Suede (a.k.a. London Suede) 2 CD/1 DVD reissues on the way

I've had the first of these since Wednesday, but only just got round to listening.

As suspected, it's brickwall city. Some distinctly unnatural EQ going on in the bass throughout as well.

Hear that neat acoustic guitar on the right channel in So Young? You won't on this remaster because it's lost among the compression. There's also some particularly horrible clipping going on at the climax of Sleeping Pills.

The original Nude CD was never a sonic marvel to begin with, but it wins hands down here I'm afraid.

A crying shame because the track selection, DVD and packaging are top notch.

 

It's a shame they seem to have ruined them

 

Please don't make me try and buy all those Head Music and A New Morning singles from when I got off the Suede completist bus.

 

Ugh, I was afraid of this. Lot of the folks over at the suede.co.uk forums seem to love the sound.

 

A few other sites have praised the sound as well, but take it from me - they are loud, to the point of very audible clipping in some spots (particularly noticeable on piano version of Insatiable One, as well as Sleeping Pills, as mentioned above, and several other tracks).

Not the worst I've heard in terms of brickwalling (the quiet bits are at least a little quieter than the loud bits), but still pretty bad.

I find the pumped-up bass EQ to be the most obnoxious aspect of the first remaster - while the original Nude CD is bass-shy, at least Mat Osman's bass sounded like, well, a Fender bass, and you could hear his interplay with Bernard Butler. Here, it just sounds like a generic low-frequency blob.

I should say that I'm still buying the next two - partly because I pre-ordered them for £7.49 apiece with some Amazon gift vouchers, and partly because the DVD and packaging are excellent and I want to hear the bonus tracks, badly mastered or not.

But it looks like I'll have to keep a space on the shelf for the originals and the Sci-fi Lullabies comp.

 

Oh I believe you, thanks for the feedback. I'm wondering how the remastering will affect the sound of Coming Up and the later albums...

 

As for the loudness, could you post some waveform comparison between original and remaster.

I have ordered the bundle set already, but would like to see those still.

 

I'm not usually one for waveforms and peak levels, but since you asked here's a comparison of So Young from the original 1993 Nude CD (not fantastically dynamic, but plenty of headroom and the peaks are there) and the new remaster (buzzcut job).

 

Well until recently they were quite scared of Suede winding up as a forgotten band, so I guess I can see why they want the music to sound nice and loud on ipod docks.

If the above is true, then it's a real shame as the packaging and extras appear to be overwhelmingly comprehensive.

 

It does look kind of sad now...but Im still gonna keep preorder for the bundle set.

 

Could any with Dog Man Star confirm on the SQ? Brickwall or not?

 

Just got this one today and have only spun it once. But yes - brickwalled, with cranked treble to boot.

 

These Suede reissues are certainly intriguing. Posters on the Suede forums say the remasters are actually *quieter* than the original CD releases. But that waveform which was posted earlier in the thread sure looks loud. Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler overlooked the fact that many of their fans listen to their music on decent gear.

Any additional comments on DMS? Thanks for keeping everyone posted on the sound.

 

Thanks for the lightning fast response but yikes, sorry to hear that. How's the extra, you think they are worth the price (since the album tracks are not)?

 

Schit. I was kinda looking forward to picking up the DMS deluxe, as I didn't buy it the first time around (I have Coming Up, the first album, and all of the singles surrounding it). Oh well, to the used shops...

 

I don't understand how anyone with a halfway decent hi-fi could prefer the new remasters to the original CDs. DMS was never a particularly dynamic album to start with, but a quick thirty second comparison will tell you the reissue is noticeably louder.

It's not unbearable (though the treble boost is distracting in places - sssssibilance ccccccity), but having the original to hand, I think the remaster will be consigned to the car once I'm done with the bonus material.

I quite like the fact you can hear the wind player's breaths on The 2 Of Us, but that's probably the only positive thing I can say about it.

On balance, I'd say so. I wouldn't pay the £15 bricks and mortar shops over here are charging, but if you can get them for under £10 I think that's a pretty good deal. I've still got my pre-order in for Coming Up (which I've only ever owned on cassette), though I will be giving the last two a miss.

Extras-wise, there's only a handful of bonus tracks on the debut that are of interest to me, but the DVD really is top notch. Worth the price of admission for the Love & Poison film alone, IMHO.

I haven't watched the DMS DVD yet, but it looks promising. I *have* heard the bonus tracks, and they're great, albeit loud. The demos in particular (when read in conjunction with the sleeve notes) give a genuine insight into the making of the album.

 

The review on my superdeluxeedition blog is up

http://bit.ly/dogmanstar

cheers
Paul

 

These are great sets so far with the exception of Stay Together (full Length Version). It's missing about 30 senconds off the end. The Stay Together e.p is probably my favourite Suede release ever so it's a big shame this version has been edited.

 

It seems several songs have been edited for these remasters:

Stay Together 7:24 vs 8:30
Asda Town 3:07 vs 4:26
W.S.D. 4:38 vs 5:46
Feel 5:03 vs 8:21
Waterloo 3:59 vs 4:29
Poor Little Rich Girl 5:53 vs 7:12

...while others have been exteded:

Campfire song 5:37 vs 4:12

It's a shame Poor Little Rich Girl is not the full-lenght version I really love that song.

 

I don't mind Feel losing a bit though . Hmm It'll be interesting to here the extended Campfire Song.

BTW, must ad that I LOVE the extended Asphalt World & Wild Ones. The demos are all fun too.

 

I can deal with added volume, its not terrible, although maybe ask me again after a lengthy listen. But the edited tracks? Not sure why thats happened. I did notice that Stay Together was shorter but why the others too.

Hmmmmmm!! Maybe not all as great as they first seemed, these reissues.

I think the DVD's are the best part of the first 2 reissues. The extended Wild Ones and Asphalt World being the best extra tracks.

 

Nice review.

I love DMS so much. Brilliant album. Great songs and Butler's playing is just amazing throughout, I don't think any guitarist could touch him at the time.

As you say it's one of those great 'what if's' in music the wonderful stuff they could have come up with if he had stayed.

I seem to recall reading in a very old interview that Butler was pissed off because Brett wanted him to sound like Ronson playing with Bowie.

 

Thanks for posting the waveforms earlier in this thread.
Normally I do not look at those diagrams but this time they have prevented me from buying those CDs. I'll look out for used original CDs to fill the gaps in my collection - they'll usually go cheap once these new and "better" ) editions have hit the markets.

 

Thanks for the review Paul. I'm just reading that Edsel is responsible for this reissue. Well, that explains a lot soundwise...

 

These are worth buying for the bonus tracks and dvd alone I think and they are good value just for that at £10 on Amazon.