The Smiths Rough Trade questions

Does anyone know if all the Sire/WB issue of Hatful of Hallow is a clone of the Rough Trade CD? Also, are all CD versions of The World Won't Listen on Rough Trade or did Sire/WB press copies as well? Finally, is there more than one mastering of Louder Than Bombs?

 

I'd like to know as well...

Bump

 

Bump.

 

As far as I know, The World Won't Listen has never been issued in the U.S. by Sire/WB - I suppose they felt that there was so much overlap between that album and Louder than Bombs that it would be unecessarily duplicative to issue The World Won't Listen in the U.S. - although I believe that Louder Than Bombs was issued in the U.K., because it was selling in high volumes as a U.S. import.

 

The UK Rough trade Cds are the only way to go on the Smiths original LPs . Every LP/CD (even louder than Bombs) came out on UK Rough trade before the catalog was sold to WEA. IMO The US Sire and International WEA reissue CD's suck big time. The one exception being the 2000 UK WEA release "very best of the Smiths"

 

Thanks guys!

 

Wonder if there are any plans to remaster the catalogue...

 

Let's damn well hope so!

 

I've been hearing about remastering the Smiths material for years, rumors of a boxset this July were floating around..anyone hear anything???

An overhaul of The Smiths catalogue would be fantastic!

 

There certainly is!

When I finally found an original Rough Trade CD I was AMAZED at how much better it sounded than the original Sire CD.

The Sire disc sounds processed somehow - "Americanized" if you will......

The UK disc is tightly focused and sounds much more natural

 

I've never listened to "The Very Best of Smiths", which is the only digitally remastered CD available so far, but I own 3 CDs from WEA ("Hatful of Hollow", "The Queen Is Dead" and "Singles") and I don't like the way they sound. It's time to re-master all the albums, possibly with bonus tracks - there are some b-sides or sessions that have never been put on CDs so far. But the best thing Rhino could do, IMHO, is a complete 4CDs box set, simply because many songs are repeated in more than a release ("Louder than bombs" has songs from "The world won't listen" and "HoH", but some others are exclusive). It could be like the Police box set (Message in a Box) or the Citizen Steely Dan one.

 

Your best bet would be to get the Rough Trade editions - I have them and they all sound great. I gather the WEAs were cloned from the Sire editions which, if "Louder Than Bombs" is anything to go by, were futzed with.

Thanks to current remastering trends any remasters will be compressed at the very least compared with the originals - I wouldn't expect much for the chances of them escaping toppy EQ either......

 

I've only ever had the WEA versions. My impression of the Smiths "sound" is that its a little thin, lacking in body and warmth (technical terms, you see). The only exception is Strangeways, Here We Come which I think sounds wonderful and much better than all of the other albums. I always attributed the "thin" quality as deliberate. But perhaps its a difference between WEA and Rough Trade? Any thoughts?

 

I have the Sire and original Rough Trade cd versions of "Meat Is Murder" and had a really hard time finding much difference. At least not enough to warrant the hefty price those Rough Trades are going for IMHO. Maybe we'll get lucky with decent remasters

 

I would describe the difference between LTB on Rough Trade and Sire as being like the Sire one has gone through D/A conversion, been passed through a bunch of cheap audio cicuits and then back through A/D conversion.

Not sure if this has happened but that is what it sounds like! The Sire suffers from loss of fidelity, focus etc..... compared with the Rough Trade CD. It's not subtle - it's night and day!

I think I have a CD-R of a WEA Queen Is Dead somewhere. I'll dig it out and compare it to my Aussie "Festival" pressing (I don't have a Rough Trade QID)......

 

I also read about a Rhino box but I'll believe it when I see it. The only thing I can see preventing remasters of the back catalogue is the ongoing legal row between Morrissey and Mike Joyce, and anything which benefits Joyce(which remasters would do) would not get Morrissey's approval imo.

 

Thanks again for all the responses. Is there more than one mastering of Hatful of Hallow or is the Sire/WB a clone of the Rough Trade? Finally, anyone know why used copies of The World Won't Listen are so dirt cheap but all the other Rough Trade CD's are hard to find and pricey?

 

I would suggest you buy that "Very best of" now because sound-wise, I imagine whatever new work is done on the Smiths, it wont be as good as that one.
By the time a Smiths box comes out it will probably only be a download!

 

I'm flogging a dead horse, I know, but the best way to hear the Smiths is on the original Rough Trade vinyl, particularly the 12" singles.

 

Has anyone compared the UK The Very Best Of The Smiths (mastered by Bill Inglot and Dan Hersch) to the original Rough Trade CD's?

 

I have to chime in as well for "The Very Best Of The Smiths" remaster. Get this instead of the official "Singles" CD out there - it has every song on "Singles" plus 5 extra and it sounds better. Can't compare to the Rough Trade CD's because I only have the Sire releases up here in Canada...

Still waiting for those unreleased B-sides as well...

 

The Very Best Of The Smiths contains a minor mix variation on "Ask" and one other track, iirc.

 

That "variation" of Ask is the true 7/12" single mix. The "Bombs" and"World" lps and all reissues/comps have always used a alternate mix. The "very best of "uses the singles versions in most cases.
Strangely the "singles " doesnt have all single versions.

 

I have a question relating to the Smith CDs....

For some reason I have both the Self-titled first album and Hatful Of Hollow on Japanese import CDs that I believe may have been available before UK CD versions were made available (that is why I assume I have them).

The two CDs are The Smiths on Japan Records Licensed from Rough Trade (cat# 35JC-102). I also believe I picked this version up due to the fact that it had bonus tracks (as the Japan Records version has 14 tracks as opposed to the 11 on the album proper - which I also have the Sire American CD).

Hatful of Hollow on Japan Records Licensed from Rough Trade (cat# 32JC-129).

Anyone know how these Japanese pressings stack up against the original UK CDs?

I do have the original Rough Trade CDs out of the UK for "The Queen in Dead" and 'The World Won't Listen'.

I remember when 'Louder Than Bombs' came out in the US - it was probably the longest (time wise) CD pressed at the time. I worked in a record store and we had multiple returns on that disc because it would start skipping near the end of the disc for a lot of people (myself included) - assumed it was the length and the initial pressing done "wrong". I finally got one in a second pressing that didn't skip pressed by DADC in the US. So is 'Louder Than Bombs' that much better sounding on the UK CD (as was posted here in an earlier response)?

Lastly, here is how stuipid I was before I found this forum (where I always thought newer is better, etc.). I had the original UK CD of "Meat is Murder" yet I traded that away when I got the Sire version because, IIRC, the Sire version included "How Soon Is Now" which the import did not have. Where was this forum way back when, when I really needed it!!!!!!!!!

 

IMO The Japan RT CD's seem to be locally done and are not worth owning for sound reasons. They seem brittle sounding.
The UK Rough Trades are all worth the effort. Especially "Queen" and "Strangeways".