Sometimes listening to music that's been stuck in your head for decades with better equipment is exciting and good. Sometimes you appreciate things you'd never noticed.

Sometimes the old way is better. Sometimes the indelible clock radio version has real value.


Better: The bass playing on those first couple Squeeze albums is really appealing, and I'd never noticed.

Not Better: I don't need extra detail from Steely Dan. Tinny, low-fi Dan has more appeal.

For good or for bad, sometimes nostalgia wins.

Occasionally, a tinny version of something gets cemented in my mind as the version of the song, then I hear what the bass or kick is actually doing underneath it and I'm a little put off. But I attribute that to listener error or bias, and usually get over it pretty quick.

lotharsandwich wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 7:22 pm

Not Better: I don't need extra detail from Steely Dan. Tinny, low-fi Dan has more appeal.

As a studio creation, the Dan has always been a hifi band. Stereo nerds and Steely Dan fans are two overlapping circles.

To your larger point - yeah, sometimes shit doesn't sound like you remember on a different playback system. If what is stuck in your lizard brain is a fuzzy cassette recording you made of somebody's college radio hardcore show, the remastered CD is going to sound weird, and probably wrong.

One of the first recordings I ever owned was a Rod Stewart Best Of collection. I'm fairly certain it was either some cheapo import or unofficial bootleg release; imagine a RS greatest hits without Maggie May or EPTAS. It was average as far as fidelity goes, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Fast forward about 35 years, listening to digital remasters instead of through my Panasonic tape player, they're great and slick and...just don't hit the same buttons as they did on tape. +1 nostalgia.

Similarly, my first listen to Dark Side Of The Moon was on a scratchy-ass LP. I loved it, played it over and over, but once I got my hands on a CD, I never touched that stupid piece of vinyl again. -1 nostalgia.

Slightly related: I'd grown accustomed to the down-tuned version of Jumpin' Jack Flash for most of my life (somewhere in the chain it must have been printed at a slightly off speed). In the early 2000s it was remastered with the correct speed and that really bothered me. It was better "borken"!

Every time I hear people going on and on about Fleetwood Mac or Steely Dan and shit I thank gawd that I have never understood the appeal. I mean, I love Simon and Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell and Love and all kinds of melodic 70’s shit, but the Dan/Mac thing is something I’ll likely never get.

Frankie99 wrote: Thu Sep 09, 2021 9:41 am Every time I hear people going on and on about Fleetwood Mac or Steely Dan and shit I thank gawd that I have never understood the appeal. I mean, I love Simon and Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell and Love and all kinds of melodic 70’s shit, but the Dan/Mac thing is something I’ll likely never get.

I blame the resurgence of nose drugs.

The original pressing of Aoxomoxoa is way cooler and has more going on than the "fixed" version Warner did a short time after the initial release.

The remaster of White Light White Heat totally ruined the sonics of "The Gift" that was on the original pressing. Shame. I love that fuckin' song.

All my early Stones mono pressings are superior to the later stereo ones.

Frankie99 wrote: Thu Sep 09, 2021 9:41 am Every time I hear people going on and on about Fleetwood Mac or Steely Dan and shit I thank gawd that I have never understood the appeal. I mean, I love Simon and Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell and Love and all kinds of melodic 70’s shit, but the Dan/Mac thing is something I’ll likely never get.

I think maybe I only really like the clock radio versions of Dan/Mac. It may be a weird sense memory thing because I associate that music with shopping for thrift store raincoats circa 1990, and the thrift stores in question almost always had clock radios (also for sale) playing classic rock stations.