Carpenters Mini LP SHM-CD's (Reissue Limited Release)

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I just got an email from CD Japan that all of the Carpenters albums are being re-issued on the SHM line, cardboard mini LP design, they will sell individually. I believe these were first issued back in 2009 and sold out. The release date for these limited re-issue's is Dec 29, 2011.

I already have the box set with the SHM Cd's but I never picked up the 2009 version of SHM for "Live in Japan" and Live at the Palladium" (which was packaged in 2009 as Live in London SHM CD)

I am thinking of getting the Live at the Palladium (Live in London) SHM when this is re-issued, I think it would fit nicely with my previous box set of SHM CD's. I have always been impressed with the SHM quality.

I still have my original Live at the Palladium CD by Pickwick Music (not sure when it was made but I've had it forever. It says digitally remastered on the front but the CD is one of those older shiny silver CD's PWKS S72

Did anyone get any of these back in 2009, or thinking of picking up any of these when they are re-issued this December 2011?

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=UICY-94228

 

[Rudy]

It depends if the mastering is any good. The Remastered Classics have the best sound in relation to the original albums. If the mini LPs are the original album mixes, I may grab the two last Carpenters albums as I never got those in the Remastered Classics series. And the two live albums, as I only have the Palladium album on vinyl and I didn't play it on the best equipment back then. (Although I haven't played it in decades....I may clean it up and see how it sounds.)

The SHM stuff is all marketing. SHM only means they use a different plastic in the disc, and it doesn't automatically make the music sound any better. Supposed to reduce errors and jitter during playback, but you'd probably need a $2,000 CD player to hear the difference anyway.

I'd be a lot more interested in buying these albums if they came out on 180g vinyl. I'd buy the handful of albums I like the best, and grab the remaining others as I could afford them. Done with replicas of the original packaging, and using only the original album masters, they could have a winner on their hands.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Hi Rudy,

I'm not sure if you knew but Now and Then was released as a Japanese Import in 200 gram vinyl. I've been so tempted to get it since it's still available. The only thing that holds me back are all the oldies on this release. There great but I've grown tired of them over the years. Now if it was 200 gram vinyl in say Lovelines or Voice of the Heart, I would be all over it.

http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/38493/The_Carpenters-Now__Then-200_Gram_Vinyl_Record

 

[Rudy]

I hear ya. I am not a fan of Now & Then so it's one I'd buy as one of the last. I know in Japan they are more enamored of those kinds of songs, so it's not surprising they picked it for a 200g LP (and even a Japan-only quadraphonic mix on reel tape way back in the 70s).

Hearing these pulled from the original 2-track masters directly cut to 180g LP would be a treat. There are plenty of companies out there that would do it, but licensing is always the issue.

 

[Harry]

I got that email today too and was going to post something here. Thanks Chris for saving me the trouble!

I don't think I'll be buying any of these. I already have the Remastered Classics series plus the 35th anniversary box set that used the same masters. I used to have the attitude of collecting everything I could, but these Japanese SHM-CDs are way too expensive and though there are times I think I hear a difference, there are just as many times when I think it doesn't matter a hill of beans.

I too *might* consider the live albums, but then again, I really don't play the live albums all that much, and I have both on CD from their earlier releases.

According to the email, all of the ABBA discs are being re-released in SHM-CD mini LPs too.

 

[Rudy]

I liked Palladium and played it quite a bit when I first got it as a gift. But overall I'm not a big fan of live albums. This one is more sentimental value for me. I remember seeing Carpenters at Pine Knob way back in the day (a comedy duo opened for them), so I'm thinking Palladium was part of a different tour...?

 

[Harry]

I think that's right. Skiles and Henderson were on their tour before the Palladium concert. They did comedy shtick before the Carpenters' show and then Pete Henderson came out to perform with them on the oldies set. That concert show is well-preserved on the LIVE IN JAPAN album.

LIVE AT THE PALLADIUM was good, but way too short as an album. It should have been a double-LP.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

I can't recall if the show I saw had them dressing up during the oldies segment.

I do remember a Spike Jones segment, done to "Close To You."

 

[CarpentersToYou]

I purchased them all back in 2009. They are BEAUTIFUL works of art. Each one. Especially the first couple of albums (some come with 2 different LP "cases"),
Unfortunately I sold the bulk of my collection to pay my way through graduate school. I miss these items.

 

[Dave60640]

I bought the 2 live and Christmas lps back in 2009 ( it's really been that long? ) I LOVE the difference in the clarity on both live lps and never regretted the purchase. Chris, Harry you both will b happy or I will buy you lunch.

 

[Mark-T]

"LIVE AT THE PALLADIUM was good, but way too short as an album. It should have been a double-LP."
Absolutely! Or the same show in as Palladium but in Vegas. It included "When I Fall in Love" and "Thank you for the Music", and a gorgeous take on "Merry Christmas, Darling" as well.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I will probably pick up the Live at the Palladium when this gets released.

Today I was listening to the 72 concert in Australia that came up on my ipod, the copy I have is 48 mins. It was really a nice concert, the audience was so into them. When Richard took a break to introduce the band members and he introduced Karen...the audience went wild...you could really hear the warmth and affection the fans tossed to Karen on stage. As a listener it gave me goosebumps to hear them roar, she so deserved it. As I remember the video to this concert, Karen really played alot of drums too, she was so multi-talented to be able to stay in pitch, perfect timing with the band, amazing lead vocals and play the drums all at the same time. The excitement really plays through on this concert.

I'd love to have Richard release this one on a CD collection. I mean the copy I have is very good, I'd imagine his copy must be even better. It kills me that stuff like this will never get released. It is a terrific concert.

 

[Rudy]

If the concerts sound good on tape, and musically they are good, there isn't a reason they shouldn't be released IMHO. Today you don't even need to press standard CDs: they could be made on demand (basically, a CD-R is burned and cover art printed at the time of order), or it could even be made available as a download. Not ideal, but it beats not having these at all.

 

[Mark-T]

Chris, I have that 72 concert but it is so soft a recording, I can barely hear it. How's the volume on your copy?

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Mark, my copy is not perfect either but its decent. What I did was extract the audio from the videos but not from the ones on youtube, I took them from the ones released to the net for the first time back in 2005 from this site. They were really nice audio/video copies. Still far from the quality I'm sure Richard has in his collection.

http://bedazzled.blogs.com/bedazzled/carpenters/

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

So it appears that CDJapan has sold out of the pre-order's for alot of these albums and you can no longer order them. I'm kind of suprised that both Live in London and Live in Japan are gone already.

However I believe that Amazon UK is selling them for delivery in January 2012, if interested check that out, they may even be cheaper there, exchange rate shows up less when adding to your cart.

 

[Rudy]

You also get a discount--listings at Amazon.UK include the VAT, and that is deducted when you give a shipping destination outside the UK. Shipping is reasonable, and I've gotten most UK orders between one and two weeks, standard shipping.

I only had a problem when I ordered something that they had shipped out of Amazon.DE; they shipped it DHL and it took over a month to get here. DHL sucks.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Bringing back an older topic, CD Japan shows most of these re-issue SHM LP CD's are now sold out, it use to state that the pre-order sold out now most all the titles show sold out. It looks like just 2 titles are available. I ordered one of these re-issues SHM CD's, "Live at the Palladium", I got an email yesterday that the title is being pushed back & they are unsure about availability. Today I got another email saying they are shipping my CD today from the UK, so I should have this early next week. This CD will fit nicely in my collectors box of other SHM CD's. Indications shows in the past these sell out rather fast and then prices peak even further on ebay.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I finally received my "Live at the Palladium" SHM CD that was just recently issued. The artwork is impressive but most of the Japan LP CD's are also impressive so this was no suprise. As I noted before the only release of this title I own is an old Pickwick CD which contains no artwork other than the front pic, no pics inside and the pickwick cd is silver mirror with AAD on the right PWKS 572.

I have listened to the SHM CD today and I am really impressed with the sound, it's much brighter and and clearer, it pretty much sounds just as good as the rest of the SHM 40th anniv box set so this CD will fit nicely with that collection. I quickly compared the SHM to my Pickwick and noticed the Pickwick sounds a bit muddy, I can really tell the mastering on the SHM has really enhanced this concert and made it brighter and better sounding. I also own the original LP to this and my LP contains 2 pics, the front and back cover there is nothing inside the LP

Here is a pic I quickly snapped of basically what is inside this SHM CD, actually I was impressed with the little booklet that came inside with 8 pics (I folded it so it shows here the front and back pic) because I had never seen this on a release of this CD since my pickwick didn't have it and my LP didn't have it either. I also found interesting a black card type label which looks like a LP label, it's front and back side 1 and 2 and side 1 contains the limited edition number of this CD, I thought that was cool way to display your edition #. The other think I noticed is how the CD itself is titled "Live in London", as my Pickwick CD says The Carpenters Live at the Palladium.

 

[Karen4ever]

I finally received my "Live at the Palladium" SHM CD that was just recently issued. The artwork is impressive but most of the Japan LP CD's are also impressive so this was no suprise. As I noted before the only release of this title I own is an old Pickwick CD which contains no artwork other than the front pic, no pics inside and the pickwick cd is silver mirror with AAD on the right PWKS 572.

I have listened to the SHM CD today and I am really impressed with the sound, it's much brighter and and clearer, it pretty much sounds just as good as the rest of the SHM 40th anniv box set so this CD will fit nicely with that collection. I quickly compared the SHM to my Pickwick and noticed the Pickwick sounds a bit muddy, I can really tell the mastering on the SHM has really enhanced this concert and made it brighter and better sounding. I also own the original LP to this and my LP contains 2 pics, the front and back cover there is nothing inside the LP

Here is a pic I quickly snapped of basically what is inside this SHM CD, actually I was impressed with the little booklet that came inside with 8 pics (I folded it so it shows here the front and back pic) because I had never seen this on a release of this CD since my pickwick didn't have it and my LP didn't have it either. I also found interesting a black card type label which looks like a LP label, it's front and back side 1 and 2 and side 1 contains the limited edition number of this CD, I thought that was cool way to display your edition #. The other think I noticed is how the CD itself is titled "Live in London", as my Pickwick CD says The Carpenters Live at the Palladium.

Do you have the other SHM cds not included in the boxset (besides the Live in London)? They would be Live in Japan, Reflections, Best Selection, and 40/40. I've always thought that it was a mistake not to have included the two live cds in the boxset. I would rather do without the Sweet Sixteen cd in the boxset if space was ever a factor in excluding them.

 

[Jeff]

Chris, just real quick and to save surf time...which outlet did you order the PALLADIUM shm-cd from?

Thanx in advance,

Jeff

 

[GaryAlan]

Regarding the shm-cd's, the Close To You sounds incredible.
However, the Passage does not sound significantly different than my other cd's.
So, I wonder if it is just all in the mastering for each separate title.
Of course, the intricate packaging for each is a piece of art.
I will try for another shm-cd title if the price comes down to my meager ability!

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Jeff, I got it from Amazon UK, it was cheaper as I remember at the time.