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I got a head-start on National Record Store Day (which is this Saturday), and picked up the SHM-CD of Metallica's ...And Justice For All. This awful "mini-LP" packaging is absolutely crummy. Why in the hell would CD buyers want anything to do with LPs? The whole point of CD is to avoid vinyl, and anything vinyl-related. Record companies, please just give us a jewel case!The cardboard album cover won't last a day. You'll need a magnifying glass, in order to read the tiny inner sleeve. The SHM-CD also comes with obi and a Japanese-language booklet.
In early September 1988, during the first Friday of that school year, I went to the Wherehouse, which was then located on Geary & Parker, in San Francisco. There, I bought ...And Justice For All on the Elektra redbook CD. Since I had my Sony D-10 Discman with me, on the way home, I opened the long-box packaging, popped in the CD, slapped on my Sony MDR-CD6 headphones (by this time, the foam was coming out of the pads), and pressed PLAY. Boy, as we rumbled through the east-bound tunnel under Masonic, there was nothing like hearing "Blackened!" From that instance, my friends and I knew we were going to have a kick-ass school year.
Okay, all of you know the story behind ...And Justice For All's bone-dry, bass-less recording/production. In the almost 27 years since my classmates and I first heard ...And Justice For All, I've heard it on various cassettes, LPs [plural; the 65-minute album can't fit onto one 12" record], and CDs. None was/is any good.
This SHM-CD is the least-bad format I've heard. Instrumental textures are not as dry, 2-dimensional, hashy, and irritating. Those allow for somewhat rounder images, with at least a little bit of separation between them. You can better make out the space surrounding each image. No, the SHM-CD doesn't boost the bass. But the cleaner sonics subjectively make the album appear less thin or more full-bodied.
I'm currently reviewing, among other things, the Simaudio Neo 260D. Playing this SHM-CD has a weird dichotomous effect on us. On one hand, it makes us realize that we are older and (hopefully) more mature. OTOH, it makes us feel that the 88-89 school year (my senior year of high school) wasn't that long ago.
It also reminds us that there was a certain charm to thumbing through a record store's rows of cassettes, CDs, and vinyl. With physical media, there was the thrill of discovery, something that scrolling through iTunes and playlists doesn't quite match.
So are you ready for National Record Store Day? Have you already started buying physical media? Happy hunting!
The Audiophiles' DJ,
-Lummy The Loch Monster
Edits: 04/15/15Follow Ups:
How did you guys do on RSD?
Happy Record Store Day!
I remember a "National Duct Tape Day"...........
Guys-
feel free to give a shout-out to your fave Recka Stow's ...
pretty much since day one.
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
It's still the only show that I held my hands over my ears and was relieved when it ended. It wasn't just the climactic explosion and collapse of Lady Justice either, the entire concert was just too loud and I wasn't anywhere near the stage.
Second Note;
in any format, this is still a killer disc!
Lummy-
for a comparison, do you own the 1st Japan pressing CD?
so why do they keep calling it National Record Day?
For the same reason we call it the World Series and tag the Super Bowl winner as World Champions.
-Wendell
The World Series is called that because of the historical context - it was originally dubbed the World Series way back when and is to this day. As for the Superbowl champs being world champs, please name for me another country which has the (American) football talent to compete with the NFL. Hint: they don't exist...
-RW-
I guess my misconception is that record store day was about actually buying records. Yet you use it to disparage that very medium. Bravo!
Oz
Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.
- Winston Churchill
N/T
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
"The whole point of CD is to avoid vinyl, and anything vinyl-related."
That's not the point of CD.... It was supposed to be a sonic improvement over vinyl.... The "vinyl" stuff came into CD products after the realization in the mainstream community that the CD wasn't an incontrovertible improvement.
"Record companies, please just give us a jewel case!"
I'd just buy the cases in bulk.... Make a copy of the album material, and you got yourself a CD in the packaging of choice.
"In early September 1988, during the first Friday of that school year, I went to the Wherehouse, which was then located on Geary & Parker, in San Francisco. There, I bought ...And Justice For All on the Elektra redbook CD. Since I had my Sony D-10 Discman with me, on the way home, I opened the long-box packaging, popped in the CD, slapped on my Sony MDR-CD6 headphones (by this time, the foam was coming out of the pads), and pressed PLAY. Boy, as we rumbled through the east-bound tunnel under Masonic, there was nothing like hearing "Blackened!" From that instance, my friends and I knew we were going to have a kick-ass school year.
"Okay, all of you know the story behind ...And Justice For All's bone-dry, bass-less recording/production. In the almost 27 years since my classmates and I first heard ...And Justice For All, I've heard it on various cassettes, LPs [plural; the 65-minute album can't fit onto one 12" record], and CDs. None was/is any good."
Are you saying the original you purchased at the Wherehouse (old West Coast store chain) was great, but none of the subsequent releases?
Or are you implying that something has gone awry with the album experience once the Sony D-10 Discman became history?
This piques my interest only because some of the best playback I've ever heard via headphones was with 1980s vintage portables. (Both analog and digital.)
...From Salon...
Amoeba Music (for example) worships it and it is their (by far) busiest day of the year.Have no fear though, the record companies are just as stupid and as unenlightened
as they have remained for the past 30-35 years. THEY will kill RSD off in their greed
and myopia by releasing FAR TOO MUCH CRAP that record stores get stuck with
(no returns!) and within a few years things will return to "normal".
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination"-Michael McClure
Edits: 04/16/15
I have Elusive Disc.
As well, Acoustic Sounds and Blue Heaven Studios are only 2 1/2 hours away!
Darn the prices...
Dman
Analog Junkie
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