Tuesday, October 18, 2011

I'd go as far as saying that many reissues actually diminish the album instead of enhancing it. The originally selected music, which is generally well-loved by the time the reissue emerges, is watered down by the addition of demo tracks, alternate versions and other "extras". Peeking behind the scenes and hearing a stripped down, unpolished acoustic demo that was never meant for public consumption doesn't help me appreciate the song. If anything, it makes the song sound more ordinary and less compelling. When I was downloading albums to replace the casettes that I was throwing away, I ended up with reissued versions of several of them. I can't think of one of them that was improved by the additional material - having heard it once, I generally choose to only listen to the original tracks thereafter.

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