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Again sitting at work, reading all your comments, trembling inside and itching to go home. Will it arrive in Holland today? Oh please please please…
Greets,
Thomas
Yay! I got it today too! Here’s my review (WARNING: SPOILERS! IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE VARIOUS TRACKS ARE, DON’T READ!!!!!)
Right now I’m feeling both overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time.
I’ll try to sum up my thoughts here.
First of all: the packaging is just beautiful! And the liner notes are great, and pretty much as detailed as can be. And I love the info on who played what, what equipment they used to record/mix/master, all that, it’s pure love! And of course the story about how everything happened as it did.
Now, on to the music!
Discs 1 & 2 are, of course, the original album, just as it was released back then. As Mr. Le Bad puts it: “we’ve all been annoyed at the hypercompressed ‘modern’ (but already dated) sound of umpteen ‘Deluxe Editions’ and wrong-sounding old favourite albums, and have chosen not to tamper with history and present the album as MP intended it to be heard in July 1994.”
I won’t comment further on that, other that I love the album and I love that they’ve done nothing to “improve” it!
Disc 3 is the unreleased first edition – read the story in the liner notes – fortunately they wrote some more songs during the 1994 spring tour! This one makes a really interesting listen, since it’s almost TM, but not quite, the songs are in different order, some are lacking, others are present. I don’t know what to say yet – it’s like finding your girlfriend’s long-lost (almost-)identical twin-sister, perhaps? Now, if someone wants to merge that thought with “She used to be a twin”, it’s story, lyrics and connection to TM, then, well, I guess we’re in for an interesting read…!
Okay, I’m getting off-topic here…Note: A part of “Innersfree” appeared in a totally different song some years later! Do you hear it? (It’s quite obvious.)
Disc 4:
The first 3 songs I’ve heard before, so it’s no biggie to me, though I really dig them all. “Jr” is a bit tiring, but the other two are wonderful and they’re what make the Psychobabble EP so nice.
Then, the 3 [edit]s, which I personally think are unnecessary. They really don’t give me anything, and leaves me wondering why they included them. To show that “hey, we discovered the fade-out-button, and we used it!”? Since MP pretty much never fade out a track, but rather do the totally opposite, that could be a point of interest, but, well… I guess the real reason is that these edits were on the US/UK 1CD version, so hey, maybe one day I’ll compile my own 1CD edition with these edits and see how that feels like. Could be interesting! Anywho, I would personally have preferred some unreleased stuff.
Next we have “New day rising”, “Seethe”, “Shock me”, “Working for the MCA” and “Space Cadet Boogie”. Out of these, only the last one is of real interest to me, and I’ve heard it before. “New day rising” is also great, as is Hüsker Dü, but I can’t say I see the real value of releasing these covers on this box. Though it must be noted that the new mastering on disc 4 is spectacular!! Truly!
And now, the interesting part:
Walking on the Water: Obviously, a very early version of everyone’s favorite song on AADAP! Most of it is recognizable, though some parts don’t exist in the final version. IMO a very interesting glimpse into the MP songwriting process!
Mr Butterclut: A fun Snah instrumental, which I enjoyed, but nothing more than that.
Celestine: A beautiful song I’ve loved since I first heard the Hey Jane EP, and on this release, thanks to Helge Sten’s great mastering, it sounds better than ever! The improvement in sound quality is amazing.
Sinking: I really can’t understand why this one has gone unreleased/unplayed! To me it’s a beauty of a song, starting out as a relaxed pop tune and ending in some kind of Jerry Garcia-inspired 70s jazz space!
The Entertaining Ape: Yet another piece of gold found in Bent’s livingroom, this time an existential little “ditty” with simple, yet very very strong lyrics, dealing quite directly with growing old, death and all that. I imagine this being Bent imagining growing old without having accomplished anything special, and finding himself as just an “entertaining ape”. Or maybe he wrote it about someone else; it’s unfortunately the story of many a life.
Giftland Jam: Now, this is very cool! A straight-to-tape recording of B & S jamming/practicing the middle part of Giftland! Especially fascinating for me, as an aspiring musician. Fun banter as they exit too; Bent: “We have something there.” Snah: “That’s got to be something!” (or something like that). And listen to Bent’s bass playing – he treats the bass almost as if it were a bluegrass mandolin! OK – not quite – but kinda!
Sonnyboy Gaybar: Haha! What a fun ending of this release – and at the same time it marks the beginning of the fantastic adventure known as TITS! It’s hilarious how they can’t keep from laughing from the sheer silliness of the tune
All in all: 9/10
“Timothy’s Monster” is, without a doubt, one of the best albums ever, in my opinon. (Duh!) This Redux edition has a disappointingly low amount of unreleased stuff (I’d hoped for more unreleased songs, jams, rehearsals, whatnot) – but still, what we have is just great, at times really fantastic, and definitely interesting and fascinating for a geek like me!
Thanks for listening/reading,
cheers!
Quote:Note: A part of “Innersfree” appeared in a totally different song some years later! Do you hear it? (It’s quite obvious.)Yeah, I already knew about it from the Copenhagen 1991 bootleg. The guitar-riff that starts at 4:30 pops up in 577 on Trust Us as the build-up riff before the last verse.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!
Other than that, Innersfree is a sort of a lost classic. It does sound a abit like a mix between Demon Box and Mountain. But that’s probably why they ditched it from the final version of Timmy: Because it sounded too much like previous stuff. But at least it’s out now. Very 90’s, Very Aware is fun, with some really cool lyrics, but compared to the stuff it got substituted with, it was the right decision to ditch it.
I also like the pre-version of Grindstone way better because of the alternate ending. Instead of the repetitive noise-hell of the original, we get a bridge and an outro jam similar to the Roadwork 2 live version. Way better, and the original noise only gets like 30 secs in the end.
The alternative version of Walking On The Water is interesting, but unfinished. Mr Butterclut is just Snah weirdness in 2 parts, the first being a nice child ditty, while the second is Viscount noise from hell :lol: Sinking is also nice, but unfinished as well. The Entertaining Ape is cool, and the extended version of Celestine (a minute longer than the Hey Jane version) is also cool. Giftland Jam gives a nice impression of how they develop songs/jams, while Sonnyboy Gaybar is a fun (but not essential) way to end the box.
Wow, the disc 3 version gave me a sort of demon box feeling of the record. I think this version gave grindstone some sort of context, but all in all I think timythys monster stands out as a masterpiece after hering this version
@ Rolf & otherdemon:
Nerds take note: the part from Innersfree also made an appearance in The Wheel during the Starclub Dresden 1995 concert – whether due to error or careful calculation, we will (probably) never know.
TAF: Yeah, you’re right. I guess Snah just blends in those riffs where he see fit, not caring about error or calculation :lol:
Obviously, I didn’t listen to all of disc 3, since I thought the last songs were as on the original release. But yeah, that Grindstone was something! I’m also enjoying this Golden Core. There’s something slightly different about the sound, probably the mastering, and is it a tiny bit faster than the original release? Or perhaps not. Or is it? I think it is, but it could be a deception.
Disc 3 is not that different. Except from the three songs that got cut off, there’s the longer Grindstone. And Now It’s Time To Skate is shorter, because they faded it right after Bent’s last singing. And Giftland’s intro is shorter because Innersfree segues right into it (really cool segue, by the way)
@TAF – but at that time it hadn’t become an “offical” part of 577, so my guess is that it got thrown in there in the heat of the moment. But whatever is the case, I’ve never noticed that! I’ll have to dig out that recording soon then…
I’ve heard rumours (quite reliable I think) that even the Un Chien main riff dates back to the 80s (!).The entire creative process is nonetheless, in my experience, a fascinating labyrinth where everything is connected and yet things never are quite like you think they are. So determining what point connects to what is very often very difficult, especially if you stand outside the labyrinth looking in.
Really like the boxset, but I expected more unheard material. It’s 4 cds, yet it’s only 8-10 tracks that I don’t already have on vinyl or cd.
Great packaging, nice liner notes and reasonable priced. No reason not to buy this one.
Mastering:
I agree with Bent about modern remasters and (imo) 90% of the time a remaster will end up sounding worse than the original cd-release. Too much compression, limiting and poor eq-choices. I always try to look for original 80’s cd releases rather than 90’s or 00 remasters.
But after listening to CD4 on this boxset, I’m thinking that the original mastering could be improved on. The mastering on CD4 sounds really good! Clearer (like many other modern masters), but not bright and with very little limiting and compression.
A new remaster from the original mastertapes, converted with modern state of the art DA-converters and mastered by someone who cares about mainting the dynamic on the mastertapecould be a real improvement. But as long as the original master has that breath of life and is as dynamic as it is, a remaster of Timothy’s Monster isn’t really necessary. But the point is: judging from the sound on the “new” tracks on this boxset, a Timothy-remaster would sound really good.
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