it's just so thoroughly destroyed by hideous mastering that there's no way to repair it.
Agreed. I was basically a clean-up of everything that was left after the albums with their respective era b-sides had been issued as part of that campaign. But it sure would've been nice if they hadn't blown it waaay out with all that compression. Since we're daydreaming; what I really want is the video version of "A Different Man" to be released. So strange to have the video version of a song be unique and unreleased.
There's also the aforementioned alternate mix of "The Night Is Very Soft", and the rock radio remix of "Reptile". There's a few collector bait mixes that only got released once.