Music Appreciation

mr_lebowski

(33,643 posts) Fri Dec 13, 2019, 12:57 AM Dec 2019

Holy Shit do I have a surprise for fans of The Replacements (the band)

Behold, the recently (Oct 2019) unearthed original Matt Wallace-mixed (he was the record producer, but not responsible for the final mix) master recording of Don't Tell a Soul from 1987.

T'was a Mats album oft-looked-askance at, mainly due to it's studio sheen and general 'not properly sounding like The Replacements', mostly courtesy of a 'radio-friendly' final mixdown from hitmaker Chris Lord-Alge ...

The new-old album is presented in entirety as the first disc in a new 4-disc set called 'Dead Mans Pop', at one time a working title of the DTaS set. It's re-sequenced with most of the greatest tracks towards the start, making it a bit front-heavy but there's few stunners to be found towards the end, wherein these new mixes COMPLETELY re-vitalize a couple songs that really suffered in the final mixdown ...

Overall, in this new-old mix, the drums crack and pop, the guitars have edges and actual strumming sounds, and ALL kinds of buried little sounds you NEVER heard in these songs in 30+ years ... suddenly emerge ... and you realize ... this album was NO JOKE, man. It really was great.

As evidence I present ... the Lord-Alge mixed 1987 album version of 'They're Blind' ... which, while a nice song and everything, is really just that ... a nice song. Very smooth, lots of reverb, very 'produced' ... I wouldn't fast-forward, but it doesn't (and never did in the 30+ years, I've been listening) exactly 'excite' me all that much. Or make me 'feel', more importantly.

NOW ... check this out ... the new Wallace mix. Mostly the same performance near as I can tell, but I believe this is the proper speed (the one on the record I think was still this basic recording, but sped up, and mixed differently IOW).

This mix is REVELATORY. WOW. Freaking LOVE this song now. After all this time. Now it feels EPIC.

And there's a BUNCH of them that got better, and it's fun as hell to hear all of them their new stripped down iterations.

This is one that didn't change THAT much, but ... it's still better (impossible as that seems) ... and I FUCKING LOVE THIS SONG, so ... I'm including it ...

They're all on teh Youtube. Along with They're Blind, the new versions of Talent Show, Achin to Be and I Won't are the corkers, but I think everything sounds better on it ...

Enjoy!

4 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Holy Shit do I have a surprise for fans of The Replacements (the band) (Original Post) mr_lebowski Dec 2019 OP

Thank you so very much The Polack MSgt Dec 2019 #1

You know I would not lie ... check the whole thing out on the Spotify mate ... mr_lebowski Dec 2019 #2

So, I haven't found a bad song on this yet... The Polack MSgt Dec 2019 #3

According to 1 review I found, this Matt Wallace mix of the original record was lost for decades ... mr_lebowski Dec 2019 #4

The Polack MSgt

(13,192 posts)

1. Thank you so very much

Reply to mr_lebowski (Original post)

Fri Dec 13, 2019, 01:36 AM

Dec 2019

That version is fucking magic

mr_lebowski

(33,643 posts)

2. You know I would not lie ... check the whole thing out on the Spotify mate ...

Reply to The Polack MSgt (Reply #1)

Fri Dec 13, 2019, 01:54 AM

Dec 2019

That's how I found out about it ... Talent Show (Matt Wallace Mix) came on the random mix and I was listening along and I'm like ... WHOA! WTF IS THIS?!? This is different ... and awesome!

Then I looked into it ... and I immediately thought of my homies on MAG and knew there'd be some folks who'd be stoked ... you in particular

Believe it or not, "I Won't" is no longer kinda lame, sounding like it was recorded in a bathroom. It actually kinda legit rocks now, sounding like a Mats classic ...

This, among many other pleasures, are waiting to be found ...

The Polack MSgt

(13,192 posts)

3. So, I haven't found a bad song on this yet...

Reply to mr_lebowski (Reply #2)

Fri Dec 13, 2019, 01:59 AM

Dec 2019

Why the hell are we just getting it NOW?

mr_lebowski

(33,643 posts)

4. According to 1 review I found, this Matt Wallace mix of the original record was lost for decades ...

Reply to The Polack MSgt (Reply #3)

Fri Dec 13, 2019, 02:25 AM

Dec 2019

But turned up recently when Slim Dunlap was cleaning his basement.

Sounds a bit ... uh ... apocryphal, if I'm honest, but whatever.

It's a damn nice surprise to get this new (and awesome) treatment of all these tunes after all these years.

A couple of them I wouldn't say are way better, just different, but at least 'as good' and interesting in their own right.

But quite a few of Matt's mixes are really noticeably better, esp. the more muscular guitar tones and little details in the playing you couldn't hear on the 87 record ... have ya ever even noticed the Beatle-esque backward violin tone at the start and end of Darlin' One? I mean you could kinda hear it, but couldn't tell it was backward. Too buried and muddy sounding on the Lord-Alge mix. Now you can totally tell.

And Chris Mars' cracking drum work is really nicely bumped up, and his skill is a lot more evident throughout.

And 'They're Blind' ... holy crap what a difference.

Which reminds me ... the soundstaging in these versions is uniformly and noticeably better.

Reply to this discussion