Rhino’s “ORIGINAL ALBUM SERIES”Featuring albums from the vast WARNER ELEKTRA ATLANTIC (WEA) Catalogue Covering All Genres Of Music and all Decades (1950s to 2000s)
5CD MINI BOX SETS, REPRO SINGLE SLEEVE US LP ARTWORK
REMASTERS - It is not to be presumed that these are "REMASTERS" because sale sites state it so - they're not. I've acquired the LITTLE FEAT set and the 5CDs are the crappy Eighties versions simply repacked - which is crushingly disappointing.
Some artists like Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, The Pretenders, Ray Charles and Warren Zevon have already been remastered in the last few years, so their sets will include those. But when you get to Rickie Lee Jones, Chaka Khan, Chris Rea, Little Feat, Bread, Echo & The Bunnymen and George Benson (to name just a few), it looks like you're getting more of the same...
So even if TOM WAITS, LEON REDBONE, BONNIE RAITT, MICHAEL McDONALD, BIG JOE TURNER, MONTROSE and PRINCE turn up in the next lot, if they're not remastered, who cares...and worse, why should anyone buy them?
ORIGINAL ALBUM SERIES by Rhino – A List
(UK RELEASE: 1 March 2010)
1. AZTEC CAMERA
(High Land, Hard Rain/Knife/Stray/Dreamland/Frestonia)
2. GEORGE BENSON
(Breezin’/Weekend In L.A./Give Me The Night/Tenderly/Big Boss Band)
3. BOOTSY’S RUBBER BAND
(Stretchin’ Out In Bootsy’s Rubber Band/Ahh…The Name Is Bootsy, Baby!/Bootsy’s Player Of The Year/This Boot Is Made For Fonk-n/Ultra Wave)
4. BREAD
(Bread/On The Waters/Manna/Baby I’m-A Want You/Guitar Man)
5. THE PAUL BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND
(The Paul Butterfield Blues Band/East-West/The Resurrection Of Pigboy Crabshaw/In My Own Dream/Keep On Moving)
6. THE CARS
(The Cars/Candy-O/Panorama/Shake It Up/Heartbeat City)
7. HARRY CHAPIN
(Heads & Tales/On The Road To Kingdom Come/Short Stories/Sniper & Other Love Songs/Verities & Balderdash)
8. RAY CHARLES
(The Great Ray Charles/Ray Charles At Newport/The Genius Of Ray Charles/The Genius Sings The Blues/The Genius After Hours)
9. NATALIE COLE
(Everlasting/Good To Be Back/Unforgettable: With Love/Take A Look/Stardust)
10. JUDY COLLINS
(Fifth Album/In My Life/Wildflowers/Who Knows Where The Time Goes/Judith)
11. BOBBY DARIN
(Bobby Darin/Sings Ray Charles/That’s All/Things And Other Things/This Is Darin)
12. THE DETROIT SPINNERS
(Spinners/Mighty Love/New And Improved/Live/Pick Of The Litter)
13. DOKKEN
(Breaking The Chains/Tooth And Nail/Under Lock And Key/Back For The Attack/Beast From The East)
14. THE DRIFTERS [featuring CLYDE McPHATTER]
(Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters/Rockin’ & Driftin’/Save The Last Dance For Me/Under The Boardwalk/I’ll Take You Where The Music’s Playing)
15. DR. JOHN
(Gris-Gris/Babylon/The Sun, Moon & Herbs/Dr. John’s Gumbo/In The Right Place)
16. ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN
(Crocodiles/Heaven Up Here/Porcupine/Ocean Rain/Echo & The Bunnymen)
17. DUKE ELINGTON
(Will Big Bands Ever Come Back?/Jazz Violin Session/Mary Poppins/Ellington ‘65/Ellington ’66)
18. FOGHAT
(Foghat/Energized/Fool For The City/Foghat Live/Tight Shoes)
19. FOREIGNER
(Foreigner/Double Vision/Head Games/4/Agent Provocateur)
20. ARETHA FRANKLIN
(I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You/Lady Soul/Aretha Now/Spirit In The Dark/Aretha Live At The Fillmore West)
21. THE J. GEILS BAND
(The J. Geils Band/The Morning After/”Live” Full House/Bloodshot/Ladies Invited)
22. DONNY HATHAWAY
(Everything Is Everything/Donny Hathaway/Live/Extension Of A Man/In Performance (Live))
23. THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN
(Psychocandy/Darklands/Automatic/Honey’s Dead/Stoned & Dethroned)
24. RICKIE LEE JONES
(Rickie Lee Jones/Pirates/Girl At Her Volcano/The Magazine/Naked Songs – Live And Acoustic)
25. CHAKA KHAN
(Chaka/Naughty/What Cha’ Gonna Do For Me/Chaka Khan/I Feel For You)
26. KIX
(Blow My Fuse/Cool Kids/Hot Wire/Kix/Midnite Dynamite)
27. LITTLE FEAT
(Little Feat/Sailin’ Shoes/Dixie Chicken/Feats Don’t Fail Me Now/The Last Record Album)
28. LOS LOBOS
(…And A Time To Dance/How Will The Wolf Survive?/By The Light Of The Moon/The Neighborhood/Kiko)
29. THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER
(The Manhattan Transfer/Mecca For Moderns/Vocalese/Swing/The Spirit Of St. Louis)
30. THE MONKEES
(The Monkees/More Of The Monkees/Headquarters/Pisces. Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd./The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees)
31. THE POGUES
(Red Roses For Me, Rum, Sodomy & The Lash, If I Should Fall From Grace With God/Peace And Love/Hell’s Ditch)
32. THE PRETENDERS
(The Pretenders/Pretenders II/Learning To Crawl/Get Close/Last Of The Independents)
33. CHRIS REA
(Water Sign/Shamrock Diaries/On The Beach/The Road To Hell/Espresso Logic)
34. OTIS REDDING
(Pain In My Heart/The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads/Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul/The Soul Album/Complete & Unbelievable – The Otis Redding Dictionary Of Soul)
35. LINDA RONSTADT
(Prisoner In Disguise/Simple Dreams/Living In The USA/Mad Love/Cry Like A Rainstorm – Howl Like The Wind)
36. TODD RUNDGREN
(Runt/Runt. The Ballad Of Todd Rundgren/Faithful/Hermit Of Mink Hollow/The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect)
37. THE SISTERS OF MERCY
(First And Last And Always/Floodland/Vision Thing/Some Girls Wander By Mistake/A Slight Case Of Overbombing)
38. SLAVE
(Slave/The Concept/The Hardness Of The World/Just A Touch Of Love/Show Time)
39. ROD STEWART
(Foolish Behaviour/Tonight I’m Yours/Camouflage/Every Beat Of My Heart/Vagabond Heart)
40. DIONNE WARWICK
(Presenting Dionne Warwick/Anyone Who Had A Heart/Make Way For Dionne Warwick/The Windows Of The World/Valley Of The Dolls)
41. WARREN ZEVON
(Warren Zevon/Excitable Boy/Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School/Stand In The Fire (Live)/The Envoy)
20 comments:
This would indeed be great news if these are REMASTERED versions... I have been trying to find some reliable information about this and could not verify it... do you know more about this ?
Thanks!
I OWN THE BREAD ONE. THERE ARE NO REMASTERED.
I just got the Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, George Bension and Otis Redding sets. I have some duplicates but these are incredible artists, and a great feeling to look at the original covers of their great albums. Thanks Rhino for bringing these blasts from the past! I plan to get the other sets, especially Dr. John's. - Record collector in Geneva
Thanks for the info. I' d much rather have the NON-REMASTERED versions since 99% of the remastered CDs nowadays sound like crap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ
Wow, never heard anyone suggest that remastering didn't improve the sound quality. Personally, I want remastered and based on the Echo and the Bunnymen set that I just received, these are not. Even though these albums have been remastered relatively recently! Bush league to release something implied as new when it's not new. I don't recall a record company stooping to that level before on a "new" release. Sorry to see Rhino associated with this garbage.
- Jim
I wonder will they do Mass Production,a (5CD box) would be great.The first five would be a dream.Aurra also would be really nice.
In the case of J. Geils Band, Morning After as a stand alone CD is no longer available. Current used prices are generally $30+ for that CD alone, so this is quite a deal.
I agree... if your going to release a great package of cds.. do it right. It's not like the remastered versions aren't already out there. Sad. I'd love to have Panorama and Shake It Up remastered. They only released the first two albums "The Cars (self title) and "Candyo" remastered.. not sure why they stopped. They sound great. And let me add this.. I realize Styx is not on the WB label (On A&M) but I cannot believe "Grand Illusion", "Pieces of Eight", "Cornerstone" and "Paradise Theater" are not out remastered. Amazing. Same goes for Donnie Iris... several of his most wanted albums "Fortune 410", "High & Mighty" not even out on cd. I hope they come out before I die. ;-)
I've posted reviews for the following boxes in this series on Blogger (and on Amazon.co.uk) - LITTLE FEAT, THE DRIFTERS featuring Clyde McPhatter, THE PAUL BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND, THE CARS and THE (DETROIT) SPINNERS.
I'll be posting more as I get them. Hope that helps.
Most of the ones I have seen are clones of the previous releases - which on lots of these is a good thing.
The trend on remasters is to make them so loud for the ipod'ers that they sound like crap - no dynamics. Also they tend to digitally add noise reduction, etc. when they do a remaster today.
Does anyone know if there are any unique masterings to these sets?
As mentioned above these days remasters are not necessarily an improvement. I bought the 25th anniversary edition of Michael Jackson's Thriller album which was remastered at Sterling Sound by Chris Athens. I was shocked that they compressed the sound to the point where you can actually hear the distortion! The original CD from the eighties sounds better without any doubt.. I can't imagine that the mastering engineer himself is proud of what he did, probably he was forced by some evil marketing chimps. This industry destroys it's own legacy.
Thanks for the information about the original album CDs for Dionne Warwick! I have ripped the few I have found at the thrift store and I really wanted more! [: And I just bought more at Amazon. Thanks again!
Thanks for this Rhino Records update!! I can't wait until I get to the FYE and dig in!!
This is for a guy who wrote about the STYX albums.They released all the STYX albums in Japan remastered last year in mini lp format.They sound fantastic ,but pricy.Same for KANSAS.In blue spec form.Fantastic sound.It is a shame that these American bands catalogs were never issued in the US in remastered format ,other then some for KANSAS.
Can you incude Randy Newman in the next series?
rapidshare links pleeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzze!!! thanks!!
I totally agree regarding the STYX catalog & had been waiting forever & a day for a U.S. series of remastered albums until I discovered & bought a complete Japanese SHM box set of the STYX catalog from Equinox thru Edge Of The Century & WOW!! Amazing sound!! Yes, it is a bit pricey but if you have a few hundred bucks to spend, this is the box to get. Furthermore, the Cornerstone mini-LP is extremely rare & very hard to find these days. I was lucky!! Someone on eBay listed the box set which included Cornerstone. I jumped on it as quickly as I could. Never saw another STYX box that included Cornerstone.
Do these album series feature lyrics leaflets as well?
You're absolutely right! I had the same experience/feeling towards the Michael Jackson's Thriller 25th Anniversary Edition. When true remastering was done, at the beginning of the 90's, the original masters would be properly cleaned aiming top notch quality sound...nowadays...you only get louder sound...except if the artists/albums have huge power lawyers that force corporation labels' top execs to pour big money into the process...
Own the Pantera series, sounds just like the orig, but 1/3 the price of buying five separate albums, also no jacket info, so what, the price is right!!!!
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