Left Banke "Walk Away, Renee" - stereo CD availability?

[Vivaldinization]

Tom, I don't believe that any of And Finally contains needledrops. Not sure what masters were given to Bam Caruso but it does seem to be tape.

Whatever they are, they're not first generation by any stretch of the imagination. Lots of problems on that disc, including tracks that are poorly indexed. Notably, Walk Away Renee itself sounds a lot better elsewhere (e.g., on Time Life's "Beat Goes On" set, which probably clones the mastering of the Warners disc).

[mark f.]

Whatever they are, they're not first generation by any stretch of the imagination. Lots of problems on that disc, including tracks that are poorly indexed. Notably, Walk Away Renee itself sounds a lot better elsewhere (e.g., on Time Life's "Beat Goes On" set, which probably clones the mastering of the Warners disc).

As I said in my post, I don't know what tapes they got either but the disc doesn't sound that horrible. The 2nd album tracks on the Bam CD sound pretty similar to the ones on TGBAS though the mastering on the latter is better - the BC disc seems to lack air, maybe noise gating? There's an indexing issue between "TGBAS" and "Desiree" which is a shame because its a huge overlap. The sound quality on "WAR" and "Pretty Ballerina" isn't horrible IMO but those other first album mixes can be a tough listen once you're used to Bill Inglot's work. Otherwise the main value of the BC disc is having the original (and mostly very clunky) original stereo mix on CD for better or for worse.

Wonder if Andrew Sandoval knows what "tapes" BC got for their CD version?

[Derek Gee]

All the CDs listed above have "Walk Away Renee" in stereo. I don't know of any CD sources for the mono version (and none are listed at the top40musiconcd.com site).

That's unfortunate, because I think the mono version is a better mix than either the original stereo or remixed versions. However, even though the mono mix is more cohesive, it's still less-then-stellar sounding...something about the recording or mixing of the vocals always sounded odd and distant.

I can't stand either the mono mix or the remixed stereo which is trying to sound like the mono. The mono mix is tighter, but the slightly out of tune harmony vocal on the chorus drives me nuts. Whoever did the original stereo mix wisely mixed it down.

Derek

[billygtexas]

"Pretty Ballerina" is in mono on Varese Sarabande's Sunshine Days - Volume #5 comp.

[the Saint]

Anyone know the story of the "Airborn" reunion songs that Steve Martin and Michael Brown did a few years back?