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Does anybody have any of these fabled CDs (that sound better than the really kinda shitty Warners/Sire issues)?

Xenu wrote:... that sound better than the really kinda shitty Warners/Sire issues ...

If this is true, I'm interested as well. I guess I always presumed the RT and the Sire issues would be the same, or at least not light years apart. (Then again, the '80s RT vinyl I've collected sounds fantastic, particularly the 12-inch singles).

I'm just repeating what I've heard elsewhere.

That said, the difference between "Singles" and "The Very Best" is absolutely startling. I doubt we're looking at the same sort of upgrade, but...


...and by the way, why DO the current discs sound so odd?

Was Very Best done by Hersch and Inglot and Singles by Calbi? I recall Singles having some limiting (maybe compression) and a bit of a treble boost. The earlier Best Of CD's weren't great compilations or impressive, but they were easier on the ears.

According to the Very Best of the Smiths liners, it was indeed "remastered by Bill Inglot and Dan Hersch at Digiprep." I can't find a mastering credit on my copy of Singles, though.

The only Rough Trade disc I have is Hatful of Hollow. I've never heard the later Sire/WB issue (is it a clone?), but it sounds pretty good.

At the very least, I would expect the RT issues of The Smiths and Meat Is Murder to sound better than the Sire discs. I'm guessing that the US editions were probably prepared from 2nd-gen masters at best, since they have the US bonus tracks ("This Charming Man" and "How Soon Is Now," respectively).

Still, to answer Xenu's question, IME this stuff has never sounded all that great. Their recordings generally aren't audiophile quality. Oddly, the SQ seemed to get shittier as they went along; Strangeways (to me anyway) sounds worse than any of their other LP's. Very brittle and anemic.

I've heard rumors of Rhino Smiths reissues for ages. I really hope they're coming one of these days, because the catalog could use a major overhaul. I'm hoping for something similar to their Elvis Costello 2-CD reissues.

I am still hoping the rumored box set sees the light of day. Maybe 2006 - Who knows?

Ess Ay Cee Dee wrote: Strangeways (to me anyway) sounds worse than any of their other LP's. Very brittle and anemic.

I've got this on vinyl and when I listen to it, it almost sounds like the tape was fucked up and was out of alignment at time. There's sort of swishy/chirping sound on some tracks. I thought it was a bum pressing, but I've heard a couple of others and they each had the same sound.

I remember reading on the newsgroups a few years back about a supposed stealth remaster of "Strangeways." Can't say that I've ever see anything at least on these shores that would hint to a remaster.

I've heard rumors of Rhino Smiths reissues for ages. I really hope they're coming one of these days, because the catalog could use a major overhaul. I'm hoping for something similar to their Elvis Costello 2-CD reissues.

That would be awesome. Take this for it's worth, there was a Smiths thread over at sh.tv (must have been a slow day for Beatles threads) and someone had stated that the project was being held up due to some missing masters ("The Queen is Dead" I believe).

It'd be cool to see a set similiar to the Talking Heads brick, but no friggin dual-disc please!

And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the track listing of "Singles" and "The Very Best of" very close to each other? I don't have my Smiths Greatest Hits decoder ring anymore. There's as many as Greatest Hits records if not more than their studio output.

Beatlesfan03 wrote:Take this for it's worth, there was a Smiths thread over at sh.tv (must have been a slow day for Beatles threads) and someone had stated that the project was being held up due to some missing masters ("The Queen is Dead" I believe).

Oh, crap.

Beatlesfan03 wrote:And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the track listing of "Singles" and "The Very Best of" very close to each other?

Everything on Singles is also on Very Best, which contains five additional cuts -- a few seemingly randomly chosen album tracks ("Still Ill," "I Know It's Over," "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others"), a B-side ("Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want"), and "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before." The shuffle-like running order of Very Best doesn't work for me personally, but the sound quality definitely makes up for it.

J_Partyka wrote:Everything on Singles is also on Very Best, which contains five additional cuts -- a few seemingly randomly chosen album tracks ("Still Ill," "I Know It's Over," "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others"), a B-side ("Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want"), and "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before." The shuffle-like running order of Very Best doesn't work for me personally, but the sound quality definitely makes up for it.

Hmmm...is the "Very Best" an import? I can't say I've seen it anywhere.

But if I want either of the Smiths Best Of Vols. 1 or 2, they have those by the truckload.

Beatlesfan03 wrote:Hmmm...is the "Very Best" an import? I can't say I've seen it anywhere.

Yes; I don't believe it was ever issued in the States. I've never seen it in a store either. I got mine from Amazon.co.uk, IIRC.

It's ridiculous how many Smiths comps have been released over the years: Hatful of Hollow, The World Won't Listen, Louder Than Bombs, Best I, Best II, Singles and The Very Best. All this for a band that only released four studio albums.

I still think Louder Than Bombs is the best, though. The sequencing is utterly brilliant. I couldn't even begin to guess how many hundreds of times I've listened to it.

Ess Ay Cee Dee wrote:I still think Louder Than Bombs is the best, though. The sequencing is utterly brilliant. I couldn't even begin to guess how many hundreds of times I've listened to it.

I agree. It was my first Smiths disc, and as much as I love The Queen is Dead it is still the one I play most often. Almost all of Johnny Marr's best riffs can be heard on it.

Aren't some of those comps "alternate version" comps, though? Allmusic.com gives that implication.

None of them are exclusively collections of alternate versions. Hatful of Hollow and The World Won't Listen each have a few alternate versions of certain songs (the ones that come to mind immediately are an acoustic "Back to the Old House" and a slightly different mix of "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side," and a version of "Stretch Out and Wait" with slightly different lyrics), and the former even has a few tunes not easily available elsewhere ("Handsome Devil" and "Accept Yourself," I believe). On the other hand, I don't believe either Best I or Best II offered anything unusual.

BTW ... Louder Than Bombs was, at first at least, a US-only comp, was it not? So I presume there was never a circa-'86 UK Rough Trade CD?