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A distinct perspective
The Rapture of the Deep remix is out, and first reviews started to appear. Here’s one from the Loud Hailer:
On the 20th anniversary of the original album release, they’ve decided to present us with a remixed/remastered version of Rapture of the Deep. The original album was composed and recorded during a particularly uncertain time for the band. At the time, they didn’t even have a record label. Not as radical as the remixed version of David Bowie’s Never Let Me Down, which introduced new compositional elements, scrapping others, this Roger Glover-supervised version is less intrusive. It offers a distinct perspective into their creative process. It brings the keyboards more to the forefront, battling more prominently with Morse’s guitar. Everything sounds crispier and more dynamic.
Read more in Loud Hailer.
Share your review of the remix in the comments.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I heard the remix of the digital version last night for the first time, I don’t quite have the cash fro the CD yet, and I will be getting it in the future. Here are my thoughts:
I really appreciate the attention to clarity and detail, you can really hear what Steve and Don are doing now. The reworked track order really makes it a completely different record – I find this track order brings more energy and flow to the record overall, and Rapture of the Deep really comes alive – upon hearing this reworking, I think I can say it’s now my favourite Mk 8 album. Gillan’s vocals are cleaned up nicely, and no longer sound harsh. Paice’s drums are no longer buried in the mix and you can hear everything clearly.
That said, I think there are some issues with this remix – namely while Ian Paice’s drums are brought to the forefront, they are a little bit too forward in the mix – at times, I feel Paicey is now overpowering Steve and Don where he shouldn’t. There’s also too much compression on the drums, to the point where the drums sound like they’re pumping and breathing all the time -the open hi hats in particular sound mushy, and loose alot of their clarity and definition – this is very apparent on Things I Never Said.
The other problem I have is with Don’s solos – they’re too far back in the mix, and I struggle to hear them sometimes, to the point where Steve’s rhythm guitars are often overpowering Don’s solos. The review above says Don is more forward in the mix – I actually disagree. He’s further back compared to the original mix, but because the EQ has been cleaned up and the detail and crispness and clarity come through, they can get away with that for his rhythm parts. The lead solos though – such as the organ solo on Clearly Quite Absurd and the synth leads on Back to Back – definitely need to be brought more forward. Giving Don the center channel for his solos like they’ve done with Steve’s solos would also help a bunch.
There are also a couple things I’m confused by – why Don’s keyboards cut out mysteriously for a few bars towards the end of Rapture, and why Steve’s final guitar lick is cut off halfway through the phrase at the end of Before Time Began, as well as why Gillan’s backing vocals are removed completely from Things I Never Said, as they really helped drive the tune in the original mix – just having the single vocal does work, and, I really miss those backing vocals.
Overall, I think I prefer this reworking of the record to the original – it needs some tweaking still – I feel it’s about 90 percent there – if you took some compression off of Paicey’s drums and let them breathe a little more and brought them back in the mix a bit, and brought Don’s solos up, I feel you’d have an absolutely perfect mix. Still, this is a major improvement, and I think the band finally has a fine mix of an absolutely great record, one that I feel is MK 8’s finest hour.
It’s also justice for Steve Morse – after so many records of Ezrin putting him back in the mix and hiding him, Steve’s parts really come shining through on this mix and you can really hear the genius of his composition and arrangement of his guitar parts. I almost feel this is Roger’s peace offering to Steve, and a lovely way to show his appreciation for all he did for the band for 28 years.
Hearing this record is like hearing a new record all over again and makes it clear that Rapture of the Deep is MK 8’s and Steve Morse’s finest hour with the band – they’re firing on all cylinders, and now we can hear with clarity just what they intended to put out in the world. This is an absolute hidden gem in Purple’s catalogue and I would encourage all Purple fans to get this remix, it’s definitely worth it.
August 30th, 2025 at 01:57I always felt that was one of the better DP albums, but the mix wasn’t the best and my CD came in a metal box with no booklet or anything. This 20-year anniversary package does it justice. That’s one thing I like about Roger Glover and the band: they’re always trying to do right by the fans. That’s a good legacy. Now, it would be nice to see them have a non-musical meetup with Ritchie Blackmore, just to share (happy) memories, maybe have some photos taken, preserve some of the good memories, put a nice bow on things. I’m dreaming. Ha!
August 30th, 2025 at 03:16Really like the clearer sound – both the instruments and particularly on Big Ian’s vocals. Overall, to me anyway, this remix just sounds so much more like a Deep Purple record than the slightly ‘dull’ and flatter in tone original release.
August 30th, 2025 at 06:51This cut in the guitar riff of the title track around 3:58 mark really irritates me. In the original mix, the guitar was so buried that the cut wasn’t noticeable, but in this version it really stands out. It sounds as if someone unplugged Steve right in the middle of it.
August 30th, 2025 at 07:09Three strong songs (MT, CQA and ROTD) don’t make an album but the mix is improved with the soloists clearly audible. IP still sounds somewhat muffled/compressed. Abandon the last time he was captured properly?
August 30th, 2025 at 07:26I’ve long hoped for a remixed version of this album. Most of it sounds so much more dynamic here. Rapture and Before Time Began have a much more epic sound, as they should, rather than the demo in Dad’s garage sound of the original. Gillan’s vocals sound much more balanced in the mix (suspiciously pitch perfect at times… just saying), with less effects (compare Clearly Quite Absurd) and harmony parts and screams held back in the mix. My only gripes are the drum sound on a few numbers (thin snare, booming toms, although a belting kick drum which is great), and the running order. I never understood why Things I Never Said wasn’t on the original, but having MTV up front and Wrong Man later… I guess for the vinyl edition it might work, but the first half loses some momentum for me. Overall, a vast improvement on the original and a job well done.
August 30th, 2025 at 08:59This remix sounds so much better…much needed clarity!
August 30th, 2025 at 11:36@1… I agree that Ezrin held Morse back! Why?? Steve really sounds great on here now!!!!
What about Bananas?!!!
August 30th, 2025 at 15:34I feel vindicated, finally, after 20 years. From the first time I played the album in 2005, I knew there was some strong material on there, but that the mix made the album sound weak and unfinished.
funny, looking back at the epk, I think there’s a comment from Steve at how Bradford was very fast in capturing a take. Steve laughed at it, but perhaps there was more to it. Too fast for Steve’s liking, and that it resulted in a product not up to par?
August 30th, 2025 at 16:06Anyone of you heard anything about the band’s 2026 tour plans?
August 30th, 2025 at 16:45Listened to it this morning and love it!! What a difference from the original mix. The power of this band comes shining through! You can clearly hear all the instruments and Gillan comes shining through!! Steve did some GREAT work on this album and it shows here instead of being lost in the mix!! Of course I still have one complaint about this album (CD) that can’t be fixed and it’s that, at the end of CQA, when Don’s playing kicks it up a notch, the song ends. 30 more seconds would have been nice 🙂
August 30th, 2025 at 17:05I take my hat off to Mr Glover 👏👏👏
Well done doing an amazing job. You have raised an album from the dead and brought up to climb the top of the DP album tree.
I encourage everyone to listen carefully to ‘Don’t let go’ and see how he slowed it down to make so enjoyable.
For me the highlights are
Money Talk
Wrong man
Rapture of the deep
Don’t let go
Before time began (This is an eternal song with an amazing lyrics)
The last 30 seconds of ROTD will bring shivers
down your spine.
Steven Morse melodic play is shining well.
I love this album so much and I can’t stop playing it.
Please Mr Glover we need you to sort out ‘Bananas’
Long live DP
Peace ✌️
The last 30 seconds of
August 30th, 2025 at 19:15#7
Because Bob let his own preferences for guitar playing get in the way and couldn’t be objective and let Steve be Steve – Bob likes guitar players who are more in the vein of David Gilmour – less flashy, more focus on melody and simplicity. Steve writes great melodies, but he certainly isn’t simple. I got the sense he wanted Steve to be more like Gilmour, and was trying to turn him into someone he wasn’t.
Bob’s biases got in the way and the one thing I will say is that I feel he’s been trying to turn Deep Purple into what he feels Deep Purple should sound like, and not let Deep Purple be Deep Purple, or Steve Morse be Steve Morse.
Simply put, Bob’s musical values conflicted with Steve’s, to the point where I feel he didn’t like what Steve was doing, so he puts him back further in the mix with each record because he disliked what Steve did.
Steve tried to compromise, and I think had to because of his disability, but I feel by the time Whoosh rolled around there was too much compromise, and it really hurt Steve’s musical integrity. To be honest, I feel the way Bob treated Steve was one of the reasons why things fell apart between Steve and the band – you can’t turn somebody into someone they’re not, and Steve I think could only take so much compromise.
Steve and the band are definitely in a better place now, without compromising on their musical values and integrity – the rest of the band changed and liked the direction Bob was taking them in, and I don’t think Steve did. Whatever you want to say, I think the break up was for the best, as all parties are alot happier now.
August 30th, 2025 at 20:18Money Talks sounds way, way better here. Same with Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye!
August 31st, 2025 at 13:18What about The House of Blue Light?!
August 31st, 2025 at 13:37@7
The producer of this album was Micheal Bradford. The first Ezrin’s production was NW!?
August 31st, 2025 at 14:03Throughout my life I have always been a big fan of the reissues of Deep Purple albums. Lovingly put together by insiders like Simon Robinson and furnished with great attention to detail. So I was also looking forward to this record. After all: decent liner notes, I thought to myself! But then came the disillusionment: in an official release of Deep Purple the first album with Steve Morse is called “Perpendicular” in all seriousness!? Even several times!? Who slept soundly at Edel?
August 31st, 2025 at 14:56The drums are loud and very upfront in this new mix, which I like. Those in the posts above who said they aren’t have either not actually listened to the new album or need a new stereo.
August 31st, 2025 at 16:54Great work, great album!
August 31st, 2025 at 20:28Like a lot of people, I’d now love a Bananas remastered (with a louder RG, his bass parts are amazing on the whole Bananas record)
Based on what I’ve heard so far, this one will be on my short list of cd’s that I need to buy.
@19 A remastered Bananas would suit me just fine. Upping Roger’s bass in the mix would be an improvement. I’m sure Uwe will agree with me on this.
August 31st, 2025 at 23:30“But then came the disillusionment: in an official release of Deep Purple the first album with Steve Morse is called “Perpendicular” in all seriousness!? Even several times!? Who slept soundly at Edel?”
It’s childhood trauma, Renzo, we all got correct English spelling hammered into our heads so much in school we … just … cännöt … brrreak … orthographic rules …
https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTZjMDliOTUyNzduczhndGp5bzVkZ2UwbXJ1Njl2d3NncXV6ZHExNXdwYjZvbDZyciZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/diCmiRFzbd6Cc/source.gif
Blame Geoff Barton, he wrote the liner notes and no spellcheck on earth would have recognized ‘Perpendicular’ – aword that actually exists – as a mistake when you are talking about ‘Purpendicular’ – a word that doesn’t exist -, which was after all a BMG release.
But there is another howler: Michael Bradford’s production services for the original ROTD have been written out of history – the new release only credits him thus:
2025 mixes and mastering by eike freese with roger glover, earMusic would like to thank Michael Bradford for his support in making this reissue happen.
That sounds like Michael spent an afternoon going through his recordings archive to find the masters and not like he produced an album for and with Deep Purple in 2005. 😑 EDIT: I just noticed that on the back sleeve there is tiny print in the lower right-hand corner that states: produced and engineered by Michael Bradford of chunky style studios, los angels, ca
Incidentally, the liner notes make a bit of a fuss about the fact that DP were without a recording contract when they recorded ROTD. That means they had to pay for it – and of course for Michael Bradford’s services – themselves (which they had never done before). The studio was supposedly too small too which raises the question whether the whole album was recorded on a self-financed shoestring budget. That might also explain why Michael had to rush mixing and mastering because DP hadn’t really booked him long enough and he was off to another project he had committed to.
Anyway, I am listening to it right now as I write and I can join in the popular sentiment that remix and remaster are a huge improvement, the Grauschleier that always dulled the album is gone.
I still think though that it is the album from the Morse era that has the least immediacy, even less than Abandon which wasn’t an easily digestible album either (Bananas sounded really fresh and sprightly). That is likely because ROTD (the album) sounds so proggy and jammy. Even with a fresh sound, it is a curator’s egg in the Purple canon (nothing wrong with curator’s eggs, they can often be very interesting releases). I think the two ballads Clearly Quite Absurd and Junkyard Blues work best. And I like Money Talks and Rapture Of The Deep (the song) too, but most of the other tracks are hardly compelling, there I wrote it!
https://i.makeagif.com/media/11-22-2017/tcPIS27.jpg
Expectation management was at the time perhaps a bit hyped, I remember Big Ian making grand announcements of this being their potential Sgt. Pepper prior to the release … 😏 For the benefit of Mr Kite, I think that comment was quite some shite …
All that said, the album is now greatly improved and some of the instrumental performances on it are great irrespective of my qualms about much of the songwriting.
PS: The Steve Morse acoustic bonus instrumental “Closing Note” is très beautiful. Now if Big Ian had only added a nice vocal melody to that …
September 1st, 2025 at 00:45#7
A reply to your last two paragraphs:
Turning to Crime was a fantastic swansong to Steve Morse era, where he and the rest of the band seemed to have much fun and with more limited ‘interventions’ from Bob Ezrin who could only monitor and manager from the distance
Blast “7 and 7 is ” and “Oh Well” on the speaker. Steve was like in paradise with his guitar
Amid the fact that it’s a cover album, TtC was a much more a guitar rock’n roll album than Whoosh (I could agree Steve might not put 100% effort anymore during Whoosh session). I remember the satisfaction after bought Turning to Crame CD and listen to it for the very first time.
Lazy Sod to me is like the lost tape from Turning to Crime session, due to how a fun the band sounded when playing that song.
September 1st, 2025 at 07:55Is this the new popular myth here, that Bob Ezrin subjugated Steve Morse, holding him back and undermining him?
I can hear Steve plenty well on all four Ezrin productions and if Don Airey came more to the forefront on those then that has to do with him establishing himself more as a creative force within DP and also the fact that we had grown accustomed to Jon’s previous more diminished role in the early Morse era as he was slowly mentally preparing his departure to do other things.
I also remember that getting Bob Ezrin in as a producer was Steve’s idea/recommendation – who was also the only DP Mk VIII member who had worked with him before, namely on Kansas’ In The Spirit Of Things from 1988:
https://youtu.be/pcbqPUOrdPI
and was thus well-acquainted with Bob’s preferences and priorities. Bob is an interventionist producer – and Steve knew that, yet still wanted him.
I think what disenchanted Steve most in his last Purple years was the touring treadmill (he wasn’t a fan of touring life, lots of people aren’t) and the static nature of DP’s set list – not the recording experience with Bob. Add to that his own health battles and the tragedy with Janine. Plus the pandemic experience of not being able to tour for a while and realize that he wasn’t really missing it.
(Steve has erected a moving page for Janine on his site: https://stevemorse.com/in-memory-of-janine-morse/)
September 1st, 2025 at 13:20STOP PRESS !!!
Correction to #21:
I think the two ballads Clearly Quite Absurd and
Junkyard BluesBefore Time Began work best.https://youtu.be/Tztr3uEzff0
For some reason I always get those two song titles confused, sorry!
September 1st, 2025 at 13:55@ 24 For the first time am I able to listen to Before Time Began and enjoy it..
September 1st, 2025 at 15:21In DP’s overall canon, Turning To Crime is for me good fun, nothing more and nothing less – it was never intended to be more. I find it enjoyable to listen to, but DP’s history would not need to be rewritten had it never come out. It is a positive, slightly novelty fruit from the pandemic.
Purpendicular, Now What?! and Whoosh! (a somber album, but in line with its overall themes) are likely my favorite Morse Era DP albums, followed by Abandon (dark & brooding, but interesting) and Bananas (has its faults, but overall quirky). I find ROTD and Infinite the comparatively weakest ones but still far from bad. And Turning To Crime is by nature not so much a Deep Purple album as one featuring Steve, Don, Ian, Paicey and Roger playing other people’s material together.
September 1st, 2025 at 16:40@16 thank you for pointing out Bradford produced ROTD, I was aware of that. My post was 2 comments about different productions but I see it was confusing…My Bad
September 1st, 2025 at 16:49You didn’t like the studio version, Micke?
September 1st, 2025 at 23:33Of particular interest in the second disc, is the Money Talks demo. It is played (as most of the demos in the disc) much slower than the original, resulting in the track sounding Sabbath-y.
September 2nd, 2025 at 08:19Maybe RG can remix =1 next? It’s only 1 year old so it shouldn’t really be needed, but it is. Case in point: Old Fangled Thing. His work on ROTD has made it sound more powerful, so I am sure he could do great things with =1 as well.
September 2nd, 2025 at 12:04#30
September 2nd, 2025 at 14:26Hi Daniel, you are right!
The instruments are much better audible, the drums for example – you can finally hear the details of IP and that’s great, but still a missed opportunity, the ubiquitous rumbling bass completely ruins the new mix – maybe I can manage to create an acceptable bass mastering for myself at home with the EQ now.
September 2nd, 2025 at 14:37..i forgot to say: the reverb-effect that was placed over Gillan’s singing is much too strong for my ears
September 2nd, 2025 at 14:40https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/poprock/detail/-/art/Deep-Purple-Rapture-Of-The-Deep-Limited-Edition-Metallbox/hnum/6214701
I would rather keep this old version, despite some minor weaknesses.
September 2nd, 2025 at 14:46Before =1 is messed with, can someone turn his attention to the totally unimportant In Rock album whose last makeover was 30 years ago at the dawn of digital remastering and remixing, please?
Let’s get priorities right!
September 2nd, 2025 at 15:13Just WOW. Having hearing issues and not being a sound expert anyway I did not expect too much from the ROTD remix. Boy was I wrong. Most remix or remaster editions did very little for me – I thought of them as a way to make an extra buck mostly.
September 2nd, 2025 at 15:42This one is different. It is indeed a huge improvement. I always liked the songs here very much…the new sound makes this maybe my favourite Morse-era-album now. It has several numbers that are true classics in my opinion, among the best DP ever recorded (ROTD, Before Time began) and when someone says Back to back is a filler I go ‘Gimme more of those!’
And I really enjoy the bonus tracks big time.
I did an experiment because I don’t find the new mix convincing: simply play the old version on vinyl 3% slower (pitch on the Technics player at minus 3) and you get the de-smurfed sound (snare drum, vocals, organ, piano, everything doesn’t sound so overly tight anymore), that way the old version-record sounds much better and for me even better than the new mix/master.
September 2nd, 2025 at 18:212% less pitch is better…2% less pitch is even enough, as with the Burn by the way
September 2nd, 2025 at 19:23if you pitch the old mix/master a little down 2% with your record player, you´ll get the best Sound of this Record, better than the bass-overloaded new RG Mix, in my opinion. Same with Bananas. Probably M. Bradford pitched both Recordings 2% up, a producer-trick of the Seventies (LZ Houses Of The Holy, DP Burn) i guess; try it out, you will hear it!
September 3rd, 2025 at 08:21@35
“totally unimportant In Rock”
– WHAT!
I mean: WHAT….
In Rock was the album that put rock on the landscape!
September 3rd, 2025 at 08:55#35. No need to do anything with In Rock. The 25th anniversary edition from 1995 offers a great listening experience. The Ezrin albums leave more to be desired in terms of sonic pleasure. IP’s drums on =1 for starters. I don’t know why they’re having such problems with getting a decent mix, causing the need for remixes. IP is no longer the drummer he was 20 years ago on ROTD, but I still think he would benefit from a remix of =1, if the ROTD facelift is anything to go by.
September 3rd, 2025 at 08:58@37 & 38: can you do that in a digital file or there’s no point there?
September 3rd, 2025 at 10:09Relax, Karin, “totally unimportant” was ironic, In Rock is in fact the opposite (yet still has only been remastered once ages ago). I should have put in italics for those who only expect 100% irony-free comments from me! 🤣
I’ll be dead-serious from now on, promise! 🥸
September 3rd, 2025 at 10:23Karin, are you being serious?
September 3rd, 2025 at 10:51Cos Uwe wasn’t. 😉
@42: You can do that with digital files with audio software. Or if you have one of the few cd players with pitch that exists.
September 3rd, 2025 at 11:42@43 & 44
Well, as all German people know (or ought to know) are Danish women very strict all the time, and take everything deadly seriously! (Or as I use to say: I put the ‘fun’ in funerals ☺️😉)
As we never ever say anything with a smile, a wink or a smirk!
So – NO! I wasn’t aware that Uwe was making fun 🤔🧐
And being this boring Dane I have a little request for you:
September 3rd, 2025 at 12:48Would you mind putting in a smiley of some sort? So at least I can have a clue what you’re getting at 😄😄
@ 28 Certainly not! It sounded very dull and uninspired like most of the rest of the album, the only songs I half heartedly liked was CQA, KTG and JB.
September 3rd, 2025 at 13:58This remix is manna from heaven!
September 3rd, 2025 at 14:43I just listened to the CD and in my opinion it sounds much better then the original release. I also like the bonus CD with the beautiful Steve Morse tune ‘Closing note’ .
September 3rd, 2025 at 18:15I think the remix is good and a vast improvement over what was obviously a rushed and lackluster job on a limited budget initially. But DP’s Sgt Pepper ROTD still isn’t – to my ears at least. Nor do I think it shows Steve Morse at his most inspired. I hear him more in full bloom on Purpendicular, Abandon and even on Bananas.
To me, ROTD shows neither the promise of Bananas nor the breath of fresh air and elation present on Now What?!, the two albums that came before and after it.
But there is no question that the new remix has greatly improved the listening experience with the album. I can’t see, however, how spinning it at a slower speed can improve an album whose production and mix were already lame and lacking a treble and presence sheen in the first place!
September 3rd, 2025 at 22:24“No need to do anything with In Rock. The 25th anniversary edition from 1995 offers a great listening experience.”
If merciless garage rock sonics are your thing, then definitely yes! But for that I prefer the vandals from MC5.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-vCEFikGgc
September 3rd, 2025 at 22:33Micke, granted, it was never – and still isn’t – an album with much sparkle, file under “acquired taste” (it does grow on you if you listen to the instrumental performances more intently, but IG’s vocal tunes – even by his idiosyncratic standards – are not exactly the catchiest on it).
***************************************************************************
“Danish women are very strict all the time, and take everything deadly seriously! (Or as I use to say: I put the ‘fun’ in funerals.)
As we never ever say anything with a smile, a wink or a smirk!”
Alas!, that is my impression too, a typical Danish sitcom is something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo8VcGW7qvs
In general, the key components of Danish movies are (i) there is at least one suicide and one murder, (ii) all positive protagonists have a history as victims of child abuse, (iii) those characters that aren’t drug addicts in the moment have been so in the past and now battle their demons.
September 3rd, 2025 at 23:53Sorry if someone said this already, but the booklet in the CD is missing the lyrics of three of the songs.
September 4th, 2025 at 03:35#53: I guess this means they will have to do a remix of the booklet 🙂
September 4th, 2025 at 13:41@52
Uwe, and as everyone seems to know, movies are always mirroring real life, so you get a pretty good picture if why I’m depressed, downtrodden and almost have no will to live anymore!
September 4th, 2025 at 14:23(Or som’thin’!)
#41 Daniel:
Little Ian sounds better on =1 than on ROTD, since Bananas the drum arrangements have always been too soft, and don’t come to me and talk about the touch, because that’s not up for discussion, but after Abandon the drum thrust was totally missing in Purple’s albums (but in reality it was the whole band that had almost nothing of HARD ROCK)
#50 Uwe:
What do you mean by slowing down the album?…did they slow it down in the remix????
#37 DerGerd:
September 4th, 2025 at 22:52ROTD songs are already slow in BPM, then if I lower the pitch further, I fall asleep while listening to it
The remix is such a massive improvement to my ears. I wont’ split hairs over the minor differences. The vocals on the original sounded *bad*. I don’t know what was done here, possibly some light tuning. I hear no tuning artifacts or “give-aways” but it would be easy to do and would partially explain why the vocals on the remix sound noticeably better. The vocals on the original always sounded harsh and almost demo-like to me.
Whatever the case this remix is a total game-changer and I am enjoying the album like I never have before.
#5: really you wouldn’t at least add “Before Time Began” to the list of great songs on the album? What a great vibe in the verses and what an incredibly exciting middle heavy section!
September 5th, 2025 at 21:41Wait, wait, wait…
WHAT HAPPENED TO “THE WELL DRESSED GUITAR”?!
Was that not part of the original album sessions? AFAIK the studio version belongs with ROTD, right? As possibly the most classic and impressive song from theses sessions, I’m disappointed it’s not included.
September 5th, 2025 at 21:45@58 Joshua
I remember reading somewhere that The Well Dressed Guitar was a leftover from the Bananas sessions and just added to the tour edition of ROTD.
September 6th, 2025 at 15:52Well-dressed guitar? I had hoped to have forgotten about that silly kitsch-neoclassical romp which was only playedto give Big Ian some respite from singing! That song always tested my patience live – as did Difficult To Cure btw. In general, rock bands are as bad at doing justice to classical melodies as classical orchestras are at playing rock tunes.
Fla76 @56: It was DerGerd who had said that the album in its original mix would sound better slowed down by 3% – I don’t have the technical means to try that. Not aware that the Bradford original mix and the Glover remix vary in speed.
September 7th, 2025 at 12:43I’m slightly surprised by the shortness of disc 2. Like it or loath it (and I love it) WDG could have been on it as well as the Live version of Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye from the hard rock gig, Rapture Live from the Dusseldorf showcase in 2005 would also fit (as well as the Live WDG), and the German TV studio versions of Rapture & Wrong Man. All that would have been contemporary and complimentary to the album. The live version of Things I Never Said from Bologna in 2009 is pretty lively too.
September 10th, 2025 at 08:36an after thought. Don’s room shaking Hammond solo at the end of Clearly Quite Absurd is down in the mix which is a shame.
September 10th, 2025 at 14:04#37 DerGerd:
September 13th, 2025 at 21:54I think you’re right, some tracks on the album (not all) have been slightly speeded up in BPM (or were they slowed down on the original album on purpose?), in fact if you compare the length of the tracks between the original and the remix, the more rhythmic ones have a slightly shorter duration and really seem faster!
I just bought the new version of ROTD, well, 1) I don’t notice all these differences from the first version. I find the difference so subtle… I thought it could be brighter…🤷 2) On the second CD of ROTD, which features the instrumental parts of the official song, the drums sound much, much better. Why?!?!
September 30th, 2025 at 08:05