Have been grooving’ (ahem) to both Bowies lodger remix (on the A New Career In A New Town set) and the remix of Real Gone album by Tom Waits.
I request other example of remixed albums (but remastered ones will be offered a withering aside).
Musings on the byways of popular culture
The Cure’s “Mixed Up” and Kraftwerk’s “The Mix” remain perennial favourites of mine.
The most egregious example of this was surely the reverse polarity kerfuffle over XTC’s Skylarking. – Original album sounded fine to me and every other XTC fan I know.
The Steven Wilson 5.1 DVD version (the second disc of which includes the original album and the reversed polarity version) sounds even more magnificent
I must admit that most of the time I barely notice the difference. I love the Sgt Pepper, White Album and Abbey Road remixes. And Let it Be Naked is my favourite version of that album, as is the naked Double Fantasy. Bad remixes are more numerous, and but special mention must go to the early ZZ Top albums (with added drum samples).
See also this atrocity:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_of_Free%3A_All_Right_Now
One of the greatest rock bands of all time tweaked so that they sound like Europe.
And who could forget the ZZ Top remix debacle:
‘that drum machine sound on Eliminator really went down well, so let’s remix all of their back catalogue by….cutting and pasting that drum machine sound all over the orginals.’
Beat me to it – Double Fantasy.
And then Sticky Fingers.
There was a remix of Sticky Fingers? Watch you don’t incur Foxnose’s wrath by confusing a remix with a remaster…..
Yeah remaster – silly me
Tom Waits’ Real Gone was one that annoyed me. I’m just not sure what the purpose of it was, or what problems with the original mix it was trying to fix. The remix is not bad as such: it just sounds different enough to annoy you when you have already gotten used to the original.
I feel the same about many of the Beatles album remixes. Funnily enough, I don’t mind individual Beatle songs being remixed for projects/compilations like the Yellow Submarine “songtrack” album, or Love. But albums I think are different – you get used to the flow of an album and it’s irritating when that gets tampered with for no apparent good reason.
I really like the Real Gone remix and think it’s an improvement on the original version, but I wasn’t familiar enough with the original for it to annoy me. The remix has made it one of my favourite of his albums. I tried to explain to a mate why I preferred the remix and all I could say was that it sounds crunchier. I realised that this didn’t make much sense, but I knew what I meant and it’s most definitely a good thing!
I feel I have a stick firmly in my grasp but perhaps at the wrong end. I understand remix albums to be those wonderful mini-LPs that used to be released that had remixes of previous material and also the odd new song.
Best one of these was Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing by Soft Cell. Also ace – Love & Dancing by League Unlimited Orchestra and Pet Shop Boys, Disco.
Propaganda’s Wishful Thinking. I bet you like that, I bloody do.
@moose-the-mooche
Hmm. I’m like it but don’t love it. A bit too much stürm und drang. Prefer the purity of A Secret Wish, of course!
Don’t get me started on 1,2,3,4.
I do love it but I only became aware of it a few years ago. Passed me by at the time.
There was a remix of Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’ released as an extra disc with the remastered re-issue a few years ago. It was done by Steve Albini and was quite good as i recall. I’m a sucker for this kind of thing as long as it is provided as an added extra and doesn’t replace the original version.
Listened to the 5.1 mix of Songs From The Big Chair. I thought it sounded incredible. There are things there I’d not noticed before. ‘Listen’ in particular really benefits from the treatment.
This thread is forking into the ‘remix=what Steven Wilson does’ and the ‘remix = what often was a free bonus CD with initial copies in the 90s’. I am in the latter category and apart from the superb PSB’s Disco, a remix album that eclipses the original, and the aftermentioned examples from The Cure, Kraftwerk and Propaganda I can offer:
Dub remix albums
Massive Attack – No Protection and Primal Scream’s Echo Dek – both excellent reworkings.
Free CD of Perfecto/Way out West/Monkey Mafia remixes remix album
One of the best is Dubstar’s debut LP Disgraceful. Tons of good ones.
Also Dua Lipa’s current CD in the verison I got has a whole remix album by The Blessed Madonna which I have not yet listened to.
Nothing left of the original once we’ve remixed the album remix album
Global Communiciations version of Chapterhouse’s debut Whirlpool.
actually its of second album Blood Music. I have an mp3 as the actual CD goes for silly money – especially in its original free with album format as there were some unlicensed samples.
The Massive Attack and Primal Scream remix albums are two of my favourites and the ones I would have mentioned. To add to that great list, Laika’s Gone Home – the Space Monkeys’ remix of the Gorillaz debut is definitely as good a companion piece to the original, as those other two remix albums are.
I really really disliked “Disco”, thought it was terrible. Originals for me.
I think the more observant amongst us would have noticed the term ‘Album’ in the thread title, implying situations where the entire album has been remixed rather than dance-oriented track remixes.
God, I’m starting to sound like the Steve Hoffman Forum…
Panthalassa: The Music Of Miles Davis 1969-1974 – Reconstruction & Mix Translation By Bill Laswell.
The Seeds’ fake live album ‘Raw and Alive’ was remixed a few years ago without all the silly dubbed audience noises and is actually a great studio recording.
Iggy’s 1997 remix of Raw Power had a fair degree of notoriety as it maxxed everything into the red and annoyed the purists who preferred Bowie’s somewhat eccentric mix from 1973. Personally, I’m a bit torn between the two, but it’s one of my absolute favourite albums in either form.
I prefer the CD mix – it really has more Raw Power
Mind Games (John Lennon) remix ca 2002 was superior to the very flat original.
I prefer Chic’s version of Diana Ross’ Diana. And the Jamaica version of Bob Marley’s Catch A Fire.
I always prefer the demo versions. Because: Music Snob.
I finally got round to buying Diana on CD the other day and played it this afternoon, funnily enough. I wasn’t aware of a Chic version, but it sounds interesting so I shall listen to it in the morning
You can get the Chic version (and loads of 12″ mixes) on the 2001 2CD deluxe edition and it was released on double (pink) vinyl for RSD in 2017.
Motown thought it sounded “too black”. The fools.
So a few days after finally getting round to buying it I learn I bought the wrong version. D’oh!
I’m sure I, er my friend, can ‘help’
Already sorted thanks!
Is it a remix, or a return to what the original plan was?
Primal Scream Give Out But Don’t Give Up – my favourite Scream album (I may be alone?) but the Original Memphis Recordings is a better album.
Good call, twisting the idea with aplomb.
The Steven Wilson Tull remixes are all good, especially Aqualung, A Passion Play and Warchild – the latter for the astonishing extras as much as anything.
Complete Music over Music Complete by New Order. Newish remix of Wake Up The Nation by Paul Weller also ace.
Robert Wyatt’s Dondestan. Never understood that. Thank god I’ve got the original Vinyl which I have to tell you is pretty heavy in the vinyl weight department.
Notice I didn’t use the term, Vinly. (Until just then.) argh!!!
A few others:
What’s Going On – The original Detroit Mix is included as a bonus album with the deluxe WGO CD. It has a rawer, slightly more desperate feel than the final mix.
Layla – 20th Anniversary remix I really like, although I know others don’t. Compared to my other versions it peels away a bit of mud. I only noticed it was a remix when there was an errant scream in the intro to ‘Keep on Growing’.
Congos – Heart of the Congos: Like a lot of roots/reggae albums, this had a remix for Western audiences. The deluxe CD version has both and the original is again bit less polished (and is missing a few random cow noises!)
Burning Spear – Marcus Garvey/Garvey’s Ghost: I’ve always had the CD with both versions on the same disc (original and Dub). I know that Burning Spear had nothing to do with the dub version, but I couldn’t imagine listening to it any other way.
My vinyl copy of Heart of the Congos sounds like it was recorded through a sock. Nope, through several pairs of socks. Inside a wardrobe. With the doors shut.
I might have to check out the deluxe version.
Hi-Fi recordings from 60s-70s Jamaica is a bit of a fool’s errand, innit? One of the many things we have to be grateful to Island and the Virgin Front Line series for is getting these artists into studios superior to the recording booth at the end of Brighton Rock.
There’s a sort of phasey “cassette tape that’s been mangled and rewound with a pencil” vibe throughout the whole thing. It was less than a tenner, but still.
You often don’t know what you’re getting till you play them.
Some are well-played and beautifully-recorded but then get mastered and pressed by people who don’t care about anything but making money.
Some are badly-recorded and played in the first case and no amount of good mastering and pressing will make them worth listening to.
With some you can strike lucky and get a good pressing from a good master of a well-recorded well-played session.
There’s a reggae compilation on audiophile label Audio Fidelity where they took the stars of roots era and recorded them in a posh studio. It sounds as convincing as a 1970s Top Of The Pops album.
That’s the thing about the best Jamaican studios and the musicians, engineers and producers in them. On a good day with the right vibe, the sound they got is unbeatable.
They aren’t official of course, but the remixed early Beatles stuff into ‘spectral stereo’ is marvellous.
Is there any way to, er, experience, these? Seem difficult to track down.
I can probably ‘help’…I will message you !