Do the R.E.M. imports sound better?

[Matt]

I heard these were remastered with bonus tracks; they cover their years on I.R.S., from Murmur to Document. Does anyone know how they sound compared to the US releases?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Sckott]

Sound is Ok. The bonus tracks make it work collecting the buggers, but the sound isn't very comfortable at all.

The MFSL of "Murmur" CD is fairly awesome, most every BMG/IRS/A&M stock issue is the one to get (CD).

The one piece of vinyl that really appealed to me sonically is the stock issue of Murmur, Life's Rich Pagent and Document. Most issues of Document (USA) are done by MCA, but it's rare that the pressing isn't noisy and sloppy. :(

[Uncle Al]

I have the import of Reckoning and overall I am pleased with it.

The MFSL of Murmur easily cuts the domestic vinyl I've heard, but that may have been one of the strangest mastering jobs I've ever heard. All thin and "distant" sounding. The MFSL lifts several layers from the muck that the IRS vinyl had, but it suffers from a lopsided smiley face EQ - real heavy on that bass boost. I always have to take something off the low end whenever I play it (it doesn't help that drummer Bill essentially rides the kick drum in 4/4 time throughout the first 3 songs. Add that to MoFi's bass boost and you have a very thudding experience).

The import of Reckoning has a similar sound to the MoFi Murmur, but the bass was EQ'd a little more cautiously. I don't have the MoFi Reckoning to compare, but I wouldn't be surprised if that is also a bass-fest.

[Togo]

I have a set of these IRS CD's (pressed in Holland)...I replaced my orginal UK issues rather too quickly and have regretted it ever since.

Yes, it is good to have the extra tracks, but the artwork generally isn't as good and the sound mediocre at best.

Oh well, you win some - lose some!

Best wishes

Togo

[Matt]

Thanks a bunch, everyone. I actually have the MOFI Murmur and Reckoning, which are great, but I was hoping for a better Lifes Rich Pageant and Fables of the Reconstruction.

As for the EQ on the MOFI's, here's a quote I pulled from an old article:

"When we released R.E.M.'s Murmur (MFSL-1-231, UDCD 641), the original version was mastered such that there wasn't much low frequency information; there was no kick drum, no bass, the tom fills on the drums didn't have much impact. When we got in the master tape, we compared it with an A/B switch between the CD and the LP and import versions and the master tape, and we found that the master tape was full-frequency response, incredible! And we said at the time, 'my God, what happened?' All we could think is perhaps the producer thought this was going to be for FM radio, and we'd better shelve some of this bass so the vocal pops out. Which was a good decision at the time, because they did get some monster college airplay with that album. We mastered Murmur and released that, in essentially a flat transfer, right off the tape. People oftentimes say to appreciate a MoFi remastering job, do I have to have a really high end stereo? I tell them no. With R.E.M.'s Murmur, you can tell the difference on a boom box. The kick drum is there, everything. That's one title that people like to use for A/B comparison. One of our national sales people was friendly with the band, so he gave them some of our LP's and CD's of Murmur. Bill Berry and Mike Mills were especially pleased. Because now, for the first time, their instruments were represented in the actual product. So they were pretty stoked about that."

The rest of the article's at http://members.aol.com/boardwalk7/mofi/mofi.html if anyone wants to read it.

Thanks again!

[GoldenBoy]

Great article. Thanks for posting the link.