Reissue ! Repackage !

Just picked up the Rhino reissues of Tim and Pleased to Meet Me and the Mission of Burma reissues on Matador.

I believe I've now owned each of these a minimum of 2-3 times previously, in some form or another.

Anybody else still do this kind of stuff or am I even more ridiculous than I think I am right now ........

nope, unfortunately right with you - I was pretty geeked about the Mats reissues (Stink, Sorry Ma, Hootenanny) myself as I was about the Killing Joke, Cure, Echo, Talking Heads, etc.

Reissue Repackage Repackage!

Yes I am a tool and yes, fuck the RIAA and industry business models that are built on that or equally obnoxious format premises...

Some of the reissues are genuinely an improvement. Too many of them try to bring the recorded sound "up" (or in laymen's terms, down) to modern standards by compressing the dynamic range. This makes the CD "louder," of course, but can sacrifice some detail in the sound.

The Echo reissues are good, and the Pretenders ones are a tremendous improvement in sound quality.

I had to get the re-issue of Killing Joke just to get 'Change'. The non-US release didn't have it and it's a huge song.
The re-issue's got a dub version as well.

Got the Richmond Fontaine 'Lost Son' reissue just for the bonus tracks.

I'm old enough to have owned Never Mind the Bollocks... on lp, 8-track, cassette and CD.

I have The Clash three times - UK lp, US lp and CD. London's Calling in lp, cassette and cd.

And there are others. Usually I justify getting the CD because something's been added.

One reissue you can definitely avoid: Dead Can Dance: s-t.

The sound on this is absolutely HIDEOUS. The album is a classic, but they've compressed the shit out of the reissue and hide behind the fact that it's supposed to be some super Eno-eque 5:1 x2 over under bullshit. I've played it on several different systems from desktop to studio and it blows. Very disappointing.

For some reason I've owned Radio Ethiopia on LP, 8-track, cassette and cd. It's not even my favorite Patti Smith album, so I really don't know why I ended up with it in all four formats. I suspect some 99¢ cut out bins were involved.