R.E.M - ...And I Feel Fine: The Best of the IRS Years 1982-1987
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Free Music Notes for ...And I Feel Fine: The Best of the IRS Years 1982-1987
Free Music Review: More about the remastering
Hit: 3 Stars
Firstly, the music on this collection is stupendous. In the 80's, R.E.M. was the most consistently excellent, yet idiosyncratic and unconventional, band around and each release was a new gift. I don't have many quibbles with the song selections made for this best-of, and getting the second disc for not much more than the price of the single-disc version is a value. If you don't know early R.E.M. very well, this is a great place to start.
But... as several other reviewers have commented, this release was mastered to sound as loud as possible. And at first listen, it sounds great. Then, after it's on for awhile, you will probably find yourself turning the volume down, and even thinking about turning it off. That's because the mix has been highly compressed - that's how they get newer CDs to sound so much louder than old ones, but it's akin to how a loud commercial suddenly comes on when you're watching a TV show and sends you jumping for the remote to turn it down. It becomes obnoxious and irritating when everything is so loud all the time, and robs the music of all dynamics. And if you listen closely you'll hear distortion - they mix it so high that they're actually introducing clipping, which means flattened sound waves that results in a static-y edge to the sound.
Unfortunately this is a trend that has been going on with CD mastering for the last decade, though it gets very little publicity. The record companies do it because they think we like it, and actually many of us think we do, judging by a lot of the positive comments on the sound of overloud remasters. But once you're aware of it, you'll notice it, and you'll start to feel ripped off. The public needs to tell the record companies we want quality remasters that don't compromise true fidelity and range for shallow loudness and distortion. To learn more on this topic, do a web search on "loudness war".
Free Music Review: and i feel fine...the best of the irs years 1982-1987
Hit: 3 Stars
good.didn't need to be 2 discs thoughFree Music Review: Poor Sound quality- Remastering gone very wrong
Hit: 1 Stars
This is really sad, this is an otherwise excellent collection. But in today's quest for everything to be LOUD, the over compressed this so that it's lost almost all dynamic range, and is just stressfull to listen to. You hear things you never did before-- BECAUSE THAT WEREN"T SUPPOSED TO STAND OUT IN THE MIX! Everything just stays at the same level, it sounds like there are some phase issues on some tracks as well.
I just encoded a couple tracks and the originals, do that if you want to see it-- the songs are all peaked at max level throughout on the remaster. The original has highs and lows...well, dynamics! imagine that! This is unlistenable to me, stick with the original. Of course it may be worth having for the rare stuff, sadly that's no better. Every instrument at the same level. REM from this time is classic, but they've butchered it.
Free Music Review: The record business is killing itself
Hit: 1 Stars
The IRS REM albums were some of the best released... and best sounding... of the 80's. This strips all of this and is shameful. Too much loudness compression, making it impossible and difficult to listen to. Technology is getting better all the time... yet the music industry is releasing albums as if we were all listening to cheap Chevy pick-up truck stereos. THIS IS TO BE AVOIDED. SHAMEFUL.Free Music Review: Not again!
Hit: 1 Stars
How many "Best Of" collections do we need from R.E.M.?? Most of these songs here have been released on other collections already, like Eponymous and In Time. Give me a break!