Anyone got Kate Bush "Hounds of Love" Audio Fidelity 180 gram Vinyl release yet?

The only time I saw the original UK vinyl was when I was in England years ago. It was around 500 pounds - that was over $1,200.00 CAD at the time. Ouch!!!!!

And mine arrived two days ago - thoughts soon.

 

Well, it was autographed.

 

I don't have the EMI100 on LP - just the CD. Do you know how it compares?

 

Apologies in advance for the long post....

CDs (I sold my Canadian CD years ago when I heard the UK CD release!):

CDP746164 2 (UK - Made in Holland)
7243 5 25239 2 4 (remaster with bonus tracks) Note: This has exactly the same matrix and tracks as the EMI100 release with the box and EMI "history" booklet.
CP32-5086 Japanese black triangle

LPs (as with my Canadian CD, I sold my Canadian LP years ago when I heard the UK LP release!) :
Hounds of Love - Simply Vinyl
Hounds of Love - EJ2403841
Hounds of Love - UK release with lyrics on the inner sleeve (EJ2403841 - Townhouse) This includes an insert that says "The Kate Bush 1984 Exclusive Merchandise Edition" and you could purchase a T shirt, sweat shirt or two different art prints limited to 1,000 copies, each signed by Kate. And no - I don't have any...
And, of course, I have the This Woman's Work box set version - LP, of course.
And I'm sure I have another UK version somewhere (purchased from a guy in Australia), but it was pretty scratchy and it was not better than my other LP copies.

Note: Each HOL album release quotes the same four lines by Tennyson "The Coming of Arthur" except for the remaster and EMI100 which quotes the same four lines as Tennyson "The Holy Grail" (!!)

45RPM 12"
Alternative Hounds of Love - (mixed by Del Palmer)
Cloudbursting - The Organon Re-mix
Running up that hill (remixed - includes vocal and instrumental versions)

With all this in my collection, you'd think I was a Kate fanatic. Well, I'll have to admit she's one of my favourite artists. And since HOL appears to be the peak of her career (so far) there are (or were) lots of unique items out there for this release. For example, I purchased all of the 45RPM items from one local store.

Because of my HOL "collection" as above, I decided to really give the new AF a good comparison workout. Besides, it's not a hardship when it's one of your favourite albums by one of your favourite artists, is it?

Of the CD versions, the CP32-5086 is my favourite. The remaster comes in a close second while the stock UK release is third. As noted above, I sold my Canadian release years ago because the UK release was much superior.

I did compare all CD releases yet again and confirmed my preference. When doing my comparisons, I selected both the CP32-5086 and remastered versions since I like them both. Please note that I think my CDP holds it's own against my turntable. For example, in other situations when comparing versions between CD and LP, sometimes I prefer the LP and other times, the CD. So I could not call either one of them a "weak link".

Then I ran through my LP releases.

Hounds of Love - EJ2403841 and EJ2403841 Townhouse were very noisy with pops and clicks - but they were detailed.

The This Woman's Work version was very disappointing. It had very few pops and clicks but it was very muffled. Dull! Hard to hear her vocals clearly. Wow...

The Simply Vinyl copy was the best of the lot. Very nice, clear, clean, relatively pop and click free.

So now we're set up for The Contender - the Audio Fidelity release mastered by Steve and Kevin.

This is the only version that I have that has the original gatefold cover! And when you add in the original marble vinyl, you have something pretty special.

And the sound? Superb! My copy was pop and click free although on the second play I heard three - probably due to the dryness of the basement listening room (a prevention necessary against the humidity of the summer).

Kate's vocals were clear, the background voices and effects were distinct, the instruments sounded perfect. For example, the double bass on Under Ice was so real and clear that you can easily hear the difference between each note that Danny Thompson played. Lots of air between the instruments here - no muddy sound.

IMO, the only version that comes close is the Simply Vinyl version. And, yes, this includes all CD versions that I have, listed above.

This is excellent - and I hope that AF can get the rest of the catalogue!!!!!!!