Crackers
In the series of remastered Slade CDs from Union Square Music Crackers is now out on Metro. Most fans don’t really rate Crackers, but I’ve always found the album quite okay. This new release is an okay album as well, but…it’s not really Crackers. At least it’s Crackers on a diet as it has lost 5 tracks!
So the new album has only 11 tracks as opposed to 16 on the original vinyl album. All John Punter-produced tracks as well as We’ll Bring The House Down are missing, but the remaining tracks are all (as usual) perfectly remasted by Tim Turan.
I must admit that I’m a little disappointed with the album. I perfectly understand the “business”-idea of altering and thereby aiming it directly at Christmas and thus the Christmas sales instead of reissuing the original Crackers which was more like a “broader” party album than just an album for Christmas. But as a fan it’s annoying that my collection of USM’s brilliantly remastered Slade CDs with bonus tracks and all is now going to have a huge gap where Crackers ought to have been. Furthermore the artwork is somewhat boring, no good pics at all and – let’s face it – a rather horrid cover. I suppose the red-white-green is to symbolize Christmas in some way, but the warm, festive feel of the season doesn’t come across, instead it seems cold, almost clinical.
Before I drift away in negativity I do want to stress that I actually find this “new” Crackers quite a nice little thing, perfect for a Christmas present or even better, a present before Christmas, so the receiver can listen to it all December. And as the sound is great and the tracks well chosen, I think it’ll be a welcome present, also for none Slade fans.
posted by Lise Lyng Falkenberg @ 12:47 PM
2 Comments:
You said: "And as the sound is great and the tracks well chosen, I think it’ll be a welcome present, also for none Slade fans."
Well, whlist leaving alone the "business" thing, one have to admit that it is not only a "R.I.P.-release" and it should work for the band at the time given & regarding the timing too (we wish them a Merry Xmas and Happy NEW YEARS, aren't we?) And we still can only imagine what could trick one into buying some of upcoming compilations, providing this someone has all of the albums already and having an intention to collect all of the remastered versions too. ;-) I think there is some - sometimes unintentional strategy coming out of a share experience - and that's why some complain about the Dave's guitar sounding too loud to hear any of vocals on a recently played gigs... Let's us be realistic!
B'coz, who needs a reminder of "II" in "Slade II" right now, when its time for buying some "Remasters" and the Xmas tree is to be endorsed with Neville's hat in so many households? (Nod, Nod, sorry, me woz under the rock lately...) I'll tell ya: I won't buy the Box, but I will buy the single for my Xmas party with me luvely wife and extra few for friends, just as a reward for all those years of loads of C-RAP and Coldplay-z I kept myself sane...
P.S. If something is ugly it is half-baked idea of the Anthology's cover! Even Don had to be told what it does meant to be looked like. If you think I am bitching, take a look at a new The Doors' Perception 40th anniversary box set... It is adorable, really! Any Pink Floyd package will suck against it. But the Anthology... it looks more like a sleeve of a jacket or a pants in profile taken from Dave's costume... in some bizzare photo-mishap. Slade deserves better than that. As for CRACKERS... please, do not take them seriously too much, we are not the Pharoah Kings and Queens, so we don't have to take those covers with us to the graves. ;-) Take a glass of Sherry instead and do some sing-alongs at the Xmas night, and - right after that - put it somewhere even you wouldn't be able to find it... 'till next year! Cheers!
Wow, you're in a bad mood, aren't you? Xmas is known to affect people like that, so don't you worry! You'll fell better in a few days!
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