William Kucharski
Well-Known Member
I anxiously preordered the recently released 180g pressing of "The Singles: 1969 - 1973," a part of Universal Music Group's "Back to Black Vinyl" reissue program. Having received it last week and finally having had a chance to listen to it, I feel completely and totally ripped off.
In short, someone somewhere along the line seemingly used whatever master recordings for the songs they had lying around, perhaps from the "The Singles: 1969 - 1981" collection, to master this LP. It is not the "The Singles: 1969 - 1973" we all know and love:
I know that UMG is probably staffed by people who may have never heard the original album (or any of its releases over the years on LP, 8-track, cassette, CD, SHM-CD or SHM-SACD or even iTunes), but wow.
(In addition, the pressing itself is a bit noisy, with more pops and clicks than I'm accustomed to in 180g pressings of late; really this would be a bit of a nit if the album had actually contained the content of the "The Singles: 1969 - 1973" album!)
In short, someone somewhere along the line seemingly used whatever master recordings for the songs they had lying around, perhaps from the "The Singles: 1969 - 1981" collection, to master this LP. It is not the "The Singles: 1969 - 1973" we all know and love:
- The "(They Long to Be) Close to You" overture at the start of the album? Gone. The LP starts right into "We've Only Just Begun."
- The musical interludes tying "Superstar," "Rainy Days and Mondays" and "Goodbye to Love" into one long song? Gone. In fact, each song fades out, is followed by a one second or so inter-song space, and the next song in sequence starts.
I know that UMG is probably staffed by people who may have never heard the original album (or any of its releases over the years on LP, 8-track, cassette, CD, SHM-CD or SHM-SACD or even iTunes), but wow.
(In addition, the pressing itself is a bit noisy, with more pops and clicks than I'm accustomed to in 180g pressings of late; really this would be a bit of a nit if the album had actually contained the content of the "The Singles: 1969 - 1973" album!)