Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (12/16/86)
Really-From: hogge@p.cs.uiuc.edu (John Hogge)
I just picked up Sonic Youth's two CD releases, "Bad Moon Rising" and
"Evol" (which, if you haven't noticed, is *love* backwards!). This is a
review of them.
o Sound Quality
Very good (for analog). Absolutely quiet in the silent spots of the
albums--none of that howky white noise that gets introduced on alot of
CD releases. Vocal parts are a bit clearer (more intelligable) than I
remember them being on the LPs. However, *overall* sound quality
isn't that much better than the LPs. All the weird, abbrasive noises
they do don't sound "fuller" or anything like that. Much of it still
sounds flat (not to say I don't like it). In fact, a few of the background
noises I like on the LPs seem to be mixed lower on the CD. However, I
haven't taken the time to do switch comparisons of the CDs with the LPs
to make sure of any of the above. To summarize my impressions--base any
decision you make to upgrade to CD on whether or not you care about
eliminating record noise (pop & crackle), *plus* the following points.
o Extra Cuts
Both CDs include extra cuts. Bad Moon Rising includes the cuts from the
excellent 12", which are "Halloween" and "Flower." (Flower is good but
brain-damaged rythmically.), plus the cut "Satan is Boring." The last
cut on BMR, which isn't advertised anywhere on the CD, is a short noise
thing which sounds like an airstrike (jet passing by, followed by Boom!),
and at the very end the sound of a stylus being ripped off of an album.
The airstrike is quite a speaker-rattler.
Evol has an extra cut called "bubblegum" which is *excellent*. I'm
pretty sure it is an old 60's cover, but don't recognize the band. They
do it up fine, dripping in a distinct, noisy psych mode which would make
the Fuzztones and their ilk damn proud.
o Artwork
The CD booklets have a fair number of posed band shots. Lyrics are
handwritten. Bad Moon Rising has the guitar tunings of some of the songs;
for instance, Society is a Hole says: "Lee: start w/ E tuning as follows:
_ _
EEBF#BE
--- -
and go astray from there. Mello- EEBEBE
-
Hey, I don't play guitar--don't ask me. I assume the underlines mean
on the lowest octive and the overscores are one higher than this. If
anyone's dying for the rest, I'll post them.
The cover of the CDs themselves have no list of cuts; instead, they have
bizarre, primitive looking patterns. Whatever.
o Price
Here it was about $17 and $16, or maybe $17.99 and $16.99. Hey, at the
time, price was no consideration. It was an impetuous buy, all caution
to the wind and all that...
o Locked Groove
Nope, Evol doesn't have a locked CD groove on The Crucifixion of Sean Penn.
I was kind of hoping it would play a loop for the fullest length possible
for a CD. Oh well--it's worth it to have Bubblegum which ends the album on
a happy note.
So, do I sell my LPs back? Probably, or give them to a friend...
--John
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