[Squonkman]

Originally Posted by DownAndOut

No, the remixed "Mama" isn't the long version. It's not the album version or the single mix, either--it's the long version faded to fit the same time as the album version.

And in stereo (can't comment on 5.1, which doesn't interest me anyway) it's a total disaster.

The reverb is absurd, the drums come close to trampling the vocal and the compression is even worse than that on the first box. All Nick Davis had to do was master the thing at higher volume, with less hiss. Instead, he has mixed what amounts to a parody of PC's gated drum sound and use of the limiter on his vocals. It''s heartbreaking.

Elsewhere on the discs, a few not unpleasant surprises lurk, with slight changes to the vocals (inserted from other takes) during the last minutes of "Anything She Does," "Since I Lost You" and "Dreaming While You Sleep." The guitar solo is different at the end of "The Brazilian," there's new percussion at the start of "Hearts on Fire," and several of the fades throughout the set are slightly longer. There are moments when the high compression and overbrightness benefit the songs: "Just a Job to Do" pops (though Davis, counterintuitively, has sliced the reverb off the snare hits during the last verse), and "Silver Rainbow" pushes Rutherford's busy bass part up to appropriate levels.

But man, the new mix of "Mama" is an unmitigated train wreck, and throughout the discs, Phil's voice and drums seem overwhelmed by the glaring new polish on Banks' keyboard parts and the stifling flatness of the compressed mixes. Hold on to your 3-inch CD single of the extended version ("It's Gonna Get Better" is the standard album version on the new CD) of "Mama" and your 180-gram Simply Vinyl pressing of the self-titled album.

Nick Davis is quoted in an interview on this site as stating that they recorded no NEW material at all, so there isn't any added guitar solos or new percussion, you are just hearing a different mix.