Monday, February 16, 2015

Jellyfish Remasters By Omnivore Recordings - Hit...OR A Miss?


Many People remember the day The Beatles appeared on Sullivan for the first time, or when Lennon died, or…fill in the blank.  I remember the day when April gave me a tape of Bellybutton and Spilt Milk.  It was probably about 1994 or ’95 and I was working at Disc Jockey, a record store in the local mall.  Everyone there knew I was a huge Beatle nut.  For whatever reason, the topic came up and I believe Tom (The manager and fellow Beatle freak) was the one who asked if I had ever heard of Jellyfish.  “Who are they?” I said.  “OH MAN! You have to hear these guys.”  

A few days later at the end of my shift April finally handed me a tape that would change my musical life.  I still remember where we were in the store – right in front of the check out island.  I walked to my car and popped in the tape and HOLY S#@T what was this?!?!  Like everyone else that hears "The Man I Used To Be" for the first time, I was floored.  I devoured the tape so many times, I'm surprised I didn't wear the tape out.   I finally called my uncle/musical mentor and said, “Have you ever heard of Jellyfish?”  He said, “Yeah, I could have seen them in Detroit for 6 bucks with World Party and skipped the show – biggest mistake I’ve ever made!”

The point of the story is to disclose that yes, I’m an Uber Fan.  I don’t have as much Jellyfish stuff as Pablo Melons (Actually, I don’t think anyone does), but I’ve definitely bought a few things off of eBay in my day.  I'm also the type of fan that buys all of the offspring work (Sextus, Imperial Drag, Moog Cookbook, Umajets, Falkner, Grays, Manning, Etc.) as well. 

In fact I still buy CDs like Bent Van Looy just because Jason produced it or CDs where Roger just played Keyboards...just to hear him play.  I nearly bought Alanis Morissette tickets just to see Imperial Drag (Thank God I didn’t) and almost drove 4 hours to see Coward in hopes that Roger might be playing with them, I’ve driven 4 hours to see the Drag, this past summer I drove 3 hours by myself just to see Roger play with Beck (and was pleasantly surprised to see Jason as well).  And the worst bonehead move I made?  Yeah, that was probably when I met a keyboard player named Phil Bennett who plays with Starship.  They came into Disc Jockey killing time one day and then a few of us ended up hanging out with Phil after we closed.  All I could do was ask him if he knew who Roger Manning was and was he into Jellyfish...yeah you get the picture.  Not my proudest moment - I think it might be a right of passage to act like an idiot when you meet your first "rockstar"...and that was mine.  The things you do when you're 16!

Now that we have our disclosure that I'm a huge Jellyfish fan out of the way, let's get into the review.


The reviews that have come out about the project up to this point have all been generic and none really get into the details.  So what I have tried to do here is present an analysis between the original CDs and the just released reissues/remasters. 

I’ll spare you with the details of the bands history – because if you’re reading this you’re probably familiar with Jellyfish already (If you’re not – there are plenty of places to get the history). 

When it comes down to it, people want to know one thing that I haven’t seen answered completely yet and that is: is it worth it to get these discs? (Especially if you have the box set)

Being the “fanboy” that I am, I experienced some major cognitive dissonance trying to come up with an answer.  On one hand I’m a huge fan that had super high expectations and who wanted to write, “YES! YES! YES! – it’s worth it!!”, before the discs even arrived.  On the other hand, the reality was that this didn’t live up to my expectations and so my answer unfortunately is – it depends.  I can’t give it an emphatic “yes” across the board…but I can’t give a flat out “no” either.

Starting with the good.

The Essays/Song Commentary

This is by far the highlight of the project.  Ken Sharp did a really good job on both write-ups.  He was able to sum up the story of each record in such a way that he throws in some really great nuggets, yet he keeps it short and to the point.  Finishing those essays left me wanting more, more, more.  It wasn’t anything controversial like talk about the breakup that made it so interesting, but it was the talking about the mechanics of the records and the fascinating behind the scenes things that I hadn’t read before.  All I have to say is Bravo Ken!

I thought it was fantastic that they had Jason Falkner in there commenting on some of the songs as well.  He was noticeably absent (and missed) from the box set when it came to commentary on the songs for that project.  The other HUGE surprise was commentary from Albhy Galuten.  When I said earlier that I was left wanting more – this is one of those areas.  There are some great nuggets in there from Albhy, but there could have been so much more.  Lastly, whereas Chris Manning and Tim Smith made it into Fan Club, sadly there is no commentary from Chris, Tim, or Eric Dover in either the essays or the songs.

I’m not going to totally spoil what’s in the liner notes, but for me the stand out “nuggets” were; what was revealed about “Calling Sarah”, Roger picking up where Andy left off on the box set in talking about Jason’s contribution to “I Wanna Stay Home”, The proposed alternate title to Spilt Milk, the recording of “Hush”, and for me, the most fascinating piece was when Andy tells of the story of Roger’s extraordinary effort to bring Spilt Milk to life on stage.  Obviously there’s a ton more that I could go on about, but overall I’m very happy with this part of the reissue.

As to my feeling of wanting more, I hope the new Jellyfish book by Craig Dorfman and Ken Sharp’s interview in the Play On series will pick up where this set left off.  Supposedly the Jellyfish book is “leaving no stone unturned” – and I hope it will greatly expand upon these essays and commentary provided by the band (If not - let me at these boys and I'll get the interviews we all have been wanting).  We can only wish and hope that someday we get a book like Kehew and Ryan’s Recording The Beatles about the recording of these two albums…a boy can dream can’t he?


The Tracks  

In the table below you’ll see all of the tracks listed for the box set Fan Club (by Not Lame) on the left and the Omnivore reissues on the right.  All of the tracks in green appear on both sets.  The tracks in black are songs on the original albums remastered - which are not on the box set and the tracks in red are songs on the box set that didn’t make it on the reissues.  




The Box Set             
The Remasters

DISC ONE (Demos, ‘88-‘89)

The Man I used To Be
Bedspring Kiss
Deliver
Now She knows She’s Wrong
Queen of The U.S.A.
Always Be My Girl
I Wanna Stay Home
Let This Dream Never End
Season Of The Witch
That Girl’s A Man
Calling Sarah
All I Want Is Everything
Bye Bye Bye
She Still Loves him
Baby’s Coming Back
The King Is Half Undressed

DISC TWO (Bellybutton Tour)

MTV Top Of The Hour
(Much Music, Canada)
The King Is Half Undressed
Sugar And Spice
(91X, San Diego)
Two All-Beef Patties
Mr. Late
No Matter What
All I Want Is Everything
(Much Music, Canada)
Hold Your Head Up/Hello
Calling Sarah
She Still Loves Him
Will You Marry Me
Baby Come Back / Baby’s Coming Back
Now She Knows She’s Wrong
Let ‘Em In/That Is Why
Jet
(Much Music, Canada)
The King Is Half-Undressed
Baby’s Coming Back
I Wanna Stay Home
She Still Loves Him
All I Want Is Everything

DISC THREE (Spilt Milk Demos)

(World Café)
Spilt Milk intro
Hush
Joining A Fan Club
Sebrina, Paste And Plato
New Mistake
Glutton Of Sympathy
The Ghost At Number One
All Is Forgiven
Russian Hill
He’s My Best Friend
Family Tree
Spilt Milk outro
Ignorance Is Bliss
Worthless Heart
Watchin’ The Rain
I Need Love
I Don’t Believe You
Long Time Ago
Runnin’ For Our Lives
Fan Club Message

DISC FOUR (Spilt Milk Tour)

Glutton Of Sympathy
Baby’s Coming Back
That Is Why
The Ghost At Number One
Joining A Fan Club
(World Café)
I Can Hear The Grass Grow
New Mistake
Eleanor Rigby
S.O.S
S.O.S
All Is Forgiven
Sabrina Paste And Plato
Joining A Fan Club
The Ghost At Number One
The Man I Used To Be
Glutton Of Sympathy
New Mistake
Think About Your Troubles



Disc One (Bellybutton)

The Man I Used To Be
That Is Why
The King Is Half-Undressed
I Wanna Stay Home
She Still Loves Him
All I Want Is Everything
Now She Knows She’s Wrong
Bedspring Kiss
Baby’s Coming back
Calling Sarah

(Live)

The King Is Half-Undressed
Sugar And Spice
Mr. Late
All I Want Is Everything
Jet
The King Is Half-Undressed
Baby’s Coming Back
I Wanna Stay Home
She Still Loves Him
All I Want Is Everything

DISC TWO (Demos)

The Man I Used To Be
The King Is Half Undressed
I Wanna Stay Home
She Still Loves Him
All I Want Is Everything
Now She Knows She’s Wrong
Bedspring Kiss
Baby’s Coming Back
Calling Sarah
Deliver
Queen Of The U.S.A.
Always Be My Girl
Let This Dream Never End
Season Of The Witch
That Girl’s A Man
Bye Bye Bye



Disc Three (Spilt Milk)

Hush
Joining A Fan Club
Sebrina, Paste, And Plato
New Mistake
Glutton Of Sympathy
The Ghost At Number One
Bye Bye Bye
All Is Forgiven
Russian Hill
He’s My Best Friend
Too Much, Too Little, Too Late
Brighter Day

(Demos)

Family Tree
Ignorance Is Bliss
Worthless Heart
Watchin’ The Rain
I Need Love
I Don’t Believe You
Long Time Ago
Runnin’ For Our Lives

DISC FOUR (Demos/Live/Otherwise)

Spilt Milk Intro
Hush
Joining A Fan Club
Sebrina, Paste, And Plato
New Mistake
Glutton Of Sympathy
The Ghost At Number One
All Is Forgiven
Russian Hill
He’s My Best Friend
Spilt Milk Outro
Think About Your Troubles
That Is Why
The Ghost At Number One
Joining A Fan Club
S.O.S
Fan Club Message

































































































And boy…did they miss some whoppers.  Let’s take a look at some of the gems they left off:

  • Hold your head up/Hello
  • Baby Come Back/Baby’s Coming Back
  • Let ‘Em In/That Is Why
  • Eleanor Rigby


Why are these important for people to hear?  With the first three tracks – it shows how masterful the band was at integrating other artists' songs together in their live set.  Argent, Player, and Macca – seamlessly flowing into their own songs made for amazing tracks that every Jellyfish fan should hear.  The treatment they gave the covers are amazing in their own right!  For those of us who never were able to see the band live – these are MUST OWN TRACKS. 

Leaving out the show opening “Hello” is such a crime all on its own.  This is, by far, one of the best songs they never gave us in studio form.  “Will You Marry Me” is great too don’t get me wrong, but "Hello" is a power pop masterpiece – the song just rips live.  For those of you that have never heard it, you can click HERE.

The last omitted track that I’ll mention is the cover of "Eleanor Rigby".  This is the most beautiful cover of Rigby…that you’ll EVER hear.  In fact, Tim Smith even notes in the box set that they were “…calling upon every chord substitution they could remember to do this song.”  He says about the arrangement, “Ah, I could have been a jazzer…”  HERE is a video from YouTube of the performance.  After watching that I don’t know how you could not be upset that it isn’t on the reissues.  Taking all of that into consideration, I present you strike one.

The Packaging:

I have to say that I wasn’t impressed with the packaging; in fact I was extremely let down.  The front covers seem like they are copies of copies.  It looks shoddy because not only are they darker, but they’re duller, and grainy as well.  It’s sad that the covers lack the clarity of the originals.  Seriously – it looks like someone took the old CD covers to a scanner and made copies and then sent them off to print.  But that’s not even the biggest offense.  Omnivore left off the word ‘Presents” right above the teardrop with the words “Spilt Milk” in it.  How the heck does that happen?  I can’t believe they let that slip!  For that, I offer up strike two.

Another Miss: 

On the original version of Bellybutton, “I Wanna Stay Home” clocks in at 4:06.  On the reissue it comes in at 3:52 – THEY USED AN EDIT VERSION!!  What the heck?????  I about fell out of my chair when the vocal came in so early.  I’ve never heard the edit version and the song sounds incomplete without the extra bars of music.  It changes the dynamic of the song and I’m really disappointed in Omnivore for that.  I’m extremely curious to see if Andy, Roger, Albhy, or Jack wanted this or if this was Omnivore doing revisionist history or if this was just a bad blunder or something else.  Inquiring minds want to know!  Strike three.

The Mastering: 

I sent an email to Omnivore asking how these albums were being remastered.  Basically what I wanted to know was if they were going to become a part of the “Loudness Wars”.  If you don’t know what that is check out the three links HEREHERE, and HERE.  Anyway, I received a mail back from them stating that basically the albums were remastered only with musicality in mind and not to be a part of the “Loudness Wars”.    

With that in mind, I've been talking with Jellyfish fans that I know and searching all over the Internet for people’s reaction to the remasters and to be honest the results are leaning towards people not being overly thrilled with the mastering job.

I have also been A/B testing the crap out of the two versions myself and here are my thoughts. (Full disclosure – I’ve been using a high quality Geek Out 450 DAC with some nice, but not quite audiophile, headphones and I’ve ripped everything in AIFF)  To me the originals sound better…period.  I’ve lined the songs up in my playlist so that old version plays first and the reissue version of the same song plays right after it.  The first few times the new versions came on I jumped a little because it was significantly louder.  Once I pulled the volume of the reissues down to get close to the original, (just by ear, no software to match the volumes) the new version didn’t sound as good IMHO.  I’m not saying the new versions are brick-walled or so loud that they sound like a Foo Fighters or Metallica album, but they don’t quite cut it for my liking.  On the other hand there may be a lot of people out there who like really bright and louder music and these new versions may work really well for them.  In the end I think it comes down to a personal preference thing – I understand this subject is very subjective, but for me – the older versions sound better.  It seems to me that if you’re going to remaster a masterpiece like Spilt Milk (where even Andy Sturmer said on the box set that recording studios use that record to balance speakers, etc because it was done so well) that you at least get the original mastering team to work on it.  Doug Sax mastered that album BEAUTIFULLY and the remaster doesn’t live up to his work.

One last thing about the remastering process, I would love Omnivore to let us know if the original master tapes were used.  I mean, when I buy the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab 24 karat gold discs - it says right on there "FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES".  There has been no mention of that on this project and I think they owe us that at the very least.


Recommendation

Buy it if:

1.)  You don’t have the cash (or don’t want to shell out $200 plus) to pick up a used copy of Fan Club.

2.)  You just can’t stand missing out on some new insight from Albhy and the band.  This is, IMHO, the saving grace of the box set.

Don’t buy it if:

1.)  You already have fan club AND

2.)  You don’t want louder versions of the albums that also weren’t mastered by the original team.

3.)  You don’t care about the new essay/interviews/comments

I’m disappointed in Omnivore on this one.  I say that with a bit of sadness.  These guys are sacred to a lot of people (People who hang them right up there with the Beatles).  They are the measuring stick by which all modern-day power pop bands are judged.  Jellyfish took things to the limit and were perfectionists.  

The same effort and perfectionist mindset should be given to any project about the band.  When fans are given a box set or a reissue – we expect said project to be taken to the nth power a-la Jellyfish style!  Not this.

In closing, I have to believe that dealing with the owners of the master tapes/material (if it's not the artists) can be a daunting task for Omnivore.  If for some reason they couldn’t use the original masters, or the original artwork, the original team to master etc. etc. – then let us know…be honest, at least we can give you a pass for trying.  But don’t keep us in the dark as to why things like tracks and album covers have been altered.  Plenty of people have been asking about those two issues in particular and I haven’t seen any explanations.

Omnivore, I’m not sure how much more you can release from these guys.  But if someday you do release more - or you acquire the rights to give us 24/96, 24/192 or DSD files, PLEASE use the original team to master and get the songs and packaging right!


P.S. - Will someone PLEASE release vocals only versions of these albums?????

Thanks for reading



2 comments:

  1. Very thorough evaluation. I agree with your recommendations mostly. If anything the re-mastering did bring out the vocals a little better IMHO. The instrumentation isn't as crisp and dense as the originals, but that's a serious headphones test that most will not bother with. For those without the box set, this is the best way to go.

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  2. Thanks for your comments! You are absolutely right, the average listener probably won't pick up the differences (I'm just a Jellyfish nerd so I was a little more meticulous on this review).

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