This marks the 50th anniversary of Chicago's 1st (and best IMO) album when they were still called Chicago Transit Authority. This is one of my all time favorite albums and I bought it when it was originally released. I was junior high school at the time and since then I have heard it hundreds of times. I have also purchased it in nearly every issue since then including the quad LP, DTS and Quadio box.
So, what to do to mark the 50th? The album has already been given the MOFI treatment, DTS and Blu-ray surround versions so no point in doing yet again another "remastering". Nothing left to do but "remix" an album that did not really need a remix.
First off, I am not one of those people that say it is sacrilege to try to improve an old recording to apply modern techniques to make the music sound better. For example, I really like the Beatles remixes, especially the White Album. Those mixes retained the feeling and tone of the original while improving the sound of the instruments with special attention to the drums and bass.
I got to hear the entire remixed CTA album yesterday and I have to say I am shocked. I can honestly say that I have never heard any album with so many things wrong with the sound and the mix. Chicago's engineer, Tim Jessup, did the remix so you would think he would know how instruments are suppose to sound. Apparently not and maybe that is why he not a producer. The sound is so bad I had to stop the recording three times to check to see if there was something wrong with my audio system. I then suspected that what I had was actually a fake, a bootleg or a bad joke played by some hacker, but the reviews on Amazon so far indicate that what I heard is the actual release.
After playing this wreck, I played a different album, just to insure it wasn't my system malfunctioning. Nope, not my fault or my system's - all yours, Mr. Jessup, but also the fault of every member of Chicago and their team. Did none of them actually listen to this? Did none of them have the courage to ask why Tim had made it sound so bad? At least Jim Guercio can claim none of this is his fault.
Across the entire album the horns have been heavily compressed and EQ'ed to remove any top or bottom end. The drums - the toms have no resonance, the snare has no "crack" or "pop" and the cymbals (when you can hear them) sound like trash can lids. All "air" and "ambience" (whether natural studio/room or electronic) has been removed from nearly everything. The sound is thin, tinny, compressed and dull. The whole mess sounds like a very rough mix compressed as a 128kbs mp3 recording on a Certron 77 cent cassette.
I won't go through the whole album, but here are a few observations: On "Introduction", the stereo field has been collapsed to nearly mono and the vocals buried for much of the song. The piano intro for "Does Anybody Really Know..." sounds like it is being played on a toy piano. On the end of the original version of the song "Beginnings", the main part seems to slowly and naturally fade away leaving only the percussion (giving the impression it was underneath the song the whole time - even though it really isn't) and then that percussion jam takes the song out. On the new remix the fade out of the main section and fade in of the percussion is obvious and destroys the illusion that both parts are one piece. The distorted vocals on "South California Purples" have been "fixed". They did not need to be. On "I'm A Man", remember after the drum solo how Kath's guitar chords fade in to bring the song back to the chorus? On the remix, only the first chord (barely) fades in and the rest are played mostly without any fade in. Terry Kath's guitar has been brought more forward and louder in many places throughout the album but in many spots the guitar was probably not intended to be the "main" sound, sometimes being more distracting than adding to the overall sound.
If the point was to make the album have a completely different mix, with things added or subtracted and different instruments emphasized, that's Jessup's and the band's choice to experiment. But it should not result in every instrument and vocal sounding bad. You can change the mix of instruments without destroying their tone and quality.
And I had planned to order the gold vinyl version of this 50th anniversary edition. I'm keeping that $30 in my pocket now.
So, what to do to mark the 50th? The album has already been given the MOFI treatment, DTS and Blu-ray surround versions so no point in doing yet again another "remastering". Nothing left to do but "remix" an album that did not really need a remix.
First off, I am not one of those people that say it is sacrilege to try to improve an old recording to apply modern techniques to make the music sound better. For example, I really like the Beatles remixes, especially the White Album. Those mixes retained the feeling and tone of the original while improving the sound of the instruments with special attention to the drums and bass.
I got to hear the entire remixed CTA album yesterday and I have to say I am shocked. I can honestly say that I have never heard any album with so many things wrong with the sound and the mix. Chicago's engineer, Tim Jessup, did the remix so you would think he would know how instruments are suppose to sound. Apparently not and maybe that is why he not a producer. The sound is so bad I had to stop the recording three times to check to see if there was something wrong with my audio system. I then suspected that what I had was actually a fake, a bootleg or a bad joke played by some hacker, but the reviews on Amazon so far indicate that what I heard is the actual release.
After playing this wreck, I played a different album, just to insure it wasn't my system malfunctioning. Nope, not my fault or my system's - all yours, Mr. Jessup, but also the fault of every member of Chicago and their team. Did none of them actually listen to this? Did none of them have the courage to ask why Tim had made it sound so bad? At least Jim Guercio can claim none of this is his fault.
Across the entire album the horns have been heavily compressed and EQ'ed to remove any top or bottom end. The drums - the toms have no resonance, the snare has no "crack" or "pop" and the cymbals (when you can hear them) sound like trash can lids. All "air" and "ambience" (whether natural studio/room or electronic) has been removed from nearly everything. The sound is thin, tinny, compressed and dull. The whole mess sounds like a very rough mix compressed as a 128kbs mp3 recording on a Certron 77 cent cassette.
I won't go through the whole album, but here are a few observations: On "Introduction", the stereo field has been collapsed to nearly mono and the vocals buried for much of the song. The piano intro for "Does Anybody Really Know..." sounds like it is being played on a toy piano. On the end of the original version of the song "Beginnings", the main part seems to slowly and naturally fade away leaving only the percussion (giving the impression it was underneath the song the whole time - even though it really isn't) and then that percussion jam takes the song out. On the new remix the fade out of the main section and fade in of the percussion is obvious and destroys the illusion that both parts are one piece. The distorted vocals on "South California Purples" have been "fixed". They did not need to be. On "I'm A Man", remember after the drum solo how Kath's guitar chords fade in to bring the song back to the chorus? On the remix, only the first chord (barely) fades in and the rest are played mostly without any fade in. Terry Kath's guitar has been brought more forward and louder in many places throughout the album but in many spots the guitar was probably not intended to be the "main" sound, sometimes being more distracting than adding to the overall sound.
If the point was to make the album have a completely different mix, with things added or subtracted and different instruments emphasized, that's Jessup's and the band's choice to experiment. But it should not result in every instrument and vocal sounding bad. You can change the mix of instruments without destroying their tone and quality.
And I had planned to order the gold vinyl version of this 50th anniversary edition. I'm keeping that $30 in my pocket now.
