Revisionist History
In the last few years, I've picked up a few albums that are, in one way or another, revisions of other albums I've owned.
Let It Be... Naked is probably the most dramatic reinvention. Two songs (alothough that's a generous use of the word; both are under a minute) were dropped: "Maggie Mae" and "Dig It". One was added: "Don't Let Me Down" (a personal favorite). All the tracks are alternate takes, and remastered ones at that. The claim is that these stripped-down takes, which in particular eschew the sonic excesses of Phil Spector's strings and choirs. Performance-wise, they aren't all better, but some are. It's also nice to hear the remastered recordings, which are sharper and have more depth than the original CD releases (which were mastered when CD technology was still new).
Next came the Flaming Lips' 5.1 remix of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Splitting the music amongs multiple channels adds a lot, and there may be one or two spots with new effects or small instrumental flourishes, but overall, the music remained the same.
The Lips' next 5.1 release, The Soft Bulletin, brought comparatively bigger changes to that album. The original had two tracks repeated with different mixes, which always struck me as odd. The new version, in addition to the 5.1 mix, drops the duplicates, resequences the tracks, and adds one additional track. There are also more noticable instrumental and sound effect additions.
Modest Mouse rereleased their Moon & Antarctica as a new mix a few years after it was originally released. The changes are subtle, and mainly serve to improve the sonic quality of the album, as frontman Isaac was never, apparently, completely satisfied with the previous mix. There are a few bonus tracks, too, but they don't really count.
Ben Folds Five's Whatever & Ever Amen also saw a rerelease eight years after its debut (wow, it's been a long time). Similar to the Modest Mouse album, the songs are remastered (though perhaps not noticably so), and bonus tracks added. A glaring ommision, however, is the original's hidden track: "Look, I've got your hidden track right here, pal, right here! Listen! Ben Folds is a fuck-in asshole!" It was an addition that I always found rather charming and that, for me, was a very characteristic moment for the band, and its absence is missed.
Another interesting case is the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (which I happen to think is the greatest album ever). Brian Wilson was deaf in one ear and never mixed in stereo. A stereo mix was constructed for the Pet Sounds boxed set; subsequent releases of the album featured the stereo program in addition to the original mono. There are some slight changes in the mix at points where the original recording was not available as multiple tracks to remix, and I believe these are comparably minor.
Finally, Belle & Sebastian recently performed their seminal If You're Feeling Sinister live in its entirety, and released a recording of it in its entirety on iTunes. It's sort of a rerelease, sort of not.
I would have thought that I'd be against this sort of thing. Such classic albums as those listed above, I usually have memorized down to minute detail. It'd be a shame to lose the click of the tape turning off on Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, for example, as it's a moment of such wonderful finality.
But here are lots of examples where I bought into it. A good portion of it can, probably be chalked up to my rampant consumerism. It helps that many of these revisions occurred under the guise of the artists' original intentions. The Beatles (or at least Paul) wanted a stripped down sound. Isaac was unhappy with his final mix. The Lips were pursuing their multichannel ambitions which began with Zaireeka.
Even the case where things weren't explicitly the artist's intentions, with Pet Sounds, I find the stereo a definite improvement on the original mono.
The only negative change, in my opinion, is the deletion of the ten seconds of hidden track on the Ben Folds Five album.
But there's a fine line between this and the George Lucas, Star Wars Special Edition, Greedo shot first, or walkie talkies instead of guns in ET type of revisionism. How far is too far?
Let It Be... Naked is probably the most dramatic reinvention. Two songs (alothough that's a generous use of the word; both are under a minute) were dropped: "Maggie Mae" and "Dig It". One was added: "Don't Let Me Down" (a personal favorite). All the tracks are alternate takes, and remastered ones at that. The claim is that these stripped-down takes, which in particular eschew the sonic excesses of Phil Spector's strings and choirs. Performance-wise, they aren't all better, but some are. It's also nice to hear the remastered recordings, which are sharper and have more depth than the original CD releases (which were mastered when CD technology was still new).
Next came the Flaming Lips' 5.1 remix of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Splitting the music amongs multiple channels adds a lot, and there may be one or two spots with new effects or small instrumental flourishes, but overall, the music remained the same.
The Lips' next 5.1 release, The Soft Bulletin, brought comparatively bigger changes to that album. The original had two tracks repeated with different mixes, which always struck me as odd. The new version, in addition to the 5.1 mix, drops the duplicates, resequences the tracks, and adds one additional track. There are also more noticable instrumental and sound effect additions.
Modest Mouse rereleased their Moon & Antarctica as a new mix a few years after it was originally released. The changes are subtle, and mainly serve to improve the sonic quality of the album, as frontman Isaac was never, apparently, completely satisfied with the previous mix. There are a few bonus tracks, too, but they don't really count.
Ben Folds Five's Whatever & Ever Amen also saw a rerelease eight years after its debut (wow, it's been a long time). Similar to the Modest Mouse album, the songs are remastered (though perhaps not noticably so), and bonus tracks added. A glaring ommision, however, is the original's hidden track: "Look, I've got your hidden track right here, pal, right here! Listen! Ben Folds is a fuck-in asshole!" It was an addition that I always found rather charming and that, for me, was a very characteristic moment for the band, and its absence is missed.
Another interesting case is the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (which I happen to think is the greatest album ever). Brian Wilson was deaf in one ear and never mixed in stereo. A stereo mix was constructed for the Pet Sounds boxed set; subsequent releases of the album featured the stereo program in addition to the original mono. There are some slight changes in the mix at points where the original recording was not available as multiple tracks to remix, and I believe these are comparably minor.
Finally, Belle & Sebastian recently performed their seminal If You're Feeling Sinister live in its entirety, and released a recording of it in its entirety on iTunes. It's sort of a rerelease, sort of not.
I would have thought that I'd be against this sort of thing. Such classic albums as those listed above, I usually have memorized down to minute detail. It'd be a shame to lose the click of the tape turning off on Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, for example, as it's a moment of such wonderful finality.
But here are lots of examples where I bought into it. A good portion of it can, probably be chalked up to my rampant consumerism. It helps that many of these revisions occurred under the guise of the artists' original intentions. The Beatles (or at least Paul) wanted a stripped down sound. Isaac was unhappy with his final mix. The Lips were pursuing their multichannel ambitions which began with Zaireeka.
Even the case where things weren't explicitly the artist's intentions, with Pet Sounds, I find the stereo a definite improvement on the original mono.
The only negative change, in my opinion, is the deletion of the ten seconds of hidden track on the Ben Folds Five album.
But there's a fine line between this and the George Lucas, Star Wars Special Edition, Greedo shot first, or walkie talkies instead of guns in ET type of revisionism. How far is too far?
posted by L. Maxwell Ward at 1:08 AM
