Deluxe Box Set includes two "Making Of" books, featuring band photographs and essays
Half-Speed mastered (still plays at 33 rpm) from original analog tapes
Audio Quality: 3.75/5
Song Quality: 4/5
Packaging: 4.5/5
Now this is a tough one. I borrowed this record from a friend of mine who found it for a very low price (the retail price is somewhere around $60) and was curious. I borrowed it with the same curiosity, because though I liked many of these songs on CD,
the quality of the audio was really quite bad. Just filled with the sort of over-compression and lack of dynamic range that is now the trademark of most major label releases. With this in mind, I was naturally skeptical when I saw an "audiophile-quality" double LP box release from the band. As a general rule, if recorded, mixed, and mastered correctly,
vinyl should always sound better than compact disc. However, if the CD is over-compressed and sounds exceptionally bad, it's hard to imagine that a whole lot of care would be put into the process of creating a nice vinyl mix. It's worth noting that in the description of this product on every retail page, it says "Half-Speed mastered by Stan Ricker from half-inch, 30 ips analog master tapes!" Now, I don't want to accuse any one of lying to me, but if this record really was recorded to analog tape and half-speed mastered, then they could have done a MUCH better job on some tracks. Either that or they're just lying and it was recorded in Pro Tools like I would have guessed. I don't know which I'd prefer.Regardless of how it was recorded, you should know that though this record has it's weak points, it is INFINITELY superior to the audio quality on the CD. The vocal sound is stellar, and during the album's more delicate moments, the mix is very warm and eveloping. The album opens up with "The End.", a piano-laden opening singalong, and is immediately followed with a pretty raucous track called "Dead!" Both of these songs sound pretty damn good, with nice and vibrant low-end and a wide stereo image. I've certainly heard better, but the improvement here over the CD version was quite remarkable. Many of the tracks on this record sound great with this vinyl mix, especially "Cancer," "Mama," and "Teenagers." However, this album loses it's charm quickly on about a third of the tracks, and they are the most aggressive songs on the record. Some songs have lots of big distorted guitar, and the mix is just way too loud and crowded. It instantly kills the dynamics of the song and it starts to play back with some serious distortion. The worst example of this is on "House of Wolves," which sounds pretty damn abysmal.
"This Is How I Disappear" and portions of "Sleep" also illustrate this reprehensible sonic behavior. In a way, what's even more of a bummer is when songs that sound great for the most part, such as the anthemic single "Welcome To The Black Parade," have moments within them where the levels rise to the point of distortion. Then you're vacillating back and forth between good sound
and bad sound within the same song, all the while wondering what could have been if Stan Ricker had just taken the master volume and lowered it a bit. Sometimes I say crazy things.The packaging here is quite impressive. And I would absolutely rave about it, but there are two glaring problems: 1. No digital copy included, and 2. It costs a freaking fortune. In fact, point #1 is made even worse by the existence of point #2. Lame. Having said that, for a fan of the band, this package is pretty intense. The outer box contains 2 separate gatefold books, with one LP held in each. Opening the package will allow you to read a very extensive "Making of The Black Parade," with one package explaining (with impressive depth) the process of writing and recording, and the other going through track-by-track, with different band members talking about what the song means and how it came to be. Also featured are lyrics and TONS of artwork and photographs. The 180-gram LPs are contained in white paper sleeves featuring protective plastic sheeting. Again, other than the troubles of high price and lack of digital format, this is a beautifully assembled collection.
I just realized I didn't talk about the songs on this record at all. But that's kind of okay. This album has been out for a while and if you follow mainstream pop/rock at all, you've definitely heard "Welcome To The Black Parade" and "Teenagers" by now. If you hated both of those tracks, the odds of you liking this record are roughly zero. But more importantly, my opinion of the songs doesn't matter here. With this price tag, there's no way anyone who hasn't already heard and loved this album would buy it. Either that or you're a huge fan of the band and you'd buy it regardless. If you love this record, and you're looking to hear a mostly better sounding version of these songs, this is definitely worth a listen. There's a standard LP version that also exists for way cheaper, and it appears to be identical other than the fact that it's not 180-gram. I'd guess the sound is pretty comparable between the two, so maybe go with that one if you're looking to hear the good stuff. This is unquestionably for die-hard fans only.
Buy the box set from ElusiveDisc.com
Buy the standard edition from ElusiveDisc.com
Tomorrow: Radiohead - Kid A (Capitol Re-Issue)
Posts
2 comments: