Best Reissue

[Gazza]

Not asking you to nominate the reissue that you're most pleased to have, but the reissue that you think improved most on the original release.

Thought for a while recently that it might be Treeless Plain, but only until I played In The Pines again…

[Bro]

That would be BSD for the booklet, BW&OS for being the compilation it is, TBS for the completion of it, Calenture for the bonus tracks. But ITP and TP get the biggest lift, I'm inclined to agree. Would perhaps have gone for Early Singles, but I see it's not considered a re-issue for some reason, Gazza.

Has anyone said before that they are all great? Well, they are.

[lonesomesquare]

Has anyone said before that they are all great? Well, they are.

Seems to me that we need at least one more voting option

[Gazza]

Would perhaps have gone for Early Singles, but I see it's not considered a re-issue…

Had albums in mind, without actually saying so. I always tend to overlook singles.

[Urpal]

I'm hoping the reissue programme is far from over.

But all the principal Triffids albums are now out so it's a damn good idea to take stock in this way.

I've not thought about which reissue I think makes the biggest "step forward" on first time out, but I share Bro's general opinion.

My "off the cuff" call would plump for Treeless Plain, principally cos I always loved all the songs on it and thought it could be a classic if it didn't sound so sonically weak compared with the "live" renditions I heard when I first saw the band on stage. Now it so obviously is what it could have been. And its given me some major thrills as a consequence of taking me back to where I once was when I first fell in love with this band.

That's partly governed by personal nostalgia, so I'll have to give all the reissues another spin.....

[Mr.Ricky]

Calenture, to me is the most satisfying of the re-issues as it doesn't appear to be missing anything that needs to be on it...
Born Sandy Devotional DEFINITELY should have had ALL of the Wide Open Road 12"
Beautiful Waste & Other Songs should have had the complete You Don't Miss Your Water 12" and MGM
The Black Swan should have had that KILLER cover of Rent and the I Don't Need You 12"
Also, why put on I Can't Help Falling In Love and not Good Morning, Good Morning or Get Into The groove???
Those ALL should have been on disc 2

In The Pines is better, fidelity-wise...but I still like the original (!) I am use to the way the master was sped up and when I listen to the re-mix/re-master, everything sounds too slow and detuned to me...
Similar situation with Treeless Plain but not as extreme...Also would have been nice to make Treeless Plain or Beautiful Waste a 2cd w/ The Early Singles as the 2nd disc... MGM could have fit here, as well

just my thoughts....

[Gazza]

Took a while to get used to the speed changes on ITP, but to me it sounds much more natural for having them. That's probably a result of the extra detail though, rather than any innate sense of it now being right.

Haven't seen anything mentioned anywhere about the speed changes on Treeless Plain, but I've been intrigued about them for a while. I know that everything is running marginally faster than it used to, and is therefore higher pitched, but my instinctive reaction is that everything is running a little slower. Presumably it's one of those psycho-acoustic effects that arises because the sound is so much richer and deeper than it used to be.

Were the tapes sped up deliberately to try and compensate for that effect, or was there some other reason for the change?

[milton]

Treeless Plain is obviously the most supprising improvement as far as sound is concerned followed by In The Pines.

[Johan]

Calenture, to me is the most satisfying of the re-issues as it doesn't appear to be missing anything that needs to be on it...
just my thoughts....

I agree, voted for Calenture too. A blueprint for how a reissue should be: b-sides of the period added to the original disc (very good ones in this case), and demos on a seperate disc.
Just perfect.

[genkboy]

TBS for me, as it contained so many great unknown songs/demo versions.
But I like all of 'em of course.

[Eke]

This is far too hard a question - but a very good one - and I'm going to abstain for now and come back much later after I've been able to get some perspective on all the reissues. It's early days for the last three for me.

[son of albert]

I'm with Eke.

It's all been such a dream of a set of reissues that to be picky appears churlish. They are all exemplary in terms of the love and devotion that's gone into them. If a few years ago someone had said that I could have had:

1. Treeless Plain cleaned up and polished to emphaisise its freshness and sensitivity
2. RP, LSI, FOG and BW reissued at all
3. ITP restored to it's full glory with a makover to beef up the sound and attempt to provide the feel originally intended
4. BSD with the best ever booklet pertainign to the creation of a masterpiece
5. Calenture plus the demo versions sans 1980s production to really test the legs of the songs
6. TBS in its finery, expanded and polished with a radical set of alternatives
7. A beautiful replica set of singles charting the development of the band replete with download.

I would have been delighted. So I am.

My personal foibles are that

1. The live versions on TP are unneccesary and weaker than the full set on Caught in The Act which must come out sometime.
2. BWAOM would have made a nice replica set of single CDs in a box, restored to the full set of songs on each EP with the early singles too  [I know...too expensive]
3.ITP should have included the version of Kelly's Blues posted on the forum - else it's perfect.
4.Rent needs a home somewhere cos it's beautiful

And not much else..........

[glee]

Thanks for the comments and the gripes too, all of them quite valid, most of them at least considered at the time of planning. I can't go through and explain each of them. As I understand it we're not finished with this thing yet. Will keep you informed.

[Gazza]

Have a few minor quibbles myself – to do with how the material has been organised in places – but they certainly wouldn't include the inclusion of the live tracks on Treeless Plain. Admittedly they're radio-live rather than stage-live, but in parts they're better than the studio versions and sound pretty damn good.

And I guess the fact that there's disagreement on something like that illustrates how difficult Graham's job must have been.

[glee]

Actually those tracks are not just radio-live. The gig was at the Trade Union Club I think. JJJ had three gigs on that night and crossed live to each of them - others were Do-Re-Mi, and  Scattered Order. Apart from the fact that the versions are very good, I like them because they were performed very close to going into the studio to record them for the album. I also love Dave's youthful assertiveness in the opening interview when he douses the enthusiasm of the interviewer claiming The Triffids as a Sydney band. Pretty sure that On The Street Where You Live was never intended as a TP song. It's darker than the breezy melody suggests though.