The Who - Endless Wire

Discussion of new CD releases
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lukpac
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Postby lukpac » Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:51 pm

Rspaight wrote:FWIW, I saw at least ten people buying it in the 15 minutes I was in the store. (Or, put another way, about 2/3 of the people I saw carrying merchandise around or checking out had a copy.)


Wow. It will be interesting to see if that translates into any real sales or not.

How's the bonus stuff?
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Rspaight » Tue Oct 31, 2006 8:47 pm

OMG, Jon Astley didn't master it!!!!!11!!1!!

Weirdly, the album itself reminds me a bit of Rough Mix as much as anything. Pete and Roger trade off lead vocals almost every other song, and there's a lot of acoustic stuff.

The CD and DVD are interesting enough for freebies. The CD sounds pretty good by "Encore Series" standards, and has a neat solo acoustic "Greyhound Girl," a solid "Relay" and a laid-back but decent "Naked Eye." Oh, and one of the worst performances of "Won't Get Fooled Again" ever heard. Their boredom with this song is huge by this point.

The DVD is a cunning promo for the Encore Series DVDs. I gave it a quick look on the laptop but haven't put it on the big system yet. There's a terrible version of "Behind Blue Eyes," I can tell you that much.

Daltrey's voice is shot all to hell on all the live stuff. I can only imagine how much effort it took to whip it into shape on the studio tracks.

All three discs feature "Mike Post Theme," which isn't one of my early favorites. I like the mini-opera quite a bit. I'd heard "In The Ether" off Pete's web site months ago, and his Tom Waits impression is still mondo bizarre. "It's Not Enough" is a good tune.

My expectations were low for this, but it's surprisingly good at first listen.

Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney

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Postby lukpac » Tue Oct 31, 2006 8:51 pm

We Got A Hit continues to be stuck in my head, and the extended version was a welcome addition. I wasn't as thrilled about the extended Endless Wire.

Yeah, I didn't see Astley's name *anywhere* in the notes.

The art actually seems less crappy in person.

Still trying to figure out if the BB version encompasses *everything* or not.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Rspaight
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Postby Rspaight » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:14 pm

The Amazon listing for the DVD includes Who Are You instead of Can't Explain. I don't know if that's a mistake or an actual variation.

Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney

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Postby Alexander Keith » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:08 pm

The Japan limited edition may be another variation. Supposedly it includes one more live track from Lyon (total of 8 ).
Barry

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Postby lukpac » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:37 pm

Alexander Keith wrote:The Japan limited edition may be another variation. Supposedly it includes one more live track from Lyon (total of 8 ).


I don't think so. I think the jam is just indexed on the end of WGFA on the BB bonus CD.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Alexander Keith » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:47 pm

lukpac wrote:
Alexander Keith wrote:The Japan limited edition may be another variation. Supposedly it includes one more live track from Lyon (total of 8 ).


I don't think so. I think the jam is just indexed on the end of WGFA on the BB bonus CD.


I was going by this track listing I dragged off a web page. You just saved me some bucks!! Thanks

Seeker (Live In Lyon)
Who Are You (Live In Lyon)
Mike Post Theme (Live In Lyon)
Relay (Live In Lyon)
Greyhound Girl (Live In Lyon)
Naked Eye (Live In Lyon)
Won't Get Fooled Again (Live In Lyon)
Old Red Wine (Live In Lyon)
Barry

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Postby Rspaight » Wed Nov 01, 2006 8:30 am

Yeah, they play the "rock" section of Old Red Wine for about a minute at the end of WGFA.

Ryan
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Postby lukpac » Wed Nov 01, 2006 8:40 am

Rspaight wrote:Yeah, they play the "rock" section of Old Red Wine for about a minute at the end of WGFA.


I've heard that's actually from 2004, FWIW.

Maybe this has been covered before, but I've seen a lot of reviews talk about how tracks 1-9 are just "on their own", while the rest is Wire & Glass. Yet at the very least, Fragments is clearly linked (Fragments of Fragments, anyone?) and a few songs mention "the ether man". Maybe there's more I'm missing, but the "split" doesn't seem as clear as some people make it out to be.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Rspaight » Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:30 pm

Maybe this has been covered before, but I've seen a lot of reviews talk about how tracks 1-9 are just "on their own", while the rest is Wire & Glass. Yet at the very least, Fragments is clearly linked (Fragments of Fragments, anyone?) and a few songs mention "the ether man". Maybe there's more I'm missing, but the "split" doesn't seem as clear as some people make it out to be.


I agree. "Fragments" and "In The Ether" are definitely from the Boy Who Heard Music bucket. The others, not so much. I dunno why "In The Ether" is "outside" the mini-opera, since it seems to be very much a part of the story. I get the impression that "Fragments" is a "Who" version of the song that within the mini-opera is supposedly performed by the Glass Household. (Kind of like "Flame" in Psychoderelict.)

It's kind of like White City, where the concept is "loose" but there.

Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney

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Postby elcelc » Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:56 pm

In the recent London concert, Fragments was played right before Wire & Glass seemingly tieing them together even more. But then again Tea And Theatre has always been seperated closing out the entire show.

Don't know what's up with the Old Red Wine piece. Very odd bit of editing there. One disc has it the other one doesn't. ?!

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Postby lukpac » Wed Nov 01, 2006 10:04 pm

elcelc wrote:Don't know what's up with the Old Red Wine piece. Very odd bit of editing there. One disc has it the other one doesn't. ?!


Like I said, I've heard that's from 2004. So either there's no video, or it would be obvious it was from a different show. Guess they thought they could get away with it on the CD. Not sure why they bothered, though.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Xenu » Fri Nov 03, 2006 8:29 pm

Are most of the tracks of an overdubbed-Pete-demo-lineage?
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Postby lukpac » Fri Nov 03, 2006 8:55 pm

Get it and see for yourself :P
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Xenu » Sat Nov 18, 2006 2:15 pm

I was going to pick it up, but I've since been informed that the US release has strings that sound like capellini, and a bass guitar that sounds like a turd from the inside out. I've heard that the rare and hard-to-get Canadian release, by contrast, has a dulcimer that sounds like beef tripe and has far, far better imaging....it smells like they're in the room with you!

Of course, the discs are digitally identical, so I need to invent a reason why this would happen. It's not jitter, nor is it because of errors. It's because of the SF, or Spirit Factor of the discs. You see, despite popular misconceptions to the contrary, spirits that have not yet crossed the shimmering veil separating this world from the spirit world are, in fact, quite shy. They prefer to hide where nobody can find them; thus, they tend to take up residence in Japanese CP pressings and....well, Canadian discs, because who likes Canada? Now, you might be asking yourself "What does the presence of a ghostly sort have to do with tubas sounding like tetrazzini?" As it so happens, ectoplasm naturally extends the high-end, leading--somewhat ironically--to the "breath of life" effect. I hear Mapleshade's bottling the crap as we speak.
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"Fuckin' Koreans" - Reno 911