Saturday Deluxe / 7 May 2016
Pink Floyd vinyl
It was not too much of a surprise that Pink Floyd would eventually get around to reissuing their back catalogue on vinyl…
Whilst things haven’t exactly been quiet on the Floyd front (2014 brought a Division Bell box set and ‘new’ album The Endless River) it feels like ages since those infamous Immersion box sets (and the Discovery box) emerged, back in 2011.
A lot has changed; Floyd find themselves part of the Warner Music Group (at least in the UK/Europe) and there is also a new entity called Pink Floyd Records. The early albums which are issued next month will be very welcome, but you do wonder what audio improvements will be delivered when they re-reissue The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall, which, after all, were remastered and reissued on vinyl as part of the archival programme five years ago.
It is also mildly surprising that band and label have not agreed to issue an all-bells-and-whistles VINYL BOX, with a book, as Universal have so successfully done with The Beatles and Queen. I’m sure if they were planning that it would have been announced yesterday, so it looks like we will just get all the records issued individually, in separate batches.
There is of course some unfinished business, namely a 5.1 mix of The Wall that was notable by its absence from the Immersion box. I keep hearing positive things about this but James Guthrie, who is the only man Roger Waters would choose for that particular task, has only got so much time on his hands and it seems he has been busy preparing the audio for these vinyl reissues.
ChartWatch
Prince didn’t quite get to number one on the official album chart last week, but The Very Best Of Prince did grab the top spot yesterday on a busy physical albums chart. Ultimate Prince is way down at number 58 which can only be a reflection of its availability in shops and particularly supermarkets. ‘Hits’ sets and Purple Rain are one thing, but it will be interesting to see where HitnRun Phase Two – Prince’s last ‘proper’ studio album – debuts next week.
Billy Ocean‘s Here You Are – The Best Of, which we previewed a few weeks back, does really well, shooting in at number two, right behind Prince. The bundling-a-hits-disc-with-the-new-album strategy has clearly worked a treat.
The Bad Company two-CD 1977 • 1979 live set performs creditably debuting at number 38, while Universal have got to be pleased with the Cream Classic Album Selection five-CD set slotting in only two places behind at number 40. We flatter ourselves that SDE highlighting Amazon UK’s very cheap price may well have given the package a little helping hand up the charts.
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I pre-ordered 3 of the upcoming reissues. I’m curious if these are the 2011 mixes?
Well something seems strange concerning the artwork (at least if we trust the photographs on Amazon): while Piper & Saucerful appears to have blue Columbia labels on the discs (which is very cool), Ummagumma has a strange blue (modern?) thing instead of yellow/green Harvest labels. Strange choice to try to use original artworks on some titles but not on all of them. Or perhaps they didn’t have the right to use the Harvest logo ?
Sensible to not deluxe the early Floyd LPs. S0 much material from the period has been out there for ages (much of it in extremely high quality), what’s the point of spending to prepare & officially issue same? Such would beg for eternal criticism. The term ROIO (recording of indeterminate origin) evolved specifically in regards to the prolific nature & popularity of unofficial Floyd. Done to death.
IF anything pre-DSOTM still squirreled away which has somehow managed to remain truly & utterly unliberated (doubtful), by all means…
Well, I wouldn’t have bought the cream set without you highlighting it and I’m glad I did. I knew a few individual songs but the albums are fantastic!
The Floyd back cat needs a proper reissue program as what’s been issued so far hasnt really given the fans what they want or expect (marbles!?!). The early stuff needs both mono and stereo mixes plus the singles including scream thy last scream & vegetable man, bbc sessions and concerts. There’s an absolute ton of stuff that could easily be released with a little care and attention and the give the fans a proper reissue campaign.
It will be nice to have the early albums on new vinyl finally. I have to hand it to them, they timed this perfectly with David in the midst of an attention grabbing album and tour. Personally, I’m glad there’s no box set, seems like a lot of times when they do this you can’t them individually for quite a while or in some cases at all.
Wonder if they put out both the mono & stereo versions of the first two albums ?
hopefully they will.
I already have the entire Pink Floyd back catalogue but I certainly would look forward to pristine copies of A Saucerful of Secrets, Meddle, Animals, More and a few others. It’s almost hard to believe that they aren’t doing a box set for this. I’m afraid of buying them individually and then they release a box set later.
Also the fact that Warner is mastering the Americas release and Sony is mastering the rest of world release. Cost cutting measure to save on shipping costs? Really? That’s cheap but the records are not so….
Don’t think it’s anything to do with cost-cutting measures, just the label situation.
Bought the Bad Company Live set on Thursday and have already listened to it twice. Only two songs are repeated over the course of the two concerts. You get a whole lot of Bad Company and that is GOOD. What an excellent set!! Can’t recommend it enough.
They should give Steven Wilson the task of mixing the entire Pink Floyd catalogue in 5.1. I would especially love to hear some of those early albums in surround.
I have never found the 5.1 mixes of DSOTM and WYWH particularly impressive or very involving and are too safe compared to the Division Bell, which is really impressive and is close to the great 5.1 work Wilson usually produces.
Like. Like. Like. 11/10 comment. Seriously: Wilson’s remastering work is impeccable. I didn’t really care for his completely remixed version/reimagining of TFF Songs from The Big Chair. But that’s an aesthetic/personal choice. Other than that just perfect.