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This Week’s Box Set and Reissue Deals

By Paul Sinclair

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70

R.E.M. / Automatic For The People 2CD box – £6.99



The Smiths / The Queen is Dead 3 x SHM-CD+DVD Japanese set – £29

USA: Tori Amos / Little Earthquakes vinyl reissue – $13

180g half-speed mastered at Abbey Road.

Elton John / Diamonds 3CD deluxe box – £27.99

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70 Comments

70 thoughts on “This Week’s Box Set and Reissue Deals”

  1. I suspect something bad happens to your life in the last days paul.
    Hoping that it would be better somehow and you can give us an all-clear.
    Daniel

    1. Daniel… nothing has happened. Please go to your browser settings and ‘clear cache’ and you will see that content has been posted as regularly as ever. There has been some issues recently which should be resolved soon. I’m really sorry about this.

      1. Paul
        No worries!! I have 3 WEB sites that all crashed last Wednesday @ 8.05 MST. Our WEB host of 20 years sold the business but did not tell anyone and the data had to be “migrated” to the new host which took a week. The “clear cache” solution seems a bit odd though. The last post on your site I see is dated 04/13. Hope that helps

        And no need to be sorry. Shit happens

        J

    1. If this is the end of this site I just want to express my appreciation for how great it has been.Not only the great deals but Paul’s passion for the music.Hope the reasons are business rather than personal ones.

      1. Alan… nothing has happened. Please go to your browser settings and ‘clear cache’ and you will see that content has been posted as regularly as ever. There has been some issues recently which should be resolved soon. I’m really sorry about this.

  6. Great point Dean about the REM set being ruined by bad compressed mastering. The Smiths The Queen Is Dead set is the same way – I bought it when it came out last September and the sold my copy for cheap on eBay. The actual album is by far the worst mastering ever released, even worse than the super compressed 2011 cd. The second cd was interesting, but the kind of thing you play once because the sound is so compressed that it’s not enjoyable. It’s nice they segued Rubber Ring into Asleep, but you are far better off seeking a copy of the original 12” single for that. The DVD was almost completely pointless – high res audio does nothing for such a bad mastering. I liked the live cd, but it’s fairly similar to Rank, which again is much more enjoyable to listen to on either the original Rough Trade or Sire cd because the dynamics are better.

    The real shame hear is when a new fan buys a a set like this and doesn’t realize how bad this version sounds compared to the original release. Just get the original Sire or Rough Trade cd of The Queen is Dead. Either sounds far far better than the version in this box or the 2011 remastered cd, and they are fairly cheap on the used market.

    I’m getting sick of these so called deluxe editions that ruin the album with compressed mastering that destroys the listening experience.

    1. I can only agree. The Smiths remaster is compressed (original 1986 CD DR12 / 2011 CD DR 9 / 2017 CD DR 8), but there is no clipping. But the EQ is so harsh, that the cymbals hurts on a long listening session and i hear some sibilance.
      This is not on my rough trade vinyl and cd. I also own the 2006 japan mini lp version, which is DR12, but level shifted.
      If the bonus is the important thing, then buy it. If it’s only the album, then buy a old one.

  10. Got your e-mail alert and ordered the REM Automatic For The People 2CD box yesterday afternoon. With Prime, 24 hours later it’s playing in my lounge! A great companion to the original wooden box set I bought when it first came out. Thanks guys!

  11. Maybe too much internet traffic in L.A. on a frenetic Friday. I just don’t want to miss a surround-SDE, discounted offer, I don’t yet have. At least I own this on multiple, surround formats, already. No harm. No foul — this time!

  13. Top tip – if you are about £2 under for free postage, type in “Wordsworth Classics” in books to get a classic read in your mailing.

  16. Is the REM deal really the 2 cd set? The U.K. amazon link has the plain title with nothing special noted and the cd back picture just shows the original 12 tracks. But the track listing at the bottom shows 2 discs, 25 tracks. Incredible price if this really is 2 cd set. UK listing has some vagueness to it.

  19. Same old story, I’m afraid. If you go for either of the REM boxes, be sure to keep hold of your old CD’s. Both these boxes have heavily compressed versions of the album proper, vastly inferior to the original CD’s.

    Of course, fans may want them for the bonus material – but as usual, Record Companies putr together lavish sets, with n ice packaging and extras, and spoil the party by “remastering” the actual music to oblivion.

    I hope some day Paul will begin to promote masterings that enable us to enjoy the music we’re paying for, albeit in nice boxes. He obviously talks to record labels, and this really ought to be at the top of his campaigns.

  21. Clucking bell, I paid 13 quid for that last week in Fopp, Covent Garden! Still better than the 25 quid original price. It’s excellent though, very well done!

    1. I think Paul has updated the pictures with what is on offer currently, but the older posts at the bottom refer to deals that are long gone. Most deals come and go quickly and some linger but Bowie has gone and hence the deal has been removed.

  24. HMV currently have the ABBA Albums CD box set for £14.99 instore and on website. Great price for 8 albums and extra disc of bonus tracks. Currently £28 on Amazon!

  25. Biffy Clyro have just annouced their MTV Unplugged release. If you go to their website there’s a good value signed vinyl/DVD/CD combo.

    1. Man, that must have seriously died at the box office. Said it before, if they’d put the demos on disc 2, it would have sold. They’ll never learn, record companies, they’ll never learn…

      1. I get you point Caroline, but then no-one would have shelled out £70+ for the 4 disc version with the demo disc in. They should have stuck to the same format as Out of Time and priced accordingly, rather than the 12″ size box. I guess the £6.99 is just one of Amazons inexplicable pricing drops (a la Bob Dylan Live 1966 Box Set at £22.99 a few weeks ago) and won’t be around for long

  28. Still waiting for my INXS “Kick 30” to show up…it said Tuesday last I checked…update…that Glen Frey box I ordered from Amazon Italy for 5 euros… It went back up to, like 42 euros, but with shipping, I only paid 14.88 euros…whatta steal!! Got the Suede 25, and I have to say, more than a bit disappointed!! So much that I reordered the 2011 deluxe back!! Two recent must-have deluxes I ordered for good prices…the French Rhino/Warner’s box of eclectic US artist Michael Franks “The Dream: 1973-2011” for 30 bucks…5 disc set, great deal…and the recent 2CD set “Dr Demento Covered In Punk”… $17.99…a MUST if you love classic punk/new wave/powerpop, novelty records, a warped sense of humour and an appreciation of pop culture, trivia and feel that fun and humour are missing from music today…

    2. I too am waiting for the INXS “Kick 30” – When I tracked it in “my orders” I was offered a refund or a replacement…..

      1. Get it. It’s a fun ATMOS mix – much better on the whole than the R.E.M. “AFTP” ATMOS mix, which although has its (great) moments and is a very spatial (audio) mix (with a proper Atmos setup) compared to ES’s “AFTP” 5.1 DVD-A, surround effort. Unfortunately, Litt & Norrell left out ~4 seconds of a classic and signature guitar interlude in their ATMOS mix of “Ignoreland” – a guitar section in their original 2.0 mix and present on every-other mix if memory serves.

        [Missing guitar @ ~29:28+ on the Blu-ray Disc is present in 2.0, but not ATMOS. Switch audio codecs “on-the-fly,” rewind and you’ll hear (or not) for yourself.]

        This little guitar section, that’s part of EVERY other mix of the song (yet curiously missing HERE), causes me to reach for the 5.1 DVD-A rather than the ATMOS Blu-ray – often! Shame. It seems it was a f/u and NOT an intentional reimagining, like some of the Genesis and FMac surround remixes — and let us remember, the aforementioned are guilty of adding time and instruments to well-established songs, not culling them! Again, shame…

        As to “Kick” 30e, it’s a bit of a surround-sound, coming-out party for Giles who finally embraces the discrete use of surround channels (and height channels) here. This “KICK” ATMOS mix seems faithful to the original album, though spatial-audio (especially b/c of the use of height-channels) definitely enhances parts of songs (maybe) overlooked in the past. Great INXS pop-songs are now FUN, as well in ATMOS. Good choice for a spatial-audio presentation. Enjoy!

  32. Hi Paul,
    The Bowie link states USA but goes to the French website. It’s also £7.99 in the UK which might be cheaper for some (me for example) than buying from France.
    Keep up the good work btw, Justin

  37. No delay in getting the hendrix……out of all my box sets till now 9 out of 10 would be courtesy Paul…..thank you my man….god bless you

    1. As I understand it, only Doolittle really has the available material. The other albums were all recorded quickly with “Bossanova” (their best IMHO) and “Trompe Le Monde” being partially written in the studio so there’s not much in the way of demos.

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