Pearl Jam - Backspacer: Another Release Ruined By The Loudness War!

Mohojo I think you are correct here. Although the vinyl does give the music a bit more room to breath, there is clearly still some squashed dynamics here. Like you say, I think Ludwig and Golden can only do so much with what they have. I still don't think Ludwig needed to jack the volume so much, but that seems to be what he does these days.

I would still recommend the vinyl over the CD, but I was somewhat disappointed. Either way, I'm enjoying this album.

 

I agree with all of this.

 

I'm sorry to report that due to time limitations I was unable to ask Ed any questions about Backspacer or the Super Deluxe Ten re-issue. We had less than ten minutes with him and he was busy speaking with my wife's nephew Peter. The whole time his stage manager was tapping his toes and looking at his wrist watch. I do have a few shots from the show. We had excellent seats courtesy of Ed.

Guitar trainspotters please note the Gibson Moderne in korina wood that Mike McCready is playing during Whip It. I thought it such an interesting piece of guitar art that my too cool wife bought me a black Epiphone Moderne when Mars Music was going out of business.

Cheers, Michael

 

That's weird - I think I got lucky, I was going to get a sample of the album, so I got an mp3 and the replaygain showed -4.96 Db... which is pretty quiet.
And sounds pretty good.

 

BUT, then I bought the cd - and it was loud as hell - -8.32 Db on the same song...

 

Now that this has settled in with everyone, whats your opinion on the vinyl. Worth it? Or just keep the cd??

 

The vinyl is nothing special, the sound is flat and compressed. At least it's not painfully bad the way Avocado was.