Rob Sheridan is no longer credited for "web integration" on TF. NIN.com was amazing back then. Too bad.
Rob Sheridan is no longer credited for "web integration" on TF. NIN.com was amazing back then. Too bad.
He's credited for a single pic in the reissue essay by Ezrin but his name is out of the credits. A few other credits are updated as well, but it seems odd to leave out the old people who did the work (I can sort of understand leaving out Malm, but...). Not the best historical document. I loved Rob's work on the site. Oh well.
Now we know: Rob was kicked out of the camp for being too pretty, not to "do his own projects."
The Downward Spiral does indeed inclue an essay and it hilariously makes the claim that Piggy is named Hey Pig.
I admit to being a bit disappointed in the minimalism of the Deviations package but have otherwise been quite happy with what I've gotten from NIN this year. The delays are unfortunate but it happens. Got my NTAE vinyl today and it looks awesome, my physical components have been awesome, and the Deviations vinyl itself sounds bloody amazing. You feel ripped off, angry, and bitter about the whole thing, but you don't speak for all of us.
I'd originally posted something snarky which amounted to "STFU about it already" which wasn't helpful, but really - we're all pretty aware of your thoughts on this. The relentless negativity about it is a bit grating, esp. when it bleeds over out of the thread dedicated to that kind of bitching.
I want to be thrilled about all of these. When the preorders first went live I put my name down for every single one of them, along with the 90's soundtracks and Ghosts UK set. I was ecstatic. Since then, every preorder item I've gotten outside of Physical Components has been damaged. A copy of Before the Flood was practically bent in half, Deviations was banged up and my replacement sleeve is nowhere in sight, this Downward Spiral copy seemed flawless and I was actually really appreciating it and feeling how I hoped I'd feel last December, and then suddenly the record wouldn't stop popping and I realized what I thought was dust refused to come off with standard safe record cleaning and it's an imperfection.
I want to own all of these, to have the full main discography on vinyl and to be really, really thrilled about it, but it's hard to be when the items themselves come in damaged and the people you are buying them from take ages to respond and, when they do, are rarely clear or helpful and then blow all the dates they give you. It took me over a month to cancel preorders and yet apparently a couple of them either weren't refunded or are being sent, anyway, and they're still damaged. It's disheartening as a fan and as a vinyl lover. If they were all on Amazon, I'd order them in a heartbeat, but they're not.
Some of the complaining is well-beyond reasonable and is over the top, dramatic and ridiculous, but for the most part it seems like people are just upset that they're having such a hard time simply buying merchandise as advertised and receiving it as promised, and if that isn't messing up the most basic aspect of sales, then I don't know what is.
I'm paranoid about opening broken due to the world wide glue defect. Is sandbag gonna honor replacement sleeves for those?
The most egregious issue with the reissues has to be the Broken sleeve thing. It seems almost universal. The shipping is on Sandbag, for sure, but at least TDS and The Fragile seem thick enough to withstand being knocked around in the thin mailers. And the actual content included is impeccable. They really are gorgeous reissues. It's just frustrating for all of us that they have to be viewed through the lens of incompetence on Sandbag's part, and now apparently the manufacturer in some cases.
I've said it a bunch of times but my love of the 2000s NIN catalog is going to put me right back on this carousel and I understand that that makes me a sucker and an idiot consumer but I just want my shit. This next round has to be perfect, though, or it's all going to be even worse backlash.
The audio on these reissues is remastered, so it would be pretty easy to compare a rip of an original CD and the download of the DE version of any of these releases. If the PHM remaster from 2010 is any indication, there probably is more compression/limiting on these tracks, as TR is not shy of those processes. Hesitation Marks is "brickwalled", and I know many think the "audiophile" version is misleading since it's just 3dB more bass basically, not a drastic change in dynamics.
As someone who appreciates different versions and masterings of music (such as the Bowie catalog, of which there are many versions of each release), NIN's music doesn't really suffer from this kind of mastering in my opinion. Look at Broken, it's supposed to be a wall of sound, oppressive and in your face. To brickwall that album is kind of the point, and I do think this remaster enhances the sound of the original to that effect. I haven't compared the three versions of TDS (1994/2004/2017) or The Fragile, but to my ears, they sound good. The Fragile doesn't seem to lack dynamics.
Lastly, I wouldn't equate heavy compression/limiting with inferior sound quality, at least in this case. We're not talking about Death Magnetic here, which is poster boy of brickwalled mastering. Use your ears, listen to the version you like. TR's not deaf, and he does care about how his music is heard, as shown by releasing HD audio of all of these albums. Those are probably the best versions to listen to, not the vinyl, since the vinyl was pressed off those HD files.
I pretty much agree with this sentiment, I had initial excitement for everything nin related back in december 2016. Now the ARG aspect of the new releases has taken a backseat to my concern as to how and when I'll get the records. It's like I want to discuss how the records sound and were prepared but I can't join in yet. I know for myself this has been my first experience having all sorts of setbacks with a release from any artist I've ever ordered pre-releases from and I am so ready to be able to actually enjoy the experience of listening to the albums as the mission statement described. With this situation, I expect complaints to linger around these forums for a while longer.
Got my Fragile vinyl in today, undamaged. I'm just so happy to finally have this on vinyl.
It's baffling to me how he is reissuing/remastering/repackaging this many records in such a short time frame. Usually bands reissue/remaster albums one at a time, year after year. What do you think drove TR to choose this way for reissuing his catalogue? The change in art direction? The fact vinyl being trendy again? A sudden need for money? I mean, offering this many "new" records at once surely didn't help prevent this whole Sandbag/Firebrand fuck up.
Cardboard sleeve glue issues aside on Broken DE (mine has it too). Has anyone decoded the spiralling scribed message on the musically blank B side yet?
I can just make out 'Anyone Still Out There?". Clues or old references? I know there were 'secrets' listed on the store page for Broken.
Ok my eyes are starting to strain, but the first few sentences if you can call them that are along the lines of -
""This isn't meant to last this is for right now" - Last
"What are we doing here!"
"I thought it would be over"
"I thought I would fear and now I don't really know {are real any more}"
"or if any xxxxxx on the message never sent by"
I'm getting eye strain now so will leave the rest for later or hope someone here has better eyesight than me. It's all handwritten and overlapping + scored out text in places.
I got mine yesterday. I also noted that the essay indicates that The Becoming starts with audio sampled from a horror movie. It does not.
The movie that it samples is Robot Jox, a late 80's sci-fi about giant fighting robot arenas that became entertainment/replacement for national wars. Specifically, the scene is from when one of the robots gets knocked over into the stadium seating, crushing a bunch of spectators (or were they actually diplomats of some kind? I can't remember). Admittedly, the sounds of the crowd struggling around the fallen robot were horror-movie-level anguish...
Seriously, this essay was pretty damn terrible. The others that I have seen were not as bad though.
TDS booklet images, I didn't see them posted here in decent quality (or just missed it). https://imgur.com/a/X3MsC
OK, best I can come up with without leaving chin/teeth imprints on the B side of Broken DE and giving myself a headache. Please help me fill out the blanks and spellcheck etc on the major spiralling (very difficult to read) handwritten message -
"This isn't meant to last this is for right now" {from Last}
"What are we doing here"
"I thought it would be over"
"I thought I would fear and now I don't really know which are real any more"
"or if anything is on there any more message never sent by {the there? wear?} Although it Lives?"
"Be this is a document of ---------"
"and probably the first real and true loss"
"and I can look back with clarity and --?
"I didn't understand it then and when I tried to"
{MAJOR SCRIBBLE/SCORE OUT}"NO I SAID""
"limits -- time"
"trying to tell --"
"Is there anybody out there? any more"
"This wasn't meant to last"
"Please is there anyone still out there?"
"Please is there anyone still out...." {END}
Last edited by afors; 08-22-2017 at 01:54 PM.
Welp, I just dove in and ordered the definitive edition of The Fragile (wife is gonna kill me, especially since I just dropped serious cash on the new Weezer album.) For those of you who have received it, how is it? Truly definitive? I saw that post about the (Pitchfork?) review quote, thought that was hilarious. How's the packaging? The platters themselves? Are you guys happy with the release?