Red Mosquito

tragabigzanda wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Funny that Litt has also been panned in certain circles for pumping the vox on Albini's original mix of In Utero.*

*For the record -- and I LOVE Steve Albini -- I actually think Litt knocked that mix out of the park.

I'm not sure what we're talking about here. I will say that the OG mix of In Utero is great. But I think the vinyl version I have, which is the Albini mix is better.

It's a pretty famous story in Albini/Nirvana lore:

Kurt famously fought to get Albini to "produce" their record (Albini eschews the term, will only accept "Engineer"). Albini turned in a conventional Albini mix -- unhyped, very minimal, broad dynamic range. Kurt got a bunch of bad feedback from the suits who wants to hear singles, and he caved. Albini and Kurt battled for a couple days -- Albini basically saying "Please don't do this, please follow through on your commitment," but Kurt folded and let Geffen bring in Litt to pump up Albini's tracks. Hence the previously-bootlegged Albini mix that Joe got on vinyl a few years ago.

And the Litt mix is awesome. I love it, and NOW I see the Albini mix as a sort of instagram filter, an alternate version. But those versions will never become the de facto mixes, because they were released primarily as a vinyl oddity, and any film/tv production looking to source a Nirvana song will likely reach for Litt's original compressed, brighter mix. But I fear the opposite will happen with this REM stuff.

durdencommatyler wrote:Me too!

But I'd be lying if I said was I super familiar with their stuff. I just know that I like what I've heard which is only individual songs, no albums.

tragabigzanda wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

tragabigzanda wrote:Actually no, Monkey Trick (starting at 12:25 above) has the best snare sound

durdencommatyler wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Funny that Litt has also been panned in certain circles for pumping the vox on Albini's original mix of In Utero.*

*For the record -- and I LOVE Steve Albini -- I actually think Litt knocked that mix out of the park.

I'm not sure what we're talking about here. I will say that the OG mix of In Utero is great. But I think the vinyl version I have, which is the Albini mix is better.

durdencommatyler wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Funny that Litt has also been panned in certain circles for pumping the vox on Albini's original mix of In Utero.*

*For the record -- and I LOVE Steve Albini -- I actually think Litt knocked that mix out of the park.

I'm not sure what we're talking about here. I will say that the OG mix of In Utero is great. But I think the vinyl version I have, which is the Albini mix is better.

It's a pretty famous story in Albini/Nirvana lore:

Kurt famously fought to get Albini to "produce" their record (Albini eschews the term, will only accept "Engineer"). Albini turned in a conventional Albini mix -- unhyped, very minimal, broad dynamic range. Kurt got a bunch of bad feedback from the suits who wants to hear singles, and he caved. Albini and Kurt battled for a couple days -- Albini basically saying "Please don't do this, please follow through on your commitment," but Kurt folded and let Geffen bring in Litt to pump up Albini's tracks. Hence the previously-bootlegged Albini mix that Joe got on vinyl a few years ago.

And the Litt mix is awesome. I love it, and NOW I see the Albini mix as a sort of instagram filter, an alternate version. But those versions will never become the de facto mixes, because they were released primarily as a vinyl oddity, and any film/tv production looking to source a Nirvana song will likely reach for Litt's original compressed, brighter mix. But I fear the opposite will happen with this REM stuff.

Oh interesting. Yeah, I personally like the Albini mix much more. When I listen to In Utero anymore, it's always on vinyl for that reason. But I never disliked the OG mix. If I didn't know about/have the Albini mix, I'd be fine with that. Honestly, the record is great as is. But I do really like Albini's take.

Birds in Hell wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Funny that Litt has also been panned in certain circles for pumping the vox on Albini's original mix of In Utero.*

*For the record -- and I LOVE Steve Albini -- I actually think Litt knocked that mix out of the park.

I'm not sure what we're talking about here. I will say that the OG mix of In Utero is great. But I think the vinyl version I have, which is the Albini mix is better.

It's a pretty famous story in Albini/Nirvana lore:

Kurt famously fought to get Albini to "produce" their record (Albini eschews the term, will only accept "Engineer"). Albini turned in a conventional Albini mix -- unhyped, very minimal, broad dynamic range. Kurt got a bunch of bad feedback from the suits who wants to hear singles, and he caved. Albini and Kurt battled for a couple days -- Albini basically saying "Please don't do this, please follow through on your commitment," but Kurt folded and let Geffen bring in Litt to pump up Albini's tracks. Hence the previously-bootlegged Albini mix that Joe got on vinyl a few years ago.

And the Litt mix is awesome. I love it, and NOW I see the Albini mix as a sort of instagram filter, an alternate version. But those versions will never become the de facto mixes, because they were released primarily as a vinyl oddity, and any film/tv production looking to source a Nirvana song will likely reach for Litt's original compressed, brighter mix. But I fear the opposite will happen with this REM stuff.

Oh interesting. Yeah, I personally like the Albini mix much more. When I listen to In Utero anymore, it's always on vinyl for that reason. But I never disliked the OG mix. If I didn't know about/have the Albini mix, I'd be fine with that. Honestly, the record is great as is. But I do really like Albini's take.

Just to clarify: the original release of In Utero is still Albini's mix of the album for the most part. Only Heart-Shaped Box and All Apologies were remixed by Scott Litt as Kurt wasn't happy with the original mixes.

There was a new mix made by Albini, Novoselic and Grohl for the reissue (and which was issued on vinyl as a separate release) but it was never intended as being a replacement for the original release - or intended to be understood as the band or Albini's preferred mix or anything like that. It's just a fun curio where certain elements are given more or less prominence than the original mix, e.g. different takes of vocals, solos, etc.

verb_to_trust wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:the original mix definitely had some problems but it doesn't sound like this is any sort of worthwhile improvement

Is improving it really the point though? Just a different take. No big deal. Like an Instagram filter.

washing machine wrote:Any thoughts on these unreleased demos? I love REM but I know next to nothing about their vault. Always excited for new songs, but the idea of unpolished demos feels a little tedious at this point in my listening career.

"Revolution" rings a bell. I remember hearing that on a soundtrack or compilation at some point in the 90s.

Disc 2: Unreleased Demos
1. “Pete’s Hit”
2. “Uptempo Mo Distortion”
3. “Uptempo Ricky”
4. “Harlan County with Whistling”
5. “Lost Song”
6. “AM Boo”
7. “Mike’s Gtr”
8. “Sputnik 1 Remix”
9. “Black Sky 4-14”
10. “Revolution 4-21”
11. “Rocker with vocal”
12. “Time Is On Mike’s Side”
13. “1Experiment 4-28 no vocal”
14. “Highland Fling 4-29”
15. “Cranky 4-29”