3 out of 5

Label: Touch and Go

Produced by: Robert Weston (remastered by)

A Bob Weston remaster of the 2001 classic, plus a live-to-tape set recorded by Greg Norman back in the day, and also remastered.

So – the good news up front: this looks and – in terms of general fidelity – sounds great. It’s a good pressing, with a bright, meaty sound, and the packaging is fully re-presented in all of its full-bleed photo glory. The live LP, which has an excellent explainer from band member Eric Emm (the group had wanted to capture the energy of their shows post-the American Don tour, thinking it might revitalize them and forestall their breakup…), is mastered at a much lower volume than the album, but is definitely worth the price of admission for fans: it’s done without the layering of the studio release, and is thus a “true live” take. The playing is faster, looser; you can hear it more as a jam than the complicated interplay the regular release represents. You get 7 out of the 9 album tracks, which are mostly note-for-note, but, again, hearing how they’re achieved on the spot is damn miraculous; it’s not as affecting as an actual live show, but it’s an excellent document.

As to the remaster, though, that’s where this loses points overall, because… it’s not a very different experience from the original, at least to my ears. The nuances are subjectively better or worse: Weston has brought up some of the background layers slightly, and tweaked something so that notes / drum beats don’t roll into each other in some places, making it just a tad bit “cleaner” overall. But this also rounds off some of the sharper edges, so occasional note twangs or especially clipped percussion hits aren’t as notable. This is a big detraction in a song like Fire Back About Your New Baby’s Sex, but helps to bring out some more detailed guitar work later in the album, like on A Lot Of People Tell Me I Have A Fake British Accent, or separating some of the tap-tap percussion on Lets Face It Pal, You Didn’t Need That Eye Surgery.

But I feel like I’m only catching this bits and pieces – and they really are bits and pieces – because of how much I’ve listened to this thing; the original already sounded good, and, wisely, Weston didn’t do too much to it. I mean, I’m sure that’s underselling a whole bunch of technical stuff, but to this average listener, I really feel like I just picked up American Don on vinyl and got a bonus live set. Not a bad deal, but not what I’d hoped for from a remaster.

Add to that my least favorite way of packaging 3xLP sets – a flat middle panel that you have to fully open the entire set and even bend the sides back to get at – plus a lack of any notes regarding the original album (just about the live set), and you wind up with this being a collector’s-only deal; if you own the original and aren’t a mega fan, you’re probably good.