DVD Talk Forum - Anyone have the Simple Minds remasters?

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Anyone have the Simple Minds remasters?

I recently ordered Simple Minds' remastered(well 2003 anyway) New Gold Dream, Once Upon a Time and Sparkle in the Rain albums from Amazon. They're my favorite band of all time and I can't wait to hear these new versions.

Can anyone tell me how improved the remastered albums are over the original pressings? I'm especially anxious to hear New Gold Dream. :rock:

I think Dream Giver (www.simple-minds.demon.co.uk , www.simpleminds.org) reviewed them all when they came out. The writer sums up the remasters with:

Quote:

I'll summarise the remastering of the remaining albums quickly, but more detailed reviews will appear over the next two weeks. In essence, Street Fighting Years (the last of their 1980s albums) is really the last to benefit from the remastering process as the 1980s analogue recording is cleared up and improved.

Real Life, Good News From The Next World and Néapolis all sound 'different', but not necessarily better. Strangely its Néapolis that yielded the most pleasant surprises from this batch (both in terms of the sound and the packaging), and Good News >From The Next World has suffered most, with some instruments seemingly disappearing from the mix.

So, I'd definitely get hold of Life In A Day, Real To Real Cacophony, Empires And Dance, Sons And Fascination, New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84), Sparkle In The Rain, Live In The City Of Light and Street Fighting Years. Give Real Life and Néapolis a listen, but avoid Good News From The Next World and Once Upon A Time.

This is from the December 2nd, 2003 news entry. (Available here .) I don't seem to be able to find the individual reviews, though.

I personally only have the old CDs, but will probably update at some point, at least when it comes to the first four albums.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vili

I think Dream Giver (www.simple-minds.demon.co.uk , www.simpleminds.org) reviewed them all when they came out. The writer sums up the remasters with:

This is from the December 2nd, 2003 news entry. (Available here .) I don't seem to be able to find the individual reviews, though.

I personally only have the old CDs, but will probably update at some point, at least when it comes to the first four albums.

Thanks for the links! Do you by any chance know what happened to the official Simple Minds forum? If I'm not mistaken, it used to be a part of the www.simpleminds.org site. I used to go there a couple years ago but when I recently went I couldn't find it anywhere.

Is there a dedicated Simple Minds forum we can go to to discuss the band?

I'm drooling over the thought of getting New Gold Dream as a 5.1 SACD, but it cost a bit more than I'm willing to spend.

Quote:

Originally Posted by OutRun2

I'm afraid that I don't really know. But I think simpleminds.org has only been around for a few years -- it's supposed to replace the old Dream Giver at some point.

There at least used to be a rather active mailing list. I'm not sure how it's doing these days, but here's the link: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/simple-minds/

I have the EMI re-issues of Once Upon a Time and New Gold Dream. The DTS encoded surround mixes are fantastic!

OMFG I've just listened to the DVD-Audio versions of New Gold Dream and OUAT and OMFG they sound INSANE!!!!!! They are ACTUAL RE-RECORDINGS of the albums, possibly recently and strictly for these releases! I swear, Jim's voice sounds older and harsher they way it sounds now, so I am almost POSITIVE they redid these albums completely from scratch! WOW! The mixing and clarity is B-A-N-A-N-A-S-!-!-!-! Everything is distinct and in yer face!

My only complaint is the way Jim re-sang some of the songs. I'm not used to the slightly different style with which he approached some songs such as Once Upon A Time, All the Things She Said, and Alive and Kicking. The new black female backup vocalist doesn't doesn't do anything for me either. In fact she comes close to almost ruining Alive and Kicking.

New Gold Dream...well...let's just say that although this re-recording sounds STUNNING on a technical level, I much prefer the way Jim sang it on the old original U.S. pressing. On this one, the treble in his voice is WAY too high to the point of irritating. I have to actually EQ the highs down to soften the treble. It's just too detailed IMHO. But I'm sure part of the reason is due to my extremely detailed Beyerdynamic DT-880 cans and Studio-grade E-MU 1616M PC sound card with a 125db signal to noise ratio :D

Anyway major MAJOR props to Simple Minds for completely re-recording these two albums in the studio for their fans. This is why they're my favorite rock band of all time. :)

OutRun2, I seriously doubt that those are re-recordings. Most probably Charlie and Jim had very little to do with these releases apart from giving the go-ahead.

Yeah, that sounds very strange. No way I'd wanna buy a rerecorded version of those albums. Simple Minds has stunk it up for 20+ years now (yep, I've heard everything they've released and was a big fan back in '84).