Prompted by Thrice surprise-dropping a completely re-recorded version of 2003’s The Artist in the Ambulance today:
I think TAITA is a particularly interesting choice for something like this because
the band are objectively better in almost every way 20 years later, unlike (for example) Taking Back Sunday - there are good reasons that act has not released a record in 7 years
they have maintained the same lineup for their entire career and
TAITA was the product of a very specific era, which the band themselves arguably didn’t fit into so the production reflects the label’s attempt to market them more than the band’s vision itself.
As @Choccy1983 said, it’s much more interesting than the de rigeur ‘acoustic re-imagining’ that bands tend to go for. So, which albums would benefit from being completely re-recorded using today’s technology?
It might be heresy but I would be really interested in a from-scratch version of Give Up by the postal service; it’s one of my favourite albums but I really don’t think it’s stood the test of time. 2003 is arguably a vintage year for great songs being recorded very badly.
Purely from a technological point of view, I’d like to hear rerecordings of early sampling and hip-hop works like My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts or The Message. But both of those are pretty charming because they’re made with the limitations of the technology that was available at the time.
I don’t think it’d be any good but I’d love to hear The Divine Comedy’s Regeneration recorded now. It was done in 2001 with Nigel Godrich producing with a very deliberate “let’s not sound like The Divine Comedy” tone and in recent years they’ve gone back to their strings-and-suits roots which would give it a very different feel.
I should have spoilered my predictions in the OP, because the first one was “someone will reference taylor swift”
Yeah - it’s hard to imagine because with Thrice, they’ve been playing at least half of these songs for the last two decades whereas Radiohead AFAIK basically don’t have any relationship with those tracks anymore.
Having just schlepped through about half of Atum, hard agree. Would love to hear that kind of sheen on those songs (I’m sure someone will put me on a list for saying that)
This is one where you’d end up with an overall worse product just due to Lars’ drumming though isn’t it?
2003 was a watershed year for emo and all emo-adjacent genres so what you end up with is a whole bunch of albums where the songs themselves are untouchable but the artists didn’t have the time/money to do them justice. Followed by 3-4 years of (arguably) the reverse. I’d be interested in a re-recording of Transatlanticism if Walla got onboard - Harmer and McGerr are one of my favourite rhythm sections and they’re so in sync now.
I think one issue I have with any album being re-recorded is that just about any vocalist’s voice would be worse off than the original recording. You can argue that the musicians have only gotten better over time and will at least match the quality of playing on the original (within reason, I wouldn’t want old geezers like Keith Richards re-recording any classics), and that recording and production technology would make for an improved album. But the vocals will likely never be as good or deliver the same emotion as the original.
That aside, I think Faith No More’s The Real Thing would be a good candidate. It’s one of my favorite all-time albums but it sounds quite flat. But I don’t think I’d enjoy 2023 Mike Patton recording those same songs.
Would love a version of this with the sound of their recent group album and solo records. Think they were being a bit abrasive on purpose with how awful it sounds as a reaction to MPP.
Suicidal Tendencies re-recorded their debut (with a few extras from Join the Army, released as Still Cyco After All These Years in 93) and while I thought it was quite good, it’s missing that 80s punk in your parents’ garage feel.
This was my first though (Pablo Honey) although I don’t know that it matters the band haven’t played those songs, I’m just not sure any of them are good enough that the re-recording would be a benefit. Let’s just remaster the original first!
I think one that definitely would sound better would be Slint’s Tweez. That album sounds poor and I’m not convinced remastering it could save it.
I would also quite like Mogai’s Ten Rapid rerecorded just to hear how they’d really dig in with those songs now.
Yeah, when you hear the Rhoda version on the EP it’s just so much more vibrant thanks to the recording (obviously it’s also better for that super long noise outro IMO but the opening bit is the same as the album really).
Quite a few 80s American hardcore bands would be interesting as the production can be rather murky. Bad Brains, Black Flag, Minor Threat, that kind of thing. I have heard Sick of It All do a modern version of some of their earliest work which gives it a lot more life. Rollins did a few Black Flag tunes for a benefit CD.
