U2 Should Remaster Their Back Catalog...

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namkcuR

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Listening to the back catalog, I think it is obvious that all of it - that's every record up and through Pop - need remastering. It becomes especially apparent when you listen to, say, Stay or Mysterious Ways on Zooropa and AB respectively and then on the Best Of, where they were remastered. I'm not even sure if the tracks on the 80s best of were remastered - they might have been. The point is, these records and songs deserve an updated sound. Now, I also have a twist for this...if you look at Michael Jackson's remastered back catalog - Off The Wall through Dangerous - you see that he added extra songs/b-sides/that type of thing to the end of each record. That is what U2 should do as well. Put the b-sides for each album after the end of the album to give the listener a bonus. I've made these all into playlists in Winamp and each one will fit on an 80-minute CD, even JT with all of its b-sides and the treasure trove that is this version of Boy. I think the b-sides should be stuck at the end though rather than incorperating them into the running order, because people will want the running orders the grew up with, fell in love with. Also, every track is to be exactly the original track, just re-mastered. No 'fixing' like the Best Of mixes. I wouldn't mind some minor alterations though...if they wanted to stick the solo in Please or change the lyrics at the end of If God, that'd be fine with me - no rerecording if you ask me though :wink:

Here's what they would look like...

U2 - Boy[Original Recording Remastered] - 1980

1.I Will Follow
2.Twilight
3.An Cat Dubh
4.Into The Heart
5.Out Of Control
6.Stories For Boys
7.The Ocean
8.A Day Without Me
9.Another Time, Another Place
10.The Electric Co.
11.Shadows And Tall Trees
12.Street Mission
13.The Fool
14.Out Of Control(U23 Version)
15.Stories For Boys(U23 Version)
16.Boy-Girl
17.11 O'Clock Tick Tock
18.Touch
19.Another Day
20.Twilight(Demo/Single B-Side version)
21.Things To Make And Do

U2 - October[Original Recording Remastered] - 1981

1.Gloria
2.I Fall Down
3.I Threw A Brick Through A Window
4.Rejoice
5.Fire
6.Tomorrow
7.October
8.With A Shout
9.Stranger In A Strange Land
10.Scarlet
11.Is That All
12.A Celebration
13.Party Girl
14.J.Swallo

U2 - War[Original Recording Remastered] - 1983

1.Sunday Bloody Sunday
2.Seconds
3.New Year's Day
4.Like A Song
5.Drowning Man
6.The Refugee
7.Two Hearts Beat As One
8.Red Light
9.Surrender
10."40"
11.Treasure(Whatever Happened To Pete The Chop)
12.Endless Deep

U2 - The Unforgettable Fire[Original Recording Remastered] - 1984

1.A Sort Of Homecoming
2.Pride(In The Name Of Love)
3.Wire
4.The Unforgettable Fire
5.Promenade
6.4th Of July
7.Bad
8.Indian Summer Sky
9.Elvis Presley And America
10.MLK
11.Love Comes Tumbling
12.The Three Sunrises
13.Bass Trap(Full Version)
14.Pride(In The Name Of Love)(Rare Single Version With Extra Chorus)
14.Boomerang 1
15.Boomerang 2
16.Sixty Seconds In Kingdom Come

U2 - The Joshua Tree[Original Recording Remastered] - 1987

1.Where The Streets Have No Name
2.I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
3.With Or Without You
4.Bullet The Blue Sky
5.Running To Stand Still
6.Red Hill Mining Town
7.In God's Country
8.Trip Through Your Wires
9.One Tree Hill
10.Exit
11.Mothers Of The Disappeared
12.Luminous Times(Hold On To Love)
13.Walk To The Water
14.Race Against Time
15.Silver And Gold
16.Sweetest Thing
17.Spanish Eyes
18.Deep In The Heart

U2 - Rattle And Hum[Original Recording Remastered] - 1988

1.Helter Skelter
2.Van Dieman's Land
3.Desire
4.Hawkmoon 269
5.All Along The Watchtower
6.I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
7.Freedom For My People
8.Silver And Gold
9.Pride(In The Name Of Love)
10.Angel Of Harlem
11.Love Rescue Me
12.When Love Comes To Town
13.Heartland
14.God Part II
15.Star Spangled Banner
16.Bullet The Blue Sky
17.All I Want Is You
18.Hallelujah Here She Comes
19.A Room At The Heartbreak Hotel

U2 - Achtung Baby[Original Recording Remastered] - 1991

1.Zoo Station
2.Even Better Than The Real Thing
3.One
4.Until The End Of The World
5.Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
6.So Cruel
7.The Fly
8.Mysterious Ways
9.Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
10.Ultraviolet(Light My Way)
11.Acrobat
12.Love Is Blindness
13.Alex Descends Into Hell For A Bottle Of Milk/Korova 1
14.Lady With The Spinning Head(Extended Dance Mix)
15.Salome
16.Where Did It All Go Wrong

U2 - Zooropa[Original Recording Remastered] -1993

1.Zooropa
2.Babyface
3.Numb
4.Lemon
5.Stay(Faraway, So Close)
6.Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
7.Some Days Are Better Than Others
8.The First Time
9.Dirty Day
10.The Wanderer
11.Slow Dancing
12.Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me

U2 - Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1[Original Recording Remastered] - 1995

1.United Colours
2.Slug
3.Your Blue Room
4.Always Forever Now
5.A Different Kind Of Blue
6.Beach Sequence
7.Miss Sarajevo
8.Ito Okashi
9.One Minute Warning
10.Corpse(These Chains Are Way Too Long)
11.Elvis Ate America
12.Plot 180
13.Theme From The Swan
14.Theme From Let's Go Native
15.Viva Davidoff
16.Bottoms(Zoo Station Mix)

U2 - Pop[Original Recording Remastered] - 1997

1.Discotheque
2.Do You Feel Loved
3.Mofo
4.If God Will Send His Angels
5.Staring At The Sun
6.Last Night On Earth
7.Gone
8.Miami
9.The Playboy Mansion
10.If You Wear That Velvet Dress
11.Please
12.Wake Up Dead Man
13.Holy Joe(Garage Mix)
14.North And South Of The River
15.Slow Dancing(Willie Nelson Version)
16.Two Shots Of Happy, One Shot Of Sad
17.I'm Not Your Baby(Sky Splitter Dub)
 
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But if they did that I'd have to buy all the albums again... :sad: Are you trying to get me broke!? :wink:

That would be cool though. However I think U2 should maybe wait a bit to do that... I don't know how involved they would be in it but I want them focused on NEW material!
 
Yeh I would love this to happen, would be a bit pricey but worth it. The sound quality on some of the earlier cds is poor compared to cds today, for obvious reasons, so remastering would be good. It would be great to see the bsides included as there are some real gems there that should be on albums. I dont see it happenning to be honest though, dunno why. I would also prioritise new material before a set like this would be made.
 
I think this should happen eventaully, but not while U2 are still able to produce new material for us to enjoy instead...
 
namkcuR said:
That is what U2 should do as well. Put the b-sides for each album after the end of the album to give the listener a bonus.

:no:
No bonus tracks at the end of the album!
If they want to re-issue those albums, remastered and with bonus tracks, then they should do it like Elvis Costello has done (and also The Cure and now The Stooges and probably some other artists). Make it a 2-disc set, with on one disc the album in its original running order (thus, no bonus tracks there) and one disc of bonus tracks. Keep the original artistic statement and don't dilute it with extra tracks.
 
Re: Re: U2 Should Remaster Their Back Catalog...

Popmartijn said:


:no:
No bonus tracks at the end of the album!
If they want to re-issue those albums, remastered and with bonus tracks, then they should do it like Elvis Costello has done (and also The Cure and now The Stooges and probably some other artists). Make it a 2-disc set, with on one disc the album in its original running order (thus, no bonus tracks there) and one disc of bonus tracks. Keep the original artistic statement and don't dilute it with extra tracks.

I don't think it's really diluting it if the tracks are at the end, it's just like having "Fast Cars" or any other bonus track at the end of an album except more. Also, the second disc would be too short if they did one for each album.
 
Re: Re: U2 Should Remaster Their Back Catalog...

Popmartijn said:


:no:
No bonus tracks at the end of the album!
If they want to re-issue those albums, remastered and with bonus tracks, then they should do it like Elvis Costello has done (and also The Cure and now The Stooges and probably some other artists). Make it a 2-disc set, with on one disc the album in its original running order (thus, no bonus tracks there) and one disc of bonus tracks. Keep the original artistic statement and don't dilute it with extra tracks.

Agreed. A bonus disc including the b-sides is the better route. Most of the B-sides were cut from the album because they didn't fit into the overall feel of the album. Tacking them on the end just doesn't sound right.
 
If it's in a box-set, definitely a single bonus disc of all the B-Sides, just catagorize them in the tracklisting into Boy B-Sides, War, etc.

If this is supposed to be the Ultimate Superior Uber Remastered Final editions that we're supposed to tote around and amaze our friends with, then I'd just want what's on the album and nothing more.
 
I don't agree with the idea of seperate discs for the b-sides. For every physical CD added to this thing, they can and will jack the price up. If it's going to mean saving $10-15, I would gladly take the b-sides at the end of the disc instead.
 
Extra disc is the way I'd go!

Like double albums: Boy: the B-sides

very cool, some new artwork for the b-side album `too, lol!
 
I'm not enough of an audiophile to care, unless they release some previously unreleased material for the extra tracks rather that b-sides and stuff I already have.
 
The older albums definitely need to be remastered. They sound horrible compared to remasters of other artists' material.

I'm sure U2 would give its stamp of approval on things, but it wouldn't derail them from producing new material.
 
phanan said:
The older albums definitely need to be remastered. They sound horrible compared to remasters of other artists' material.

I'm sure U2 would give its stamp of approval on things, but it wouldn't derail them from producing new material.

Remastering wouldn't be done by U2. Remastering doesn't entail any input from the band other than a rubber stamp - it would simply be a matter of using the latest technology to improve the sound quality of the original recording. It would not prevent the band from working on new material, or take much time away from it.
 
You could do it yourself. From time to time I make some occasional greatest hits CD from stuff I get from the I-net. One of the biggest differences between old and new songs is volume. Somewhere in the 90's they must have increased it tremendously. In order to create a smooth sounding CD I usually have to normalize old songs to the volumelevels of today.

As for official releases, I prefer if they do one big remastered box when the band finally calls it quits after a long and fruitfull career. Nothing pisses me of more then spending a whole lot of $€$€$ of a remastered box set to current day standards when several years later I have to do it all over again for a reremastered boxset to the standards of future tech.
 
Muad'zin said:
You could do it yourself. From time to time I make some occasional greatest hits CD from stuff I get from the I-net. One of the biggest differences between old and new songs is volume. Somewhere in the 90's they must have increased it tremendously. In order to create a smooth sounding CD I usually have to normalize old songs to the volumelevels of today.

As for official releases, I prefer if they do one big remastered box when the band finally calls it quits after a long and fruitfull career. Nothing pisses me of more then spending a whole lot of $€$€$ of a remastered box set to current day standards when several years later I have to do it all over again for a reremastered boxset to the standards of future tech.

I know, it pisses me off too. For instance, I've bought all of the Stones CD's over the years. I was happy because I was upgrading the sound quality from the cassettes I prevously owned. A few years ago The Stones remastered most of their albums, and made huge improvements in terms of the sound quality, but you know what? I refuse to buy all of them again. I'd love to have them, but I can't justify the cost. I hiope that when U2 remasters their CD's that they wait until they are no longer making new music.
 
War, The Unforgettable Fire, and The Joshua Tree were released by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs a while back (they've been out of print for years now), and at the time, the remastering was an improvement over the regular CDs. However, because remastering technology has improved tremendously since then (and because those gold CDs are hard to find now), a remastering of the catalog is definitely needed. Most other artists that have been around for a long time have had their albums remastered, and they sound fantastic. The only major artists that I can think of that still need to take care of their back catalog is U2, Bruce Springsteen, and The Beatles.
 
namkcuR said:
Listening to the back catalog, I think it is obvious that all of it - that's every record up and through Pop - need remastering.

We may differ on our views of Pop, but I certainly agree with you here!

I've kind of internally gone back on forth on my desire to see B-Sides re-released as bonus tracks though. I definately want the B-Sides remastered, but I think I'd rather see them as bonus EP's for limited edition sets, a la what they did on the Best Of's. U2 albums have a certain flow to them, and usually the closing song is such an important one, that I'm not sure I'd mess with that.

Plus, they should remaster Under A Blood Red Sky as well (and expand it)
 
Muad'zin said:
You could do it yourself. From time to time I make some occasional greatest hits CD from stuff I get from the I-net. One of the biggest differences between old and new songs is volume. Somewhere in the 90's they must have increased it tremendously. In order to create a smooth sounding CD I usually have to normalize old songs to the volumelevels of today.

I do that too, but even then, with especially their earliest stuff, the normalized songs don't match up with the fuller sounds of their newer albums - the older stuff, while the same in volume, come off as tin-y sometimes.

And hell, I'd pay $165 for a concert ticket... Bring on the occassional remastering!
 
Re: Re: U2 Should Remaster Their Back Catalog...

Popmartijn said:


:no:
No bonus tracks at the end of the album!
If they want to re-issue those albums, remastered and with bonus tracks, then they should do it like Elvis Costello has done (and also The Cure and now The Stooges and probably some other artists). Make it a 2-disc set, with on one disc the album in its original running order (thus, no bonus tracks there) and one disc of bonus tracks. Keep the original artistic statement and don't dilute it with extra tracks.

I agree with this, a good example would be Zooropa,

Personally i like wanderer as an out track, and then the alarm tops it..

If you added hold me thrill me to a remaster, would you still put the alarm after the bonus track or before it?
 
I've been thinking to myself for quite a while that this needs to happen. And though it wouldn't be very economical, they should have 2 discs so that the second disc could not only have b-sides but also be filled out by outtakes/demos/significant live tracks/remixes.

I'm not so sure that anything after R&H actually needs remastering, though. If you listen to an album from the 90s that's been remastered, there is pretty much no change in sound quality. I think the only albums that truly need remastering are albums that were originally put to CD when the format was in its infancy (which was the better part of the 80s, essentially).

Another thing they could do with these reissues is correct some artwork problems (bring back the orginal cover for Boy and the non-blurred cover for JT).
 
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greenlight7-11 said:
I'm not so sure that anything after R&H actually needs remastering, though. If you listen to an album from the 90s that's been remastered, there is pretty much no change in sound quality. I think the only albums that truly need remastering are albums that were originally put to CD when the format was in its infancy (which was the better part of the 80s, essentially).

No, the the 90s records definitely need it. All one has to do is listen to the Best of 90-00 and then listen to the same songs on the original records. The difference is obvious.
 
I got my U2 CD's over the course of the past 5 years, would those ones be the same as the original copies of their albums on CD?

I usually play my CD's on my personal CD player with headphones, so I don't know if really miss very much in terms of the sound.

I don't know, I just think if they did that, some fans and critics would complain they're trying to get even more money out of their fans by making them by their albums all over again. :shrug:
 
I agree with you my friends :yes:

They should remaster their 80´s and 90´s catalogue:up:

On the other hand, I strongly believe that original recordings must remain intact, I mean, with no bonus tracks and other tricks :no:. In case they wanted to do that, they´d go with a bonus disc with B-sides, single versions ( remember, for example, that almost every POP single is different than album track, as well other songs as Who´s Gonna Ride..., New Year´s Day, etc ) and interesting outtakes or demos of the same album :drool:

I hope they´ll release "The Remastered Collection" including a complete "Best Of 1980-1990" ( filling the almost 80 minutes, not just 65 minutes including October as hidden Track and not cutting seconds of WTSHNN ) and a completely updated version of the terrible "Best Of 1990-2000" without those awful "New mixes" and those filler 2 "New songs" and ( this is my opinion ) without ATYCLB tracks, because the 90´s were a completely different decade, experimental and risky, so ATYCLB songs should be on "Best of 2000-2010" with HTDAAB and ?? ( their 2006-7 album ) and ?? ( their 2009-10 album ).

Peace :wave:
 
namkcuR said:


No, the the 90s records definitely need it. All one has to do is listen to the Best of 90-00 and then listen to the same songs on the original records. The difference is obvious.
I've done a side-by-side comparison using Sennheiser headphones and all I hear is a volume increase. The fact is that by the 90s, most people had learned how to properly master audio. I don't see anything wrong with how U2's (or anyone else's, for that matter) 90s output was mastered.
 
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