It`s so annoying to see artist release new albums with several different editions.
When i was looking for Gladys Knight`s latest album "Before me", i found out that in addition to the regular album, there was one edition with an extra dvd, and then two other versions, each with a different bonus track.

Today i found out that there`s also other editions of Natalie Cole`s "Leavin`" Just as Knight`s album, there`s one circuit city version with a bonus track, and a target version with a bonus track. PLUS, there`s a japanese edition with two other bonus tracks.

SO, that means that if you want all the songs from "Leavin", you have to get 3 copies of the same album!!

It`s so frustrating...

I hate when this happens also

i guess this is one advantage to buying music online via iTunes and the like - you can pick and choose by song, and if you already have an album and it is reissued with bonus tracks, you can just purchase the bonus tracks for a buck a tune.

meanwhile, these days i'll only buy a "super deluxe reissue" package if: a) it's an artist i REALLY love, and b) there's extensive liner notes or an extra disc of demos/rarities/etc., and/or c) at least really cool packaging. i'm a whore for great album design.

MikeMatronik said:

Yeah, and what`s worse is that the bonus track editions is impossible to find, or OVERPRICED!!

Anx said:

That`s true, i should just overcome my iTunes phobia and save some money. It`s just that i HATE online music, i need an official cd or lp

Icicle said:

I will never buy an album via itunes, no matter what.

Icicle said:

i used to hate it too, and i still kinda do - i'll buy music online if i'm curious about something new or if i don't care about having the cover art or liner notes booklet. meanwhile, if it's something like a new prince album, i've gotta have the physical object for my collection.

i don't like the idea of my music collection living in a hard drive and not being in view, HOWEVER i also don't like having a lot of clutter and STUFF in my home, so it has definite pluses and minuses for me. i bought an external hard drive just for music downloads, so at least i feel like i have a specific/special place for all my digital music. that helps my mp3 aversion somewhat.

Since my laptop and external HD died, I saw the importance of buying what I like. So I now buy the album, rip to mp3, and never play it again!

I understand how you don`t want the CDs floating around in your home, i have that problem, and seriously, sometimes i just want to throw some of them in the trash.

As long as they`re lined up by artist and release year, it looks okay, so i try to keep it that way

I know...it's like a mushroom invasion

MikeMatronik said:

The other day i took a bunch of old CRAPPY cds, put them in a box and hid it. Out of sight, out of mind...


.
[Edited 12/18/06 9:11am]

MikeMatronik said:

i'm pretty sure i'm making the transition to a digital music collection. i went through my CD binders this weekend, and realized i hadn't touched them since i moved into my apartment earlier this year. i really only listen to stuff on my mp3 player or via computer anymore. it's just easier to have a little jukebox with all my music on it than it is to have to dig and put stuff back all the time. it's hard enough as it is just being me.

Now imagine ripping it all into mp3 to put on the HD...and then losing, formating, a ripping it again, at least for 6 times!

At one point, a fellow orger sent me several albums...over and over again! (A big hug to him! )

MikeMatronik said:

i hear these horror stories all the time. i hope that between my laptop, my external hard drive, and my mp3 player, i don't have any similar catastrophes - so far so good! (knock on wood)

The words "special edition" have lost any sort of exclusivity they might once have had. I don't like the way most are done these days, as they always mess with the track order. In my own little world, I'd love SE's to be done thusly - the original album and track listing are preserved on one disc and the new material is kept separately on a new disc. It's distracting for me to hear an album finish and then start up again 2 seconds later with an alternate cut or demo.

Icicle said:

It's a label thing. THey try to appeal to these retailers to get better shelf space and in turn try to get people who are really into the record to buy multiple copies. It's scandelous!

TommyRoss said:

the warner special editions are hot - i have two sonic youth albums from that series and donna summers' 'bad girls'...THAT is a great reissue series.

bowie's last attempt at a reissue series was off to a great start but derailed after the okay-but-uneven 'diamond dogs' package. i hope it gets back on track. i thought the 'ziggy' and 'aladdin sane' reissues were a treat.

and of course, the cure's deluxe reissues have been an absolute dream to me. extensive liner notes, bonus discs, heavy involvement from robert smith...good stuff.

Anx said:

There are special editions that I really like, and the Universal ones are great. I think I was there when you got that Donna Summer one. That right? At any rate, it's not necessarily the content I object to but the packaging and sequencing. It's nitpicky, but ain't I always?

TommyRoss said:

yup, you were there for that find!

i prefer when a reissue preserves the original tracklisting and saves the extras for a second disc. however, if there's so much extra content that they need to spill over to the "main" disc, i won't complain.

revisionist ordering of track lists does peeve me. but with stuff like bowie's 'space oddity' or maybe some of the really old beatles albums, i think you run into some ambiguity anyway because there were alternate track list editions from the get-go, right?

Anx said:

While we're on the subject of Bowie and re-issues - recommend two Bowie albums for me. I have only his greatest hits but have listened to and liked Space Oddity, Scary Monsters and Diamond Dogs but couldn't tell you which song was on which cuz I only have had the occasion to listen to them while working. Which two out of those (or others) would you recommend?

TommyRoss said:

Wow...only two?

I'm going to recommend three, and tell you why I think you'd like them:

Hunky Dory: FABULOUS singer/songwriter album. Has bits of his early folkie style combined with the emerging glam rock that would become Ziggy. Has "Changes". Has "Life on Mars?". Has my own favorite Bowie song, "Quicksand". Just about every song on this album is great.

Young Americans: It took me AGES to warm up to this album, because it's Bowie wrapped up in Philly Soul and I like my Dayvid to be European and robotic. But it really is a wonderful album - maybe one of his most consistent from beginning to end. "Win" is a fantastic unsung classic of his, and of course you have "Fame" and the title track and the most melodramatically anguished version of "Across the Universe" you'll ever hear.

"Heroes": This is a little bit of the ambient tweakery of "Low" and a little bit of "Station to Station"'s cold funk pop, all wrapped up in a big noisy delicious mess. This album reminds me of one of those big dictionary-sized activity books parents buy their kids for long car trips. It's got a lot going on to keep you occupied for hours...and it's fun!

So yup, that's what I'd recommend to you. You really can't go wrong with anything he did from 1970 - 1980, though.

Anx said:

Is there still no news on the anniversary edition of young americans?

Icicle said:

i think it got sucked into limbo, along with the remainder of the whole anniversary reissue series.

Icicle said:

Your Boney M collection!

PANDURITO said:

I don`t have any Boney M albums.

Anx said:

That`s a shame, i would have liked to have more rare/unreleased songs, especially from that period, and "Station to station", which is my favorite Bowie album.

Icicle said:

Yeah! Whatever

PANDURITO said:

Oops! Sorry! You're only 21. I had this feeling you were older. Don't know why

I'm 24 and I love Boney M.

But I'm not a great example of musical tastes!

PANDURITO said:

See, i`m too young to know of Boney M