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Post by ShardEnder on Nov 14, 2015 11:35:52 GMT
I've been surprised by the lack of vault activity or even a new greatest hits compilation (Mr. Blue Sky Vol. 2, anyone?) to coincide with the release of Alone In The Universe, but it seems as if Sony has just unleashed the set of classic era albums in high resolution to very little fanfare! Maybe the announcement got lost in all the talk of Jeff taking ELO on tour again? Naturally, I was expecting these to simply be the remasters, or at least the original uncompressed transfers used to produce those back in the day, only there's something very curious that I noticed about Secret Messages when I went to have a look at the page for this over at Pono...
"Where are the three bonus tracks? Come to think of it, what about Time After Time, for that matter?"
I'm quite reluctant to drop $25 on something that may very well just end up being a superior-sounding copy of the same flawed 2001 CD - notorious for the tape glitches heard during Stranger and Train Of Gold, not to mention early pressings having the wrong mix of Rock 'N' Roll Is King - edited to resemble the classic JET LX 527 song order from 1983. So, has anyone heard this yet to confirm if we're genuinely looking at an upgrade worthy of going on my wanted list this Christmas? Furthermore, are all the right link tracks present and correct throughout On The Third Day, and does Night In The City from Out Of The Blue still the tape damage?
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arnoldlayne
Junior Member
wohS ehT oT emocleW
Posts: 49
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Post by arnoldlayne on Nov 14, 2015 17:06:19 GMT
I've just been to investigate. I'm not seeing the tracks either. Looks like a cheap cash in on the resurgant Jeff Lynne and surrounding hype. With interest in Jeff and ELO being at it's highest for yonks they could cash in so much better here. Interestingly, a bunch of albums are on HDTracks as Hi-Res downloads, but lack the bonus content of the 2001 remasters/classic albums boxset. Looks like they've just gone for a straight emulation of the original LP releases.
I noticed all the non-harvest ELO albums sudddenly vanished from Spotify leaving the Harvest albums only. Now the rest of the albums are back on there, but without the bonus tracks (that were included before) -- Spotify also has the Flashback compilation on there which fills in a few gaps. But it's a shame. Sony could make a small fortune here with ELO remasters/boxsets/archive releases etc. Push the boat out and give us a swanky vinyl boxset, or some legacy editions. What about an archive DVD of goodies or something resembiling the immersion boxsets that Pink Floyd nailed a few years back.
The sound quality on these new versions better be orgasicmally great for me to part with my money. As a bit of a punt I tried playing Four Little Diamonds on Spotify. It plays Time After Time! So now Stranger is actually Four Little Diamonds (minus the extended intro)and subsequent tracks are out by one. How did that get through quality control ?!
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Post by ShardEnder on Nov 14, 2015 19:23:51 GMT
As a bit of a punt I tried playing Four Little Diamonds on Spotify. It plays Time After Time! So now Stranger is actually Four Little Diamonds (minus the extended intro)and subsequent tracks are out by one. How did that get through quality control ?! Well, that sounds promising! I've stopped expecting new transfers based on the original LP versions, and now I fear they're just higher resolution cash grabs based on the old remasters (that couldn't even be ripped correctly, it seems)... P.S. I'm guessing by "extended intro" you mean the Afterglow mix of Four Little Diamonds? The only way that could ever be included is if someone didn't notice the wrong copy being used from Afterglow, or we're about to finally get the complete Secret Messages double album.
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