simple minds - sparkle in the rain deluxe edition

[Last Film Star]

This album was a bit of a letdown for me following on the heels of NGD which was excellent from beginning to end. I actually preferred "C" Moon Cry Like A Baby and White Hot Day to any of the singles.

Wouldn't mind hearing those 5.1 mixes though.

[schwenko]

what is/are the issue(s) with the booklet(s)?
I looked at them quickly last night, didn't see anything wrong initially

[negative1]

what is/are the issue(s) with the booklet(s)?
I looked at them quickly last night, didn't see anything wrong initially

the booklet was printed with incomplete paragraphs.


for free replacements:
=====================
Update: 17.50 24/3/15: As an alternative you can email proof of purchase to mk.customerservices@umusic.com and they will send you out the replacement disc. Universal have confirmed to me that this will suffice. Put SIMPLE MINDS REPLACEMENT DISC in the subject line.

later
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[rewind]

The paragraphs aren't actually incomplete, just the spacing is a little messed up.

[schwenko]

I contacted Universal today and they told they would send a replacement disk when available.

[negative1]

The paragraphs aren't actually incomplete, just the spacing is a little messed up.

wrong, read the last incomplete paragraph.


Some of the errors appeared after he corrected them.
The corrected text:

It should read:

Brass Band In Africa / A Brass Band In African Chimes
“Who am I to sing on top of such a symphonic lyric? A piece like that speaks for itself. With most songs, I usually have an idea pretty soon about the direction in which the text should develop. But in the case of the instrumentals no textural ideas ever came up. Because everything was there already! I’ve never thought: that’s a strong song, it needs a strong text. Never! They had to stay instrumental, no doubt about it. You hear voices, you see images in those songs. Why give them an identity when they already have one? They express as much as the songs I did write lyrics for. Conclusion: they make me superfluous. They’re MacNeil’s creations.” – Jim Kerr, interviewed in 1984.

A Brass Band In Africa was another melody conjured up by Mick during the Old Chapel writing sessions and became a major part of burning up studio time at both Rockfield and The Townhouse as the band tried to knock it into shape. Charlie remembered the process clearly: “We kept on polishing “Brass Band” a lot, it kept changing. Some people have the talent to weld such pieces together seamlessly, but we are still learning. We knew what we wanted, the music was in our heads, but to actually sit down and express it, that’s a different story. There was a time when it strongly reminded us of La Dusseldorf. I don’t know what quality their music possessed, but there was certainly a sense of glory there. We tried to maintain that.”

It wasn’t included on the album but two versions were used as B-sides for the Up On The Catwalk single. Despite its non-album status, Mick was proud of the instrumental: “Please listen to “A Brass Band In African Chimes” It’s my favourite instrumental, and a good base to continue from. From there, you can handle anything.”

All the best,
Simon

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[negative1]

more issues:

Steven Wilson says:
March 28, 2015 at 09:11
Hello folks, this is Steven Wilson – I did the new mixes of Sparkle in the Rain that are on this edition. It’s been difficult for me to monitor because I’m in Europe on tour and therefore not in my studio, but I have been able to establish that unfortunately there are issues with the transfers of both the stereo and the 5.1 mixes. The issues with the 5.1 are less obvious, but the bottom line is that it does not sound as it should. I’m not sure what happened exactly, it may have been some kind of file corruption, but before you ask; no I wasn’t sent any kind of check disc, though I have had assurance that I always will be in future. We will sort this out, but I need to ask you to be a bit patient with this one, it’s probably not going to be a “quick fix”. My apologies.

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it will take awhile to fix.

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[negative1]

Just got the bluray.

I checked out the mono mix, it's pretty standard.

The 5.1 mix while not quite up to par either (since it is not balanced properly) is very interesting when broken down into separate channels.

I've managed to rip the tracks to separate ones, for use with remixes, and alternate versions.
You get a good separation of the vocals. The side channels are decent for getting some alternate
instrumental versions.

Will take some time before they are ready to post.

later
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[negative1]

Got the boxset yesterday after 2 weeks for WOW-HD. Once again they came through, good packing, and in great condition.

I've listened through all the discs and watched the videos.

Overall, it's a decent package.

- Album remaster - Good, but not really different from previous remaster
- B sides remixes and edits - Again, good to have these all in one place

- 2 cd live concert - OK, but too many tracks from other albums, and don't use all the space on the CD's

- 3 tracks from radio sessions - Good, but only 2 from this album, should have been more.

- DVD - average - 3 promo videos, and 3 from Top of the pops.
5.1 mix is flawed, and only the new mono mix is present - so this disc will be replaced eventually.

=========================

The replica tourbook is good, and the new booklet is a good read, but has layout errors - this will be replaced also.

=========================

Only the hardcore simple minds collector should get it.

The rest should just get the 2cd deluxe version.

Theres not enough new material that makes it worth getting, like demos and
more live tracks from other concerts.

Sadly, the quality control on this makes it seem like this project was rushed, and even though
it was delayed from last year, it still had problems.

I knew about the issues when i ordered it, but got it anyways, because i have been a big fan
through the years.

However, if and when future releases are made, I will think twice about getting them.

I know other releases from Underworld, Tears for Fears, and other groups have been properly,
and I hope that Simple Minds will receive the care and treatment others get, along with better
song selections and choices.
----------------------------------------------
My overall grade for it, will be 3/5 stars as is which is average. (3.5 once they fix things).

For now, I can not recommend getting this for anyone except the hardcore collectors,
and even then, you should wait until the issues have been fixed.

later
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[Aevion93]

Hoping for a nice shiny set for New Gold Dream without all the issues. I think they could at least include some of the demos off the Silver Box set (if they're gonna include b-sides and mixes already available on Themes they may as well borrow from Silver Box as well). It's indeed good to have them all in one place.

For this one, I would prefer the seven-inch edits at the end of disc 1 (something I've become rather accustomed to with reissues lately), and add some demos to the second disc. Not too worried about the edits though as Celebrate covered them pretty damn well. Hopefully they get around to giving all (at least) the 70's/80's albums this treatment, then maybe the three 90's albums too.

[negative1]

Hoping for a nice shiny set for New Gold Dream without all the issues. I think they could at least include some of the demos off the Silver Box set (if they're gonna include b-sides and mixes already available on Themes they may as well borrow from Silver Box as well). It's indeed good to have them all in one place.

For this one, I would prefer the seven-inch edits at the end of disc 1 (something I've become rather accustomed to with reissues lately), and add some demos to the second disc. Not too worried about the edits though as Celebrate covered them pretty damn well. Hopefully they get around to giving all (at least) the 70's/80's albums this treatment, then maybe the three 90's albums too.

there are no plans for 'new gold dream'. only the albums after sparkle in the rain : once upon a time, street fighting years. etc.

later
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[ed4ad]

Has anyone already recieved the replacement disc and booklet?

[negative1]

Has anyone already recieved the replacement disc and booklet?

no announcements yet, could be awhile.

later
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[ApolloZero]

Anyone else get the vinyl and have the label stickers switched around? The label that says side one is the other side is on side one and not side 2... man what is up with the errors going on with releases today??

[negative1]

Saw this message posted on Steve Hoffmans music forums,
last wednesday:
================================================
I asked for an update this morning, and Steve Hammonds replied:

"We are just awaiting approval on the test discs and we should be good to send out replacements in the next week or so"


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