Hear! Hear! Two solid mixes. I've only ever heard Good Old Boys in the excellent CD-4 decode by UnderMyWheels, and for a long time I assumed that unlike Sail Away, it never had a QR release. And then Mark Anderson disabused me of that assumption. Never seen it, but would love to hear it...
I was just listening to Nilsson, so Newman seemed the logical next step. Took me a year to find a QR conversion, only to be disappointed. (Way too much warble. Did Warners have issues with their R2R duplication?) So I've gone back to the CD-4 decode.
Sound: early and mid-70s pop records, especially WEA records, often sound "saturated" to me--made for AM radio, and not as dynamic or subtle as they ought to be. (Even the really delicate tunes on this album, like "Marie," aren't whisper-quiet enough. Maybe I'm asking for the impossible.) 8.
Mix:
@sjcorne is a more careful listener than I am. See above. But I agree with his "8."
Content: I love every last Randy Newman record; he's one of my musical heroes. This isn't one of the 10s, even though it has its share of classics (and a couple of sleepers). But it's close: 9.
I'll go with an 8, but if Rhino would reissue this, even as a high-res Quadio FLAC download, I would personally buy multiple copies, raise my vote to "10," and go evangelizing door-to-door. (
@ForagingRhino, are you still with us? Tell the execs to start thinking just a little bit outside the box! Times are desperate, right?)
