Davey
11-20-2004, 12:40 PM
Out for a good long run this morning with a friend and then back home and pulled out an old favorite to tickle the eardrums. The La's. This is one of my all-time faves. I can remember many, many mornings getting ready for work with this brit-pop classic playing in the background. What a perfect feel good record to spin when you want to get your mind awake. Almost like a cup or two of some good java. Twelve first rate pop songs in a row without a single track that is even close to not good. Produced (in the end) by Steve Lillywhite and released in 1990 after many delays due to lead man Lee Mavers perfectionism, a perfectionism that led to many band changes and producer changes and re-recordings and ultimately to him disowning this brilliant album because it was not as perfect as he wanted. A true shame, because it is nearly perfect and one of the most satisfying and enjoyable albums I have ever heard. I think the single "There She Goes" was fairly successful, but the album didn't come out until a couple years later and so couldn't ride the coattails of the hit song. Many bands have since covered songs from this monumental album and Oasis kind of built a career around it, but this is the real deal.
Picked up the 2001 Polydor UK remaster for a super low price from a Canadian source when it came out, even though the original is only from 1990 - but there are also 5 bonus tracks which clinched the deal. A golden opportunity to hear one of my all-time faves, remastered and expanded, for less than the price you would pay for most used albums. As is usually the case with me, the bonus tracks tend to detract from the flow of the album and I always skip them after the first couple listens. But the sound quality is significantly improved over my original without any negatives that I can hear. The vocals are clearer and there is more airiness around all the sounds which helps relieve the congestion of sounds in the middle on the original. Much more relaxed presentation. Never an audiophile recording by any stretch and the results will of course depend on your system and listening preferences, but well worth it on my system and fortunately they only needed to add compression to a couple of the songs to jack up the volume since most of the songs were originally mastered at a very low level so could be normalized. It has a certain honest quality missing from many modern recordings, perhaps because it was done in analog (I'm pretty sure), and I'm a sucker for most things analog.
Next up, one of those bottles of Mission St. Pale Ale along with Graham Parker's Heat Treatment....
<i>Heat treatment, baby, sweet treatment, baby
Heat treatment, while the flame is burning
Heat treatment, baby, sweet treatment, baby
Heat treatment, while the world is turning
around, round, around, round, around</i>
Any cool weekend tunes taking shape in your neck of the woods?
Picked up the 2001 Polydor UK remaster for a super low price from a Canadian source when it came out, even though the original is only from 1990 - but there are also 5 bonus tracks which clinched the deal. A golden opportunity to hear one of my all-time faves, remastered and expanded, for less than the price you would pay for most used albums. As is usually the case with me, the bonus tracks tend to detract from the flow of the album and I always skip them after the first couple listens. But the sound quality is significantly improved over my original without any negatives that I can hear. The vocals are clearer and there is more airiness around all the sounds which helps relieve the congestion of sounds in the middle on the original. Much more relaxed presentation. Never an audiophile recording by any stretch and the results will of course depend on your system and listening preferences, but well worth it on my system and fortunately they only needed to add compression to a couple of the songs to jack up the volume since most of the songs were originally mastered at a very low level so could be normalized. It has a certain honest quality missing from many modern recordings, perhaps because it was done in analog (I'm pretty sure), and I'm a sucker for most things analog.
Next up, one of those bottles of Mission St. Pale Ale along with Graham Parker's Heat Treatment....
<i>Heat treatment, baby, sweet treatment, baby
Heat treatment, while the flame is burning
Heat treatment, baby, sweet treatment, baby
Heat treatment, while the world is turning
around, round, around, round, around</i>
Any cool weekend tunes taking shape in your neck of the woods?