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My thoughts on the new Quad



Okay, for better or worse, here's my analysis of the new Quad
reissue.

First of all let me say some positive things about the discs. 
I generally like what they did with the bass and drum sounds.
A few drum tracks are a little duller than the others, but
I think it's a improvement, same goes for the bass.  A few
tracks have more bass-growl than others, but it seems to be
a sounds that is halfway between the "I am the Bass player"
mixes for the soundtrack and the original MCA CD.  Several
of the guitar tracks seem more 'alive' as well, mostly due
to the reverb with lots of pre-delay.

Generally speaking what I don't like about the discs are how
they changed a lot of the balances between the guitar, piano,
and synths.  It seems that they made a lot of changes for
changes sake rather than for a particular reason.  That's what
I've liked about the reissue program so far, they've made few
big changes to tunes (generally speaking) but those changes
really brought the song to life.  Another thing I don't like
is what they've done to the vocals.  On the songs that we're
less "wet" with effects on the original they've made very wet,
and on the more effected vocals they've taken that away.  But
these are mostly artistic changes and I can't argue much if
they intended these changes. 

What follows is a song by song "problem" list of what I think
are technical, rather than artistic changes.  If a song is not
listed it doesn't mean I like the new one better, just that I
found no technical problems with it.

Real Me -- 1:11 bad splice, 1:56 iffy splice

Quadrophenia -- crossfade at 3:45 not as smooth as original

Cut My Hair -- I think they used a different Pete vocal take for
the intro.  The vocals do that bright to dull change WFang has
talked about, like someone turning the brightness up and down.
The same thing happens in a much more dramatic way to the radio
at the end of the song.  

Between these songs there is too much time before TPMG comes in,
I attribute this to an error in placing the PQ code. (if you don't
know what a PQ code is, don't worry, Astley will)

The Punk Meets the Godfather -- 0:04 bad edit, 0:08 bad edit, 
3:39 bad edit

I Am One -- The noise that Pete makes at the intro. (on beat I might
add, part of the count off I would guess) is cut off.  The vocal
starts our kind of thin and then swells at 0:11.  Another vocal that
comes and goes in brightness to my ears.  Seems bass deficient esp.
at end.

The Dirty Jobs -- 0:44 odd edit

I've Had Enough -- No Pete at intro. ("three"), Another where I
think they may have used a different Pete vocal take ("My Jacket..)
4:34 bad edit, 5:11 bad return edit

5:15 -- High pitch in train station background track, 2 tape
machine servo spin up noises at 0:08 and 0:12.  Somewhat in their
defense one of these can be heard on the original as another list
member pointed out to me, I had never noticed it before as its
much quieter on the original CD

Sea and Sand -- the low frequencies during the seagull noises seem
to be louder than on the original, it makes my speakers rumble a lot
more, in a bad way.

Drowned -- Here's my only "artistic" complaint in this section:
WHERE THE HELL IS THE PIANO SOLO?!?

Dr. Jimmy -- That vocal brightness thing again.

The Rock -- 4:39 bad edit


My feeling is that they were a bit rushed on this album and it
shows.  A couple other things I noticed is that the song is now
"The Punk *and* the Godfather" instead of "Meets", plus in the 
booklet there are quite a few typos in the lyrics.

"Take it or leave it me son, take or leave it" -- Jimmy

Christopher Goosman