I had a look at this. A great album, of course. Beautifully recorded. Live recordings from the time see the band on fire. I listened to it all via “Yessongs”, and have had the album for half a century. It’s still my favourite by them – their best songs (bar those from Relayer, “Ritual”, and GFTO), played with flair and a sense of fun. Definitive “Yes” if you like that sort of thing.
And yet, and yet … Though it’s great to have it out there, there’s not a lot that’s really “new” here, and quite a bit is available from “other sources”. The live recording is another version of “Yessongs”, and will be a rizla-different to other recordings of the time and, if we are honest, since. I struggle to imagine how these SDEs make money these days, to be honest.
If I bought this I’d be submitting to some bizarre delusional atavistic desire to attempt to recapture the joy of first hearing, when I only have to reach for the box marked ‘Progeny’, which I already own, do exactly that. For that reason, squire, I’m out.
Exactly. Yet there are TRUE FAN completists who think without this, you are not true to progressive rock. As I have said before, Frank Zappa’s line “there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over”, seems apt.
One of my top 3 go-back-to albums of all time. I would buy the Atmos version in a heartbeat but it doesn’t seem to be available except in the full set.
I’ve got the last Steven Wilson remix and the rest of the package really doesn’t justify the cost of the set.
If you don’t want to stump up the cash for this, might I suggest this altenative which has just dropped into my inbox?
“Following the unexpected collaboration with Pharrell Williams on new song Good People, released last year, folk-rock collective Mumford & Sons are finally back with a brand new album! RUSHMERE, their long-awaited 5th studio album following their 2018 record Delta, will be released on March 28th.
Pre-order today on recycled black vinyl, with a lyric-printed inner sleeve. Plus, as a special bonus, you’ll also receive a signed art card!”
It does seem that there is an “Everything Must Go” run in music companies liquidising the last of their physical media just now, selling off whatever crap is in the archives to the true fans who must spend their money on box sets they won’t listen to, and will eventually find themselves on Ebay or the chazzers. Quite look forward to the new Henge album though.
It’s not the liquidising of their physical media, it’s copyright assertion on media in all formats.
New masters or new mix = new copyright.
Next step is the removal of pre- remaster/remix versions of the tracks from streaming services, so that the only versions available, once the original copyright expires, are the in-copyright-for-another-70-years digitally-watermarked ones.
They don’t really expect to do more than cover the expense of releasing them when they release these monster boxes, but they draw a a forgetful public’s attention to the albums.
It’s the copyright extension that’s really important to them.
For a lot of old recordings that slipped out of copyright unnoticed, yes.
All those cheap-as-chips boxes of ’30s, ’40s and ’50s recordings, some of them in shockingly bad audio, are a free-for-all and no longer worth the bother for original record companies.
Stuff that’s not yet out of copyright can be digitised and licensed to these same cheapo box-shifters for a bit of revenue.
Other more recent stuff is deemed worth keeping in their own copyright, so that’s what they’ve done.
They’re no longer worried about people passing recordings around amongst friends, because streaming has pretty much put paid to that amongst the general public.
Streaming is what provides record companies with the best profit for the least outlay. That and the use of digitised music in movies/TV/radio and on websites.
Extending their copyrights where they can still see interest ensures that it’s them that gets the revenue and not someone else who’s collected up and digitised what was allowed to go out of copyright.
Close To The Edge is the only album by Yes that I can be bothered with any more.
And not all that bothered really, if truth be told.
6/10.
Each to their own, Mike.
10/10
I had a look at this. A great album, of course. Beautifully recorded. Live recordings from the time see the band on fire. I listened to it all via “Yessongs”, and have had the album for half a century. It’s still my favourite by them – their best songs (bar those from Relayer, “Ritual”, and GFTO), played with flair and a sense of fun. Definitive “Yes” if you like that sort of thing.
And yet, and yet … Though it’s great to have it out there, there’s not a lot that’s really “new” here, and quite a bit is available from “other sources”. The live recording is another version of “Yessongs”, and will be a rizla-different to other recordings of the time and, if we are honest, since. I struggle to imagine how these SDEs make money these days, to be honest.
Indeed there’s also the Progeny set with various shows from this era and some of the rarities disc was on the previous reissue.
If I bought this I’d be submitting to some bizarre delusional atavistic desire to attempt to recapture the joy of first hearing, when I only have to reach for the box marked ‘Progeny’, which I already own, do exactly that. For that reason, squire, I’m out.
Exactly. Yet there are TRUE FAN completists who think without this, you are not true to progressive rock. As I have said before, Frank Zappa’s line “there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over”, seems apt.
Don’t push me…
One of my top 3 go-back-to albums of all time. I would buy the Atmos version in a heartbeat but it doesn’t seem to be available except in the full set.
I’ve got the last Steven Wilson remix and the rest of the package really doesn’t justify the cost of the set.
If you don’t want to stump up the cash for this, might I suggest this altenative which has just dropped into my inbox?
“Following the unexpected collaboration with Pharrell Williams on new song Good People, released last year, folk-rock collective Mumford & Sons are finally back with a brand new album! RUSHMERE, their long-awaited 5th studio album following their 2018 record Delta, will be released on March 28th.
Pre-order today on recycled black vinyl, with a lyric-printed inner sleeve. Plus, as a special bonus, you’ll also receive a signed art card!”
Form an orderly queue…
It does seem that there is an “Everything Must Go” run in music companies liquidising the last of their physical media just now, selling off whatever crap is in the archives to the true fans who must spend their money on box sets they won’t listen to, and will eventually find themselves on Ebay or the chazzers. Quite look forward to the new Henge album though.
It’s not the liquidising of their physical media, it’s copyright assertion on media in all formats.
New masters or new mix = new copyright.
Next step is the removal of pre- remaster/remix versions of the tracks from streaming services, so that the only versions available, once the original copyright expires, are the in-copyright-for-another-70-years digitally-watermarked ones.
They don’t really expect to do more than cover the expense of releasing them when they release these monster boxes, but they draw a a forgetful public’s attention to the albums.
It’s the copyright extension that’s really important to them.
Ah, copyright. Good luck to the companies with that. The genie is rather out of the lamp, if you ask me.
For a lot of old recordings that slipped out of copyright unnoticed, yes.
All those cheap-as-chips boxes of ’30s, ’40s and ’50s recordings, some of them in shockingly bad audio, are a free-for-all and no longer worth the bother for original record companies.
Stuff that’s not yet out of copyright can be digitised and licensed to these same cheapo box-shifters for a bit of revenue.
Other more recent stuff is deemed worth keeping in their own copyright, so that’s what they’ve done.
They’re no longer worried about people passing recordings around amongst friends, because streaming has pretty much put paid to that amongst the general public.
Streaming is what provides record companies with the best profit for the least outlay. That and the use of digitised music in movies/TV/radio and on websites.
Extending their copyrights where they can still see interest ensures that it’s them that gets the revenue and not someone else who’s collected up and digitised what was allowed to go out of copyright.
I already have the cd/bluray two-fer. Hard to justify “upgrading” to this.
Same here. And ditto…