Back in October, I was reading Sonny Bunch’s newsletter that comes to me via The Bulwark and he led with the headline: If You Can’t Hold It, You Don’t Own It. It was about the way in which digital/non-physical media is, as he put it, “inherently ephemeral.” In other words, websites and streaming services come and go, but the physical product you’ve spent your hard-earned money on has a longer shelf life.
He’s not wrong.
Indeed, musician Steven Wilson echoed a similar sentiment when talking about consumerism in general, and his own addiction to collecting albums. In a similar way people often display the books they’ve read, people who collect music do so because, in part, it tells others about who you are. Pre-COVID, when we’d go to someone’s home, and they have something that means a lot to them on display (be it a record collection, book collection, DVDs, video games, photos, paintings, etc), more often than not, it signified a person’s passion.
So it goes with me. If you stepped inside my home, you’d see many signs that music means a lot to me. A guitar in the corner, albums framed and proudly displayed on a wall, and my physical record collection (mostly CDs).
This year, there have been a few box sets that have caught my attention (and money). Bruce Springsteen’s 30th Anniversary of Born to Run is one. The other two are featured in this post.
First up: The Police
I have all five albums by The Police in various formats, so why buy the box set Every Move You Make: The Studio Recordings? Well, for a couple of reasons. One is that all the albums have been remastered. What that means is that the tone and volume issues that plagued earlier releases have been corrected. Second, is the sixth disc called Flexible Strategies — which contains b-sides and one remix of “Truth Hits Everybody.” B-sides by The Police are often a hit and miss affair, and we see this on display on the collection they included:
Dead End Job (1978)
Landlord (1979)
Visions Of The Night (1979)
Friends (1980)
A Sermon (1980)
Shambelle (1981)
Flexible Strategies (1981)
Low Life (1981)
Murder By Numbers (1983)
Truth Hits Everybody (Remix) (1983)
Someone To Talk To (1983)
Once Upon A Daydream (1983)
Most of these songs are clearly cutting room floor compositions — save for “Murder By Numbers.” The earlier ones feel a lot like uninspired toss offs, but if you’re a completist, then this extra disc is a must-have — even if you rarely listen to it. For me, I was very pleased with the remaster of the first three records. Outlandos D’Amour sounded gritty to better mirror the punk aesthetic. Regatta de Blanc would alternate between shrill and muddy, and Zenyatta Mondatta was mixed with a lot of high end that Sting’s bass part or Stewart’s drum would often sound thin. For the most part, that’s been addressed with a more even/warm remaster. If there’s a downside, it’s that the albums now have a kind of sonic uniformity. But that’s nitpicky stuff. because now that these are classic record, there’s a certain logic to making them sounds as balanced and crisp as possible. Ghost in the Machine and Synchronicity always had good production and mastering, so these remasters don’t add much by way of better sound. Still, it’s nice to have all these albums in one box. Missing, though, are contributions The Police made to the 1982 film, Brimstone & Treacle. These could have been easily included in the Flexible Strategies, but maybe that’s being saved for another box set coming down the pike at some point.
Next up: Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears’ third studio album The Seeds of Love came out in 1989 and is, by far, my favorite record by the group. Not only is the production of the record excellent, but each composition demonstrates that Roland Orzabal was at the top of his game — though at the time, it probably didn’t feel like it. This record took three years to complete and went through a number of iterations and producers. It strained relations between Orzabal and Curt Smith, and the tour made things even worse. Indeed, Smith left the band after this record, but whatever conflict that mired the recording process and subsequent tour aren’t apparent in the tracks. From start to finish, this record is quite a masterpiece. Sonically, they did an amazing job recording the songs with clarity, precision and mixed with the right combination of tone and balance.
What more could be added to an already great album? Enter Steven Wilson who remixed the record in 2015 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the album in 2019. Well, the group missed that release date by a year. But considering what the listener gets on this four CD and one Blu-Ray box set, it was worth the wait. The absolute triumph is Wilson’s remix in 5.1 surround-sound. I don’t have a proper surround-sound set up, but it’s a close approximation of one — even though it’s technically a 1.1 surround-sound system. Oh, and FYI, the “5” in 5.1 is two stereo speakers in the front and two in the back, with one speaker in the middle. The “point-one” is the subwoofer that amplifies the bass tones. Mine is a soundbar that’s in front of the TV with a subwoofer on the other side of the room that connected via Bluetooth. So, while not true 5.1, it has enough separation that the Blu-Ray sounds fantastic. I was really impressed with what Wilson wrought — but would love to hear the album in a 5.1 setting to really geek out on the placement of the instruments and the mix.
What about the other discs? Well, you get a stereo remaster of The Seeds of Love, a disc of b-sides and singles, some early mixes and radio edits, and demos. So, if you really want to hear how these songs came together and other versions of them, this is a must-have box set. For me, Wilson’s remix was the reason I bought it — and I’m glad I did. My only wish is that there’s a way to convert the 5.1 mix into stereo that doesn’t lose all the cool placement of the instruments. But that’s a tall order that probably can’t be done because, well, how do you create a surround-sound mix (i.e., left-right, back-front) in stereo — with only left-right panning and placement? Seems quite difficult, if not impossible.
So, bring this post full circle: what do these box sets say about my passions? Well, when it comes to music, it’s clear that I’m one of those people who is on some kind of never-ending quest for the “right sound.” I know few people really care about such things because for most folks “good enough” is, well, good enough for most headphones, speakers, or sound devices like an Amazon Echo or Apple Homepod. But if you’re like me, these box sets will likely satisfy your desire for a kind of pure sound that’s fairly elusive when it comes to most consumer-grade music amplification systems.
