As with many re-releases on SACD, this album is full of 're-works'. Being a bit of a traditionalist (and probably idealist), I have a memory of the album from it's release on vinyl and rather naively assumed that it would be that album in MC.
Instead, I find that most of the tracks have been touched up, added to and in some cases, re-recorded using excerpts from the original. I don't think it's a case of not realising that this actually existed in the original and MC has bought it to the fore. Take Walk This Way for instance, it's a completely different recording from the original (easy to distinguish in the chorus which, if memory serves me correct, is Walk this Way (in one pitch), Talk this Way (in a lower pitch)). This is the same version which is available on itunes by the way and is not original.
I wouldn't mind if I was expecting it (sleeve notes etc) and obviously it's the artist's right to 'mess with the bible' if they penned it, it just seems to me that in a lot of cases SACD was used as a test bed to try and 'improve' on the original recording and not make the best of what they had. Technically this was probably the only way that they could have achieved Multi-Channel in some of the earlier recordings.
That said, and contrary to one of the reviews, I found No More No More (my favourite track) to be relatively untouched, certainly not re-recorded at all in my opinion, and unembelished with enhancements. The review stated that there was a sonic hole where the acoustic guitars stop and the piano bleeds in. If you listen carefully, the guitars don't stop, they start strumming (from picking) when the piano comes in. It's not a great transformation (I wouldn't call it a sonic hole as such) but is directly ported from the original and I admire the fact that they haven't tampered with it.
I don't suppose we'll have anything more from Aerosmith on SACD (MC) so this is a must have, just don't expect the original album.
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