3 out of 5

Label: Collective Records / Emergency Umbrella

Produced by: Shane Hochstetler

Here are the facts as we know them: I only got to know of Bald Eagle because of the label Expert Work Records, which is run by Bald Eagle’s Justin Nardy. I’m… dumb, so I will buy an album twice simply because of branding, i.e. if I collect a label (such as Expert Work) and they rerelease something I already own, I will buy it again to get that sweet, sweet new branding, even if nothing else has changed.

Bald Eagle’s debut is / was available for cheap on EW’s bandcamp, so I picked it up early on in my collectin’, only to find that it actually wasn’t on Expert Work Records. I have a ton bunch of stuff I need to listen to, so demotivated by the label switch-up, Bacon and Eggs moved further down the queue.

Fast-forward a bit to me realizing that Expert Work rereleased this album as a remaster, so howdy doody, now I had another edition to pick up. Normally, the “right” way to do this would be to dive into the original, and then take a swipe at the remaster, but in my eagerness, that’s not what happened, and I ended up reviewing / listening to the remaster first.

My only real reason for separating out this review – because the content largely remains the same – is to highlight (by apparently burying it four paragraphs deep) something I’d hinted at in that review: that I kinda dig / prefer the original master from Pat Liley. Saff’s cleans up a lot of Bacon and Eggs stumbles by punching the sharper elements up – the drums, the lead guitar. It makes it a very heavy-hitting listen, but that also means that elements that are shifted into the background (like the vocals) feel a little tacked on, and stylistic shifts away from rock / punk – a core feature of the album! – come across as less integrated into its sound. Meanwhile, in Liley’s take, it’s all a bit more humble. The production is rollicking; the mastering lets that shine through. It’s a lil’ sloppy, which works better for those stylistic shifts.

I’d probably ultimately land on the same rating as this being an album of a lot of great ideas but kind of blurred together, though that blurring comes across as more purposeful in this mastering.

I’ll note (as I did in the other review) that this isn’t a 1:1 comparison, though: my Collective Records edition is on CD; Expert Work’s I’ve listened to on vinyl and digital, which also both sound different from one another.