The Church reissuing first 8 albums, 4 early EPs

[Slicing Up Eyeballs]

First two are out Oct. 19...

[b]<a href="http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2010/09/30/church-reissues-of-skins-heart-blurred-crusade-tour-dates/">The Church reissuing first 8 albums, touring Australia to mark 30th anniversary</a>[/b]

[Barmy]

How many times have these been reissued now?

[bigwavedave]

The artical mentions 2002 as the prior reissue campaign (with the 2-cd sets). It seems like there were scattered single-disc reissues prior to that; I recall buying a remastered version of Heyday around 1999 or so (I don't recall the label, but I believe they only did that album).

[bigwavedave]

Oops, make that "article". Anyhoo, I wonder how the mastering will be on these puppies?

[Rubellan]

I was very excited about this until a few minutes ago. I was hoping to get newly remastered editions of all the albums with the ep's released separately, but that's not the case. I just found information on a Church forum that all of these re-re-re-re-releases will contain the unfortunate Don Bartley remasters from last decade, due to lack of funds to do a fresh remaster. The bummer about this is those remasters were all WAY TOO LOUD and compressed to hell. The original Arista CD's retained the dynamics and sound much better. I bet this also means this first CD appearance of the lost B side "Busdriver" will be a vinyl rip. Regardless of how they plan to release this discography, the fact they are using the old and unfortunate remasters from last decade means I will not buy a single disc. So sad...

[Barmy]

Yes, the Arista CDs are the way to go. This reissue series is ridiculous, given the lack of significant extras. And you know there will be a 40th anniversary (if not 35th) with one more extra track.

[Frau_Blucher]

After everything, now this.

[bigwavedave]

Sweet pun Frau_Blucher. That just happens to be the last Church album I really got into. There are some really nice songs on that one that sit nicely alongside the band's classics.

[Slicing Up Eyeballs]

Tracklists for the first 4 reissues, plus the new singles comp (all due out Oct. 19):

[b]<a href="http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2010/10/07/church-reissues-deep-in-the-shadows-singles-collection/">The Church announces ‘Deep in the Shadows’ singles collection, first phase of reissues</a>[/b]

Second set of reissues are all 2CD sets, due out early next year.

[Barmy]

That piece claims they are "fully remastered". In any event, I love The Church but this is a pass for me. I would gladly pay a nice price for a retrospective with a bonus disc of previously unissued tracks. But to just scatter a few bonus tracks across a bunch of CDs is a ripoff.

[soundstory]

Are these def not newly remastered?

[roc51]

The first 4 CDs are out here in Australia as well as a new compilation, The Radio Hits, which is a single disc updated version of the Deep In the Shallows double from a couple of years ago.

Can't speak on the remastering, and the tracklistings are a bit frustrating on a few (Of Skins & Hearts), but for the most part they have combined the previous 2CD sets (which included the videos) onto one disc, so this is good.

Of Skins and Hearts is probably the dissapointment, tracklisting wise, as there are at least 10 tracks from this period that would have slotted nicely onto the single disc reissue.

[Barmy]

Ok, so The Church wants us to buy unremastered anniversary sets because they conveniently combined 2CDs into 1. Keeping in mind that the previous remastered sets sound worse than the Arista originals. This is something Lady Gaga would do, not a band that supposedly respects their fans. I might just burn all my old Church CDs in protest.